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Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)

Related threads:
Lyr/Tune Req: Song about Aberfan by George Holden (8)
Aberfan disaster 40th anniversary - 21 Oct 1966 (32)
Aberfan - 43 Years ago today! (28)
ADD: Grey October(C.Parker/Critics Group/P.Seeger) (8)
BS: Aberfan Memorial Petition (19)
Lyr Req: Close the Coalhouse Door (about Aberfan) (3)


GeoffLawes 01 Nov 23 - 07:33 PM
GUEST,Harper 01 Nov 23 - 05:25 PM
GeoffLawes 01 Nov 23 - 07:33 PM
GUEST,Harper 01 Nov 23 - 05:25 PM
GUEST,Dennis 02 Dec 19 - 09:04 PM
GUEST 14 Sep 19 - 11:26 PM
GUEST,Starship 14 Sep 19 - 11:00 PM
GUEST,Marion 13 Sep 19 - 11:52 AM
The Sandman 23 Oct 18 - 04:54 AM
Leadfingers 22 Oct 18 - 03:47 AM
GUEST,Alison Johnson 21 Oct 15 - 02:04 PM
GUEST,Mobo 19 Dec 13 - 05:33 PM
GUEST,Mobo 19 Dec 13 - 05:21 PM
Bugsy 08 May 13 - 03:21 AM
GUEST,Lavengro 07 May 13 - 07:11 AM
Jim Dixon 06 May 13 - 01:37 PM
Jim Dixon 06 May 13 - 01:20 PM
Jim Dixon 06 May 13 - 12:25 PM
GUEST,Don Wise 26 Jan 13 - 03:52 AM
GUEST,Dave Collins 08 Dec 10 - 06:13 PM
GUEST,leeneia 28 Oct 10 - 11:04 AM
GUEST,Warwick Slade 28 Oct 10 - 08:10 AM
richd 27 Oct 10 - 08:09 PM
GUEST,leeneia 27 Oct 10 - 09:50 AM
Reinhard 27 Oct 10 - 01:54 AM
Tug the Cox 26 Oct 10 - 07:35 PM
bobad 26 Oct 10 - 04:12 PM
Richard Bridge 26 Oct 10 - 02:24 PM
richd 26 Oct 10 - 12:48 PM
GUEST,Colin Wilkie 26 Oct 10 - 08:14 AM
GUEST,Warwick Slade 26 Oct 10 - 06:42 AM
Leadfingers 25 Oct 10 - 01:17 PM
GUEST,Nathan Collins 25 Oct 10 - 12:28 PM
Larry The Radio Guy 05 Jul 10 - 01:07 PM
GUEST 05 Jul 10 - 11:11 AM
GUEST 05 Jul 10 - 11:02 AM
GUEST,jack Warshaw 07 Jun 10 - 09:49 AM
GUEST 20 May 10 - 04:47 AM
GUEST 19 May 10 - 05:28 AM
GUEST,Gethin 03 Nov 09 - 04:34 PM
Ms Mouse 26 Jun 09 - 12:11 AM
GUEST,Angela Suprano 26 Jun 09 - 12:06 AM
GUEST,Angela Suprano 25 Jun 09 - 11:48 PM
Greenm 17 Mar 09 - 09:43 AM
GUEST 08 Feb 09 - 07:29 PM
GUEST,Stuart Reed 28 Jan 09 - 09:31 PM
GUEST,philip thomas survivor of aberfan 12 Jan 09 - 04:26 PM
Dougieb 16 Sep 08 - 04:10 PM
Jack Blandiver 06 Aug 08 - 04:43 AM
Susanne (skw) 05 Aug 08 - 07:12 PM
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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 01 Nov 23 - 07:33 PM

Link to post SONGS ABOUT THE ABERFAN DISASTER in Mudcat Thread Any October Songs?     /mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=170379&messages=181#aberfan:~:text=Subject%3A%20RE%3A%20Any%20October%20Songs%3F%0AFrom%3


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,Harper
Date: 01 Nov 23 - 05:25 PM

Sorry if this breaks etiquette by reviving an ancient thread, but someone asked about Bernie, he passed away some time ago, I used to work with him. Sadly I don't know the exact date, as I happened only to enquire if anyone remembered him in a meeting a year or so ago. He moved to America.

I also have an album of his 'Life's Work', where there's a recording of his version of Aberfan.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 01 Nov 23 - 07:33 PM

Link to post SONGS ABOUT THE ABERFAN DISASTER in Mudcat Thread Any October Songs?     /mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=170379&messages=181#aberfan:~:text=Subject%3A%20RE%3A%20Any%20October%20Songs%3F%0AFrom%3


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,Harper
Date: 01 Nov 23 - 05:25 PM

Sorry if this breaks etiquette by reviving an ancient thread, but someone asked about Bernie, he passed away some time ago, I used to work with him. Sadly I don't know the exact date, as I happened only to enquire if anyone remembered him in a meeting a year or so ago. He moved to America.

I also have an album of his 'Life's Work', where there's a recording of his version of Aberfan.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,Dennis
Date: 02 Dec 19 - 09:04 PM

The Strawbs - Not all the flowers grow. It doesn't mention the town but the song is definitely about the disaster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdRwmoPyBU8

Very touching song, can't even imagine the horror of that day.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Sep 19 - 11:26 PM

Dave Collins' "Children of Aberfan"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLNSLjeGm3g


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 14 Sep 19 - 11:00 PM

Dave Collins’ song about the giant which comes to life is far more potent when watched. It shows workers digging in the wreckage of the school where 116 children died, passing pails of rubble along a human chain, a police officer bringing outa child’s body and then the Aberfan cemetery.The “Children of Aberfan” is even more graphic: it shows the grim faces of the families watching the bodies being carried out from the wreckage, men, some wearing miner’s hats digging in the wreckage, a class photo of the children in the school and then a long open grave filled with a row of tiny coffins and finally the row of tombstones on the hillside.The words like a television script not describing what happening but bringing meaning to the visuals:

What is the noise from round the mountain?
Voices of the men who toil with their hands
Scratching in the wet mud, searching for the children,
Children of Aberfan

Can you hear the rain is falling?
From the skies all full of sorrow,
clouds are weeping for the children,
Children of Aberfan.

That is from

https://ziladoc.com/download/music-for-remembering-words-and-images-of-mass_pdf


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,Marion
Date: 13 Sep 19 - 11:52 AM

Can't you hear the rain is falling
From the sky so full of sorrow.
Clouds are weeping for the children,
Children of Aberfan.

There must be more, but that's the only extra bit I can remember at the moment.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: The Sandman
Date: 23 Oct 18 - 04:54 AM

Palaces of Gold was originally written by Leon Rosselson in response to the Aberfan Disaster of 1966 in which a coalmine's spoilheap collapsed on to a school


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: Leadfingers
Date: 22 Oct 18 - 03:47 AM

I shall sing Bernie Fairlamb's song tonight at Herga !


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,Alison Johnson
Date: 21 Oct 15 - 02:04 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWy3tRrF1xE


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,Mobo
Date: 19 Dec 13 - 05:33 PM

Just found its available for MP3 download:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aberfan/dp/B004PCUX24/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1387491846&sr=8-3-fkmr0&keywords=bryn+yemm+gateway+o+song


Cheers


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,Mobo
Date: 19 Dec 13 - 05:21 PM

Hi

I always remember the really moving song I think some people keep referring to. My dad told me all about the disaster when I was young. As a child I kept replaying the song on his vinyl as it evoked something within me. I can't find an original audio copy worse luck but the album it's from is:

Bryn Yemm GATEWAY TO SONG with the Morriston Orpheus Choir - Aberfan

Hope this helps

Mobo


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Subject: Lyr Add: DAVEY'S DREAMS (Greg & Val Hastings)
From: Bugsy
Date: 08 May 13 - 03:21 AM

Here's the words to "Davey' Dreams" a beautiful song about the Aberfan disaster, written by Greg Hastings.

DAVEY'S DREAMS

'Twas a cold October morning
The air is was so clear
The children playing in the street
Were free from care and fear
"Davey hurry on boy,
Or again you will be late"
As the wind brought sounds of ringing bells
From Pantglas' stone gate

He hurried through the schoolyard
Through chattering voice and screams
Wondering what today would bring
And of tomorrows dreams
His school work had just started
When that black hill broke away
And with a roar a deathly roar
Brought to an end that day.

For his dreams, they have gone
His dreams, they have gone away


It rumbled down the hillside
The school lay in its path
They may have heard it coming
Tut were powerless to move
It cut its way through tree and fern
Covering the grass
Until it met the walls
Of little Pantglas

The sturdy school walls crumbled,
They had no time to run
Davey's dreams were ended
That day in Aberfan
There did not seem a reason
or time to qwuestion why
Fate had destined Davey
To bid his dreams goodbye

For his dreams, they have gone
His dreams, they have gone away

'Twas a cold October morning
The air was so still
But for the sound of shovels
Upon that blackened hill
A weeping mother with bleeding hands
Clawed at that coal so black
A million tears and all her prayers
won't bring her wee son back

To take one so young Oh God
To take him now from me
A scar will be left here
For all eternity
I stood there on that morning
And my tears flowed free
For little Davey's mother
And the dreams he would not see

For his dreams, they have gone
His dreams, they have gone away.

Cheers

Bugsy


From the 1985 album
WINDSTORM SP001
Greg & Val Hastings
(C) Sweetpea Musical Promotions


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,Lavengro
Date: 07 May 13 - 07:11 AM

Being from this neck of the woods (south Wales) I have written some songs about its industrial heritage including mining. But I just couldn't bring myself to put ink to paper about Aberfan.

Not sure why? Because it was mostly children lost? (there have been plenty of children killed in mining disasters). Because it is too close to home (hasn't stopped me before)Because I worked many years after with a survivor of that day? (not sure)

I think it is probably fear of doing a dis-service to the many survivors and relatives of those lost. I think I could only do it by completing the song and then doing the rounds to those involved to get their blessing, or otherwise. So I understand some of the comment above. Far easier to write about something 200 years plus ago isn't it?


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Subject: Lyr Add: ABERFAN (Laura Siersma)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 May 13 - 01:37 PM

ABERFAN
As sung by Laura Siersma on "Love Flows Like the Blood of a River" (2003)

In the small Welsh town of Aberfan for days the rain did fall.
Down on the heart of Aberfan the mountain began to crawl.
Little children of Aberfan were in their school that day
When the big coal mountain above them high began to rumble and sway.

CHORUS: When the big coal mountain of rock and slag began to rumble down,
It buried the children in the ground in a town called Aberfan,
In a town called Aberfan.

They worked with their picks all through the day, dug with their shovels and hands,
Kept on diggin' all through the night, in a town called Aberfan.
They dug two trenches for their graves, placed green bracken round.
The dead they numbered eighty and one, and they laid them in the ground. CHORUS

No more do the meadows ring with song; no laughter fills the air.
Autumn days are gray with gloom; no children are playin' there.


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Subject: Lyr Add: ABERFAN (Filthy Thieving Bastards)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 May 13 - 01:20 PM

I inserted dashes to indicate pauses in the lyrics that go on for a beat or more—something I usually don't do, but in this song I think you might have a hard time fitting the lyrics to the tune if you don't know where the pauses come.


ABERFAN
As sung by Filthy Thieving Bastards on "A Melody of Retreads and Broken Quills" (2001)

1. [We've] suffered in our valleys—these valleys of hard toil,
Witnessed gross injustices—that cause men's blood to boil,
Seen those blue-scarred faces, those emblems of the mine,
And lived with death and tragedy every day—in our time.

2. Buried many comrades—young victims of the dust,
Who gave their lives for families—just to earn a daily crust,
Comforted the little ones whose hearts were on the rack,
Mourning for a father who went—and came not back.

3. Seen faces burnt to cinders—and limbs torn apart,
Shared the grief and sorrow—of many a broken heart,
But now those coal diamonds have done their darkest deed
And made little children pay the price—for lust and greed.

4. A fumarole of industry stood on the mountainside.
The black and deadly killer—waits for its deadly slide,
Waiting for its victims to enter into class,
To crush their little bodies 'neath the nine tons** of morass.

5. Eighty* little innocents—were laid beneath the clay.
Their only sin in life—was bein' young and gay,
Put to rest together beneath a giant cross of flowers,
And the tears will form in all our eyes for many—many hours.

[* I don't know why he says only 80. Actually, 116 children and 28 adults were killed.]
[** 9 tons sounds like a ridiculously low estimate—or am I mishearing something?]


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Subject: Lyr Add: BUFFALO CREEK & ABERFAN (Peter Britton)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 May 13 - 12:25 PM

This song relates Aberfan to another disaster with a similar cause:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_Flood


BUFFALO CREEK & ABERFAN
as sung by Peter Britton on "Coal Train to Amos"
and by The By God Geezers on "HollowGirl" (I believe it is the same recording.)

1. The impoundment's up there tickin', slidin' down through time.
Trees an' rocks an' dirt an' coal create a toxic slime.
Gravity's the enemy for the angle of repose,
Just waitin' on the deluge to obliterate the rose(rows? roads?).

CHORUS: Buffalo Creek and Aberfan—
Think on them if you can.
They're no mistake, no act of God,
Just tactics of the new coal-minin' man.

2. Up and down this valley, they're failing as we speak,
Starting in to slump and creep and fart and belch and leak.
When they do let go, they'll kill us folks and schools.
Now they spit right in your face, those fat-cat toxic goons(ooze?).

BRIDGE: They're playin' with a fire that could kill our children dead,
Arrogance and ignorance, manipulating dread.

REPEAT CHORUS.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,Don Wise
Date: 26 Jan 13 - 03:52 AM

I'll admit to writing a song about Aberfan...I felt it wasn't up to scratch so it eventually landed on the waste tip...


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,Dave Collins
Date: 08 Dec 10 - 06:13 PM

My song is now posted on Utube. Just search for 'Dave Collins, Aberfan' and you'll find it.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 28 Oct 10 - 11:04 AM

I agree with you, Slade. I wouldn't call that song arrogant.

Foolish, bratty, smug, cliche-ridden - yes. Arrogant, no.

It was the National Coal Board and its employees whose arrogance led to the tragedy. And they don't even get a mention in the song.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,Warwick Slade
Date: 28 Oct 10 - 08:10 AM

I may make myself unpopular here but I think to say that a song writer who writes a song about a current (then) disaster is profoundly arrogant is profoundly arragant. There are so many songs throughout history that cover mine disasters, fishing disasters and the like, many are inaccurate in their facts, but they are not questioned and enjoyed for what that are-songs. They are definatly not documentary accounts. There is a thing called poetic licence which has been used by all the great poets and songsters.
I feel some people are so far up their oral tradition they forget other people see things in a different and equally relevant way.
It's good to know the Folk Police are there to tell us how to think.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: richd
Date: 27 Oct 10 - 08:09 PM

Yup.
I think you right leenia

I think you can write sings about what your reactions are to it & how it affected you personally
but beyond that I think it is profound arrogance.

'Caps and shawls' F*** me thats crap. Trying to write like you were there is just so wrong.

"past the schoolyard in the morning"- only if they lived in the Grove and walked along the bank.

'The dancers...' where to start, oh boy.

"phone to Swansea" eh? What's swanea got to do with it. Swansea got its own problems.

Pretend you are making a good old fashioned documentary film and check out what you write. It's not like it's a hundred years ago.

It matters.

PS whats worse was the money they took to clear the tips. Not long paid back- by the Welsh Assembly Government.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 27 Oct 10 - 09:50 AM

I have read the summary of the Aberfan slide at Wikipedia. It seems to be an accurate and well-written account.

The horror of the landslide is terrible. What's even worse is the arrogance of the National Coal Board - its careless handling of the mine spoil and its refusal to listen to protests.

I don't think that either of these things can or should be covered in a song. Some things are just too awful to write a song about.


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Subject: Lyr Add: ABERFAN (David Ackles)
From: Reinhard
Date: 27 Oct 10 - 01:54 AM

Ther is a David Ackles blog that has the lyrics of his song Aberfan, but with a few small errors. I think the lyrics are:

It was rainy in the morning as the men left for the mine,
Past the schoolyard in the morning.
At the colliery production charts read, “Men, we're doing fine,”
As the rain fell in the morning.
The cold board said your number seven tip will stay in line,
It's been two years this morning.
But no-one told the children of Aberfan.

One hundred and sixteen caps and shawls
Danced the halls of the school-house.
While the grown-up inspectors drank their tea
In the safe, dry lee of the tool-house
As the rain fell in the morning on Aberfan.

Did no-one hear the stones move when the tip began to fall?
Did no-one feel the slag shake? Was no-one there at all?
They were on the phone for Swansea taking orders for more,
They were going about their business, minding the store,
And five minutes later, they were asking, “What for?”

The call for silence hushed the crowd
Who searched the clouds for answers.
While they listened for life and held their breath
The sound of death held the dancers
As the rain fell in the morning on Aberfan.

But no-one told the children,
But no-one told the children.
And it's always the children.

By the way, Ackles' LP Five & Dime was reissued in 2004 by Raven Records as Five & Dime ...Plus with some additional cover versions by e.g. Martin Carthy and The Hollies.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 26 Oct 10 - 07:35 PM

Haven't searched the whole thread, but when I was a kid, there some really sick parodies of then current pop tunes.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: bobad
Date: 26 Oct 10 - 04:12 PM

Thom Parrott's "The Aberfan Coal Tip Tragedy" as performed by Raymond Crooke.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 26 Oct 10 - 02:24 PM

100


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: richd
Date: 26 Oct 10 - 12:48 PM

Never been to Aberfan have you?

It's a Welsh mining village. Never been a church with a bell ringing the quarters there. Just a pit hooter at shift change. The hills are sheep country and the valley was urban and heavily industrialised and noisy.

It's not a song 'about' Aberfan. It's a song about what you think Aberfan might posibly be/have been like. Nothing wrong with that- but its not a song about Aberfan. Most of the others aren't either.

Best song about Aberfan is Calon Lan or maybe Guide me o thou Great Jehovah.


These things matter.


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Subject: Lyr Add: MORNING (Colin Wilkie)
From: GUEST,Colin Wilkie
Date: 26 Oct 10 - 08:14 AM

Thanks for the friendly comments, Warwick.

I wrote two songs about Aberfan,but only "Morning" was really satisfying. Shirley sang it on album we made for the German company "pläne "back in 1972. The LP was called "Morning" and has now been re-released as a double CD in tandem with another LP we made around the same time called "Outside The City " ( My apologies for all that self publicity, but it does outline the details).

The words are as follows:
                                 
The early morning, the mist is drifting
D                      C       D F#m
Across the autumn coloured leaves.
Em         A               D
The cattle low upon the hillside,
D                      F#m D
And turn, like shadows, through the trees.
Em             A                   D

The dark clouds move above the valley,
Slowly, as the morning breaks.
The small birds chatter in the treetops,
And the sleeping village wakes.

The drizzling rain falls on the houses
In the hollow of the hills,
It splashes from the roofs and doorways,
And trickles down the window sills.

The church clock chimes the passing quarters,
And, to the early morning sound,
The chink of bottles add their echoes,
As the milkman makes his round.

Wives are setting breakfast tables,
Eggs are sizzling in the pan,
The shirt-sleeved men their tea are drinking,
As life goes on in Aberfan.

Thanks again for your interest.
D'you know what happened to Jack ? We lost contact some 30 or so years ago.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,Warwick Slade
Date: 26 Oct 10 - 06:42 AM

Probably one of the best,if not the best, song about Aberfan was written by Colin Wilkie. I heard it sung by Jack King but, unfortunatly, I do not have a copy of the song.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: Leadfingers
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 01:17 PM

Dave Collins U Tube


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,Nathan Collins
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 12:28 PM

I found your thread about Aberfan songs and poems. You mention my dad (Dave Collins) who wrote a song many years ago called 'Aberfan'. He has been playing it in the folk clubs of Nottingham since I was a child.
I have just uploaded it to youtube with a small video montage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLNSLjeGm3g

Let me know what you think

Nathan Collins


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: Larry The Radio Guy
Date: 05 Jul 10 - 01:07 PM

Suibhan: I have the lp "Five and Dime" by David Ackles, with the song "Aberfan" on it. And I have a working turntable. If you (or anyone else) really want the lyrics, I can listen to it and write them down and post them (I don't think they lyrics are on the liner--but if they are it would make it easier).


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Jul 10 - 11:11 AM

Another song " The Price of Coal " sung by Welsh singer Paul Child

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV9px05ugp0


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Jul 10 - 11:02 AM

"Fields of Athenry" sung by Welsh singer Christine Lee Jones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTT2G-xjGCY


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,jack Warshaw
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 09:49 AM

As far as I can remember, Grey October started at a Critics Group songwriting session at Ewan and Peg's house. Everyone had heard of Aberfan, but few had news of the bombing of a school in Thuydan, Vietnam in which scores of children were killed. We were deeply committed to opposing the war. The idea arose to link the two events. Several of the group, including me, contributed lyrics and suggested melodies. Peggy came back next session with the final melody. It's still a haunting song I think. Glad it was recorded and is still remembered. Sometimes powerful songs fade because they could not be commercially distributed. Compare, for example, Neil Young's "Ohio" with my much more explicit "Kent State Massacre" - one got mass distribution, the other only made it to a "protest" label.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST
Date: 20 May 10 - 04:47 AM

Search endeth!


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 10 - 05:28 AM

I found it eventually after 10 years search. Would have helped of course if my alzheimer's had let me remember the Artist. The artist was Mike Hart - Album = 'Bleeds.' The two songs I had in my mind on that album were 'Aberfan,' and 'Almost Liverpool 8.' So happy to have found it at last! :)


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
From: GUEST,Gethin
Date: 03 Nov 09 - 04:34 PM

Ican recall this song and it was sung by Bryn Yemm, I have searched for this song for years but had no luck.
I hope this solves a problem for you.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Ms Mouse
Date: 26 Jun 09 - 12:11 AM

I've joined the site now too. :)


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,Angela Suprano
Date: 26 Jun 09 - 12:06 AM

Just to add a little more info' to my last post, this group/individual sounded very sort of 70's style alike many did then, and of the Beatles type style. All I can remember of the lyrics is that toys were sent to the children, and millions of toys were of no use, plus it was very critical of the council and organisers of Aberfan. Very moving song. I think I taped it onto an old Phillips 4 inch reeled machine off a vinal record, and Aberfan was on the B side?

Angela.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,Angela Suprano
Date: 25 Jun 09 - 11:48 PM

I had a song about Aberfan on tape, and wish I could find it. So I would appreciate you mailing me with the lyrics, or posting here, if you're still receiving these messages? Don't know if I have to join this forum? But you can email me at An9ila(AT)gmail.com if you would?

If you make the title of the mail 'Aberfan' I'll know it's not spam.

Thanking you in advance,

Angela.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Greenm
Date: 17 Mar 09 - 09:43 AM

I am constantly attempting to recover songs I have actually performed in the past, one of which was back inthe mid sixties shortly after the Aberfan disaster. A member of a group I was involved with (the free folk) Phil (can't remember his second name) who was a teacher asked his class to think about the disaster and how they feel about that fact that it was a school just like theirs. One pupil wrote a poem which Phil put to music and as I remember it was one of the most moving songs I have ever encountered.

A slim chance I know, but does anyone out there remember hearing this song or even more unlikely have the words & music. This all took place in Eccles, Manchester where with the Free Folk (Stewart, Ewan & Phil) we started a Folk Club in the Cross Keys (and later moved on to the Duke of York).


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Feb 09 - 07:29 PM

Gosh,that's the song I'm looking for and I don't know the artist...it was so touching.

Annette
abcems@comcast.net


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,Stuart Reed
Date: 28 Jan 09 - 09:31 PM

Grey October was also recorded by the Brighton Taverners on their first EP.

I could email an mp3 if anyone is interested.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: GUEST,philip thomas survivor of aberfan
Date: 12 Jan 09 - 04:26 PM

i found this site very touching. i never new so many songs had been written about aberfan. the only song i was ever told about was the beegees song. its hard to believe how many people thought of us .thank you i was one of the lucky ones who survived.


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Dougieb
Date: 16 Sep 08 - 04:10 PM

Thank you for your interest in songs of Aberfan, my song written just after the terrible disaster can also be obtained from mp3.com/dougieb


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 06 Aug 08 - 04:43 AM

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.

The song is Not All the Flowers Grow, in which our intrepid songwriter seems to imply the school was buried by a coal seam...


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Subject: RE: Songs about Aberfan
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 05 Aug 08 - 07:12 PM

Sorry, I managed to overlook you've become a member. I'll send you a PM.


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