Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Dougieb
Date: 05 Aug 08 - 04:24 PM

Hi susanne, Thank you for your kind interest in my song on Aberfan, if you would forward me an address I will post the cd to you asap.
many thanks.   Dougie.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 04 Aug 08 - 05:42 PM

Dougie, I'd be interested. A tape would be fine. Could you please eMail me: skw at freenet dot de? Thank you.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Dougieb
Date: 04 Aug 08 - 03:48 PM

My song about the Aberfan disaster can also be abtained from Mudcat records, or Dick Greenhaus at Camsco records.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: mark gregory
Date: 03 Aug 08 - 04:42 AM

Grey October is on another mudcat thread

see

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=57432#903040

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,Dougieb
Date: 02 Aug 08 - 09:07 AM

I wrote a song about the Aberfan disaster just after it happened, and sung it at many folk clubs around the west of England, it was recorded on a tape but is now on a CD, I do not sing very much now due to my age, but if anyone would like a copy free please reply to this message and I will return with an E mail address.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,OldNicKilby
Date: 16 Jul 08 - 05:34 AM

The finest song about Aberfan that I have heard is by Greg Hastings who lives in Perth West Australia.I will admit to crying when he sang it at Fairbridge Festival, for me it was something very special as two weeks after Aberfan I was teaching in a school that was hit by a whirlwind and we were digging children out until the Fire Brigade arrived ,the best part of 30 mins.
You could always try Greg for the words

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 05:46 AM

That'll be the one I mentiond back in Oct 06 (see a few messages back)

Hope you find it.

Andy

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,spb=cooperator
Date: 14 Jul 08 - 06:48 PM

I have on vynle - somewhere a superb song by Mabsant

Subject: Lyr Add: ABERFAN (Kyle Aughe)
From: GUEST,Timo_Tuokkola
Date: 14 Jul 08 - 05:18 PM

Just thought I'd add the lyrics to a Great Song I heard by Kyle Aughe form his CD "Not against my own".

Aberfan

'Twas the twenty-first of October, on a foggy Friday morn
And the children sang things beautiful and bright
Their fathers dug the coal beneath the mountainside above
And grew the tip that shattered all their lives

For years the townsfolk worried of the spring beneath Merthr Vale
Could it someday bring the slag upon the town?
And on that fateful morning in the mining south of Wales
Five hundred thousand tons came raining down

CHORUS: On Aberfan, a hundred sixteen children, Aberfan
So cruel a fate to will them
There'll be no consolation for the coal board's washed their hands
Of the blood of those young children in the town
Of Aberfan

They heard a distant rumble and it soon became a roar
So quickly that they had no time to flee
The parents and the miners dug frantically in vain
Through tears that made it difficult to see

The crown and her tribunal and the coal board had their say
Empty words that fell on deafened ears
New rules and regulations are not the prime concern
When you're burying a child of seven years. CHORUS

Since that day my father's never mined an ounce of coal
For he lost a son and daughter in the slide
He sees my brother James and sister Margaret in my eyes
The torment and the grief will not subside

Most days the memory lingers sometimes it starts to fade
Till you see the hollow faces in a crowd
And it brings back the resignation; 'twill never go away
A generation lost beneath a shroud. CHORUS

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,tim readman
Date: 27 Oct 06 - 11:28 PM

Does anybody know the chords for Close The Coalhouse Door? If so please let me know. If you could send them to me that would be fantastic.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 06:55 PM

When I first moved to Wales in the early eighties I went, of course, to the Llantrisant Folk Club. On one of the first nights there Siwsi George sang a song about Aberfan. It was in Welsh, but Siws told the story of the song. I still tingle when I remember the effect of Siwsi's wonderful voice. What an introduction to the sung Welsh. Siwsi was the generation that lost so many, and even as an Englishman it was a powerful memory from my childhood.
Sadly Siws is with us no more, but I cherish her friendship and for showing me such beauty in her Language.

I have racked my brain for more details of the song but I am not in Wales at the moment to check my recordings.
Any ideas, are you there Dr Price, Splottman?

Andy

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: bradfordian
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 06:23 PM

PS See this thread for NON MUSIC comments

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: bradfordian
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 06:13 PM

So there were 7 or 8 songs relating to Aberfan event & no doubt several poems including the one in the other thread. There seems to be 3 recordings that one can obtain now, but suprisingly not Grey October, unless anyone knows differently.

Palaces of Gold (Leon Rosselson) RosselSonGs compilation Here Released 1990

Aberfan Coal Tip Tragedy (Thom Parrott)Best Of Broadside 1962-1968 Here

Aberfan (Robin Jones) Here

Aberfan (Bernie Fairlamb) (refer to 'catter Leadfingers)

Grey October (The Critics et al) I seem to be having difficulty finding a current recording of this one apart from "The Angrey Muse"

Aberfan (Dave Collins) The words are in the "Songs about Aberfan" thread, but don't know about any recordings

Aberfan (Dave Ackles) Don't know if anyone has come across this one.

40th Anniversary; maybe a missed opportunity here!

Bradfordian

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: eddie1
Date: 15 Oct 06 - 07:46 AM

Re the song "Grey October, it seems to be accepted that it was written by the Critics Group though I'm sure I saw it in a magazine as written by Peggy Seeger and Jack Warshaw. (Don't remember where – it was 40 years ago.)
GREY OCTOBER - comp Charles Parker & Critics Group 1966 -- Ewan MacCOLL with Peggy SEEGER (gtr) "The Angry Muse": ARGO ZFB-65 1968 http://www.folktrax.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/menus/search%20for%20titles_grei_gyz.htm

Title: Grey October
Composer(s)/Lyricist(s): Critics Group
Source(s): Sing Out! Magazine, Aug/Sept. 1968
www.SJLibrary.org

Whoever wrote it, a great song. I still find it difficult to sing. I guess the only other single event to have affected me so deeply was the Dunblane shooting.

I do remember some unbelievable things like collected money being used to help clear the slag that the Coal Board was responsible for!

Eddie

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Leadfingers
Date: 15 Oct 06 - 06:36 AM

Fortieth Anniversary next weekend !! I will no doubt be singing Bernie Fairlamb's song !!

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,ibo
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 08:18 PM

I lost my faith the day the slag heap swamped that school.I fear we may be on our own down here.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: richd
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 02:41 PM

Can I just shamelessly plug a book called 'Aberfan- Our Hiraeth an anthology in poetry prose and pictures' produced by the Aberfan and Merthyr Vale Writers and History Group, and published in Aberfan by the Aberfan and Merthyr Vale Commmunity Co-operative. ('Hiraeth' means love and longing for home in Welsh.)Its full of stuff, not only about the Disaster but the story of the village before and after. Lots of poems and songs about the village, most written people who live there.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 02:09 PM

This brings back memories! The day it happened a few friends and I sat in a pub in Yorkshire (very under-aged at 14) and talked about the tragedy. We all lived in the heart of the West Riding coal fields and really felt for the poor sods in the village. My mum, although a Yorkshire woman, spent her childhood in Methyr, which is almost next door, so this felt particularly close to home.

We decided we would do something about it and hitched down to Wales but were sent away again as 'mere kids'. Sad, as we were full of energy and the diggers were getting tired. We did manage to help a little bit by serving tea but it wasn't enough. We just left feeling useless and, for some reason, guilty.

Rhiannon

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,helen Pentecost
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 01:53 PM

I remember a song that used to go something like

Aberfan, Aberfan will we ever understand
Aberfan, aberfan we gave a helping hand
We'll never let
The world forget
the star(scar?) of aberfan

It goes on to sing about
Where grown men cried without wipping their eyes.

Anyone heard it? Can't for the life of me remeber what it was called or who sang it.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,J C
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 04:35 AM

PS The original idea for Grey October came from BBC producer Charles Parker

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: 12string growler
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 03:51 PM

You can find an absolutely wrenching version of "Close The Coalhouse Door" on "The Wilson Family Album" I recently bought a "NEW" copy on vinyl. It's on Harbourtown Records, Number HAR 020 released in 1991.
The Wilsons are a Family group from the North East of England and they do almost all their stuf A Capella. Real Meaty harmonies and mega powerful voices. I caught them at the Gainsborough Folk Festival in October 2005. "Sooz" may have contact details for them.

Chris

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,J C
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 02:58 PM

Grey October was first conceived during a songwriting session The Critics Group, a workshop run by MacColl I think orginally one of the key figures in the making of the song was Frankie Armstrong.
Everybody threw in ideas, including Ewan and Peggy, and the end result was the magnificent Grey October.
It can be heard on the Argo record, The Angry Muse (I think!)

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: danensis
Date: 07 Feb 06 - 04:17 PM

Thorn Parrot writes "Pete Seeger sang the chorus of this song in London during the British news blackout (they were afraid news of the event might bring down the government)".

I seem to recall getting in from school at dinner time and finding my mother in tears listening to the radio. Where was this "news blackout"?

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Girl Friday
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 05:06 PM

Fisheye has actually written one. Ask him.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Girl Friday
Date: 07 Jan 06 - 05:50 PM

Can't remember his mudcatter name, but Richard Phipps (Folkmob Eltham) was the official photographer for the disaster, and has written a cracking song about it.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Tig
Date: 03 Jan 06 - 05:15 PM

I'll not forget the day. I was doing my paper round that night looking at the pictures on the front pages - and thinking there were pit heaps (small ones, but big to me) in the woods behind our house. It scared me.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Chris in Wheaton
Date: 03 Jan 06 - 02:13 PM

The Welsh/Nashville singer, David Llewellyn - http://www.davidllewellyn.com/CALENDAR.html -has a song about Aberfan that he did on Frank Hennessy's show last year - and he wil be performing in Wales next month. David is from Mountain Ash - near to Aberfan. Worth listening to if you are nearby.
Chris in Wheaton

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,Barrie Roberts
Date: 03 Jan 06 - 10:31 AM

I think you'll find that 'Grey October' was not written by McColl/Seeger but by their 'workshop' group known as The Critics.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: BB
Date: 02 Jan 06 - 03:30 PM

The Strawbs - or as they were then - The Strawberry Hill Boys - used to sing one about Aberfan, which I remember as very powerful. I think written by Dave Cousins. Wish I could remember more about it.

Barbara

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Lancashire Lad
Date: 02 Jan 06 - 01:12 PM

Good to see this thread refreshed.
The previously mentioned Grey October was also sung by The Critics Group and there is a fine version on an LP by a Warrington (UK) based group called The Minor Birds. The song Aberfan was also recorded by Gwen and Gordon (Davis) on their rare album called Songs of Rogues and Roses.

Hope that helps someone
LL

Subject: Lyr Add: THE ABERFAN COAL TIP TRAGEDY (T Parrott)
From: bfdk
Date: 02 Jan 06 - 06:39 AM

As far as I can see the full lyrics for Thom Parrott's song about Aberfan are not in the database. Verse 6 below is the sung by Danish group Paddy Doyles on "Aberfan" (SONET SLP 1719); the rest is from Thom Parrott's own recording, which can be heard on his album "Neon Princess" (1968; reissued 2004) and on the various-artists album "The Best of Broadside 1962-1988."

The Aberfan Coal Tip Tragedy
(Thom Parrott)

1. The mining men of Wales are hardy, strong and bold,
And they tunnel in the earth and make it yield its coal,
But in the town of Aberfan, it's dearer now than gold,
For one generation for profit has been sold.

CHORUS: How many died in Aberfan
When the coal tip came tumbling down?
How many children will never grow old
And how many lives purchased how many tons of coal?

2. The little school of Pantglas lay where the mountain loomed,
And some two hundred children took their lessons in its rooms.
The day fall recess was to begin, they went to meet their doom
Not knowing the green hollow would soon become their tomb. CHORUS

3. 'Twas just nine A.M. when they opened up the door,
And in came the children, two hundred, maybe more,
But nobody knew then what the mountain had in store.
The lucky ones were tardy; the others are no more. CHORUS

4. "I played with my big dog. I played with my cat,"
Signed "Paul, October 21;" there's nothing after that,
For the whole mountain came down; everyone was trapped,
And now there's only coal slag where little Paul once sat. CHORUS

5. In eighteen hundred and seventy-four, the first pit shaft went down,
And they started piling mining waste on the slopes above the town,
And everybody knew that the practice was unsound,
But for ninety-two years no better place was found. CHORUS

6. The National Coal Board said they'd known from the first
That the coal tips they'd permitted were a worry and a curse.
But I've heard that speech so many times, and it always sounds rehearsed.
If the coal tip was a murderer, the Coal Board's crime was worse. CHORUS

7. The children all were pretty, the children all were fine
The children went to school in the shadow of the mine
But with the slag heap up above them, they were running out of time
And they were buried alive by the Ministry of Mines. CHORUS


Best wishes,
Bente

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 02 Jan 06 - 02:48 AM

My grandmother is from the Rhondda, she used to have a record that she picked up in the 70s. On this record was a song about Aberfan. It was recoreded by a man whom I believe was from Wales. I have never heard this song mentioned in all my searches for songs about Aberfan. The only thing I can remember about the song, is that he repeated the word Aberfan throughout the song and one of the last lines is: "...here's to the babes who died that day, Aberfan..."
does this ring a bell for anyone?
I would love to find out who recorded this song.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST
Date: 31 May 04 - 08:41 AM

I remember the Bernie Fairlamb song being sung in Plymouth folk clubs in the late '60s by a Geordie, name of Ben Campbell, who had at that time just returned from a tour of duty in Singapore.
I have also been told that the song was published in the manner of a broadside and distributed amongst service personnel in Singapore to raise money for those affected by the tragedy.
Any one know Bernie Fairlamb?
Any one have a copy of this modern "broadside"?

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,Alan
Date: 12 May 04 - 09:55 PM

I guess I must be the same age as Anne Croucher and Lindswidder. Reading this thread and looking at I.C.Rapoport's photographs has brought back memories of 1966 - the images on the news, prayers and collection of money at school. Like Anne, I couldn't sing a song about Aberfan or about 9/11, but I recognise that there is a need for such songs - to tell the story to future generations who may not know of these events.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: LindsayInWales
Date: 12 May 04 - 09:55 PM

this will take you to a short film about Aberfan

http://www.worldwidewales.tv/index2.php?mid=167

sorry I can't make a proper "link"

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: LindsayInWales
Date: 12 May 04 - 09:13 PM

I was also 15 at the time of the Aberfan disaster and living in Hertfordshire. I made myself a promise at the time that I would, one day, visit the village. I finally made it about ten years ago, with my husband and children, soon after we moved from Oxford to South Wales. We walked around the memorial garden where the school once stood, and visited the cemetery which overlooks the village. We went into a pub in the afternoon and I talked to an elderly man, a retired miner, who remembers helping with the digging. It seemed to me that there was still, after all those years, a great sadness in the air.

I would also like to recommend a book, "Aberfan (Struggling Out Of The Darkness)" ISBN 1 898986 05 3 by Gaynor Madgwick, one of the surviving children. I received a copy from her parents, who lost a son and a daughter in the disaster.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Durham-Mike
Date: 12 May 04 - 05:43 PM

I have picked up on Leadfingers item regarding the Bernie Fairlamb song of Aberfan - I see you have included chords, but can you indicate the tune (manuscript or a midi file or the like)?

Mike

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,Mike Green
Date: 12 May 04 - 04:48 PM

Some time after the Aberfan disaster (67/68) I was resident in two folk clubs in the Manchester area (Eccles: Duke of York & The Cross Keys). There was a teacher whose name I now forget who had collected a song written by the children in his class. The song became very popular through singing at the likes of the MSG in Manchester and I think was performed on "folk from the Two Brewers" a BBC programme from the Salford Pub. I have long since lost the lyrics and cannot recall even the tune, but I have tried on many occasions to recover the song from people I knew at the time.

If there was anyone around the folk scene in Manchester at the time and can recall the song I would be most grgateful to hear from you.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,Li'l Aussie Bleeder.
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 08:15 PM

Greg Hastings 'The Wandering Man' here in Australia, known as the Welsh didgeridoo player, has written a song called 'Davy's Dream' which has bought a tear to many an eye over the years. Anyone interested in this song could E-mail [e-mail]
or go to http://www.greghastings.com

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,Anne Croucher
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 06:36 PM

I remember Aberfan, I was 15 and living in a mining town in Yorkshire.

I could never sing a song about it - nor about the Titanic nor '7/11'- they don't need songs, they are too real already.

Anne

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,graham sutton
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 05:12 PM

I made a note of this poem written at the time by a child, I believe (not me)
I am a generation
And a threepenny, sixpenny, five pound note
Cannot buy me now,
Drowned and lost in a black, crawling sea.

Once I played there, nature's school.
And on a summer sweet day when birds were young
And the sky naked and laced with laughter,
I played the games that children play.

But when the sky swam, crying with tears,
The world fell down on me
And I cannot come back.

I am a generation
And I cannot come back
To the narrow streets walking empty
To the warm kitchen where Mam and Dad wait.
The snapshot taken in life yellows with years.

I am hostage of some avenging valley green god
For the rape of my land that fell down on me.

And I cannot come back.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 04:35 PM

Guest,Van, there are still mines in the UK. My father was a miner in the Selby Coalfield until he was made redundant 2 years ago but there are still men, albeit a few, who still go down the mines in Selby and the surrounding area.

I am too young so I don't remember Aberfan but as children we were told about it. I remember passing slagheaps and I remember the fear I felt for my father and the fathers of my class mates who went down the pits everyday especially when we would see the mines rescue race down the street or there was another news report of a minig accident.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From:
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 02:02 PM

I wrote this song about Aberfan some time ago. If anyone is interested, email me and I will send you the melody and guitar chords.

He was lying
In a frozen world of rock and stone;
Death defying,
Through a hundred million years alone.
Dreaming how he would rise,
Once more to fill the skies;
He was giant.
What were centuries to him?

Soft now the giant sleeps.
Soft in the mountain deep.
Far from the children of the mining man;
Far from the village they call Aberfan.

Then they woke him,
Where he slumbered in his ancient pride.
And they broke him;
Threw him out upon the mountainside.
What would he do but wait;
Nursing his grief and hate?
He would show them
Not to lay their hands on him.

Soft now the giant crawls;
Soft while the dark rain falls.
Woe to the children of the mining man,
When the black giant comes to Aberfan.

They were praying,
As they would on any normal day.
They were saying,
"Gentle Jesus look on us we pray".
Was no-one listening in?
Or were they too steeped in sin?
Can't you save them?
Don't you see the giant comes?

Loud now the giant roars,
In through the schoolhouse doors.
Where are the children of the mining man?
Lost in the village they call Aberfan.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Megan L
Date: 08 Feb 04 - 03:01 PM

this thread triggered one of the few schoolday memories i have that dont revolve around being bullied. I was at primary school like the children of Aberfan and our teacher an old school master led us in prayers that morning with many a stop while he gulped away a tear. we had mine heaps near us (very small ones i realise now) but i remember being affraid each time it rained in case they would slip.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: richd
Date: 08 Feb 04 - 08:07 AM

Can I just shamelessly plug a book called 'Aberfan- Our Hiraeth an anthology in poetry prose and pictures' produced by the Aberfan and Merthyr Vale Writers and History Group, and published in Aberfan by the Aberfan and Merthyr Vale Commmunity Co-operative. ('Hiraeth' means love and longing for home in Welsh.)Its full of stuff, not only about the Disaster but the story of the village before and after.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,Van
Date: 07 Feb 04 - 02:21 PM

I remember watching the pictures of this on TV Aberfan & Vietnam were equally remote from where I was at the time. Only Aberfan was reported and I suppose it reflected how people would react to the news. We can all rest easy in our beds now secure in the knowledge that we should no longer have mining disasters, or mining related disasters, thanks to Thatcher & Scargill who, between them, shut down our pits and killed our communities. Unfortunately we will continue to watch children die due to the "war on terror". Can we change the "on" to "of" and stop the whole fiasco.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,I. C. Rapoport
Date: 07 Feb 04 - 01:06 PM

I was the photographer for LIFE Magazine who photographed the aftermath in Aberfan from October 27 through Christmas Day 1966. I am also searching for poems and songs written about the tragedy to place in my upcoming photo exhibit at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth sometime in 2005.

Anyone interested could view several of the images I made in 1966 on my website www.rapo.com

Thanks

I.C.R.
www.rapo.com

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Gin Crewe
Date: 05 Feb 04 - 06:18 PM

Robin Jones wrote a song about Aberfan, slightly amended by Lol Lynch in the "Wench All," version, see notes below.

"So much is given in money and toys.
In tears they spade away the spoils,
but they don't bring me back again,
to sunshine, and to Aberfan

And I was only a litle girl:
one of three hundred in the school
Who chalked and chanted, skipped and ran
in sunshine and in Aberfan

There's some who lived and many who died,
when the colliery slag began to slide.
The sunless, coal-black slurry ran.
Two hundred buried in Aberfan

Lend me my toys, and let me play
Above the earth for another day.
Let me see my school friends once again
and say 'Goodbye' to Aberfan."

Recorded by local Lancashire groups "Brillig," on a tape of the same name 22 years ago, and "Wench All" in 2003 on a CD "Ne'er a Penny 'o Money."

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From:
Date: 05 Feb 04 - 03:21 PM

I don,t know if this song is about Aberfan but it is sung on PAUL CHILDS remembrance to David Alexandre called The Price Of Coal.
Worth listening too if you can get it.Let me know how you get off
with your search.

Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Gareth
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 12:56 PM

Susanne - Yes you have clarified the point that I was trying to express - I think that the reference to the children was an adapted/inserted verse.

Gareth