We Regret to Inform (Wynford Jones)
Wake in the morning with hope in your heart
Same thing every day
Waiting for letters you hope that you’ll get
Not sure what they might say
But the story’s the same with each one you get
The more that you read makes you want to forget
The anger you feel when you read
We regret to inform
All of the people who sign on the line
Find it hard to get by
On benefit handouts the government gives
That’s no way to survive
The look in their eyes tells you that they’re sad
They cannot remember life being so bad
They all get the letters that read
We regret to inform
An old man I know fought in the war
For freedom he gave his all
Now forty years later he’s fighting again
This time it’s hunger and cold
For poverty’s got him caught in its trap
Like all the poor people he’s taking the rap
For a government who just say
We regret to inform.
Those were the days (Wynford Jones)
The two up two down in the old part of town
Started to show signs of strain
From the years of abuse like the holes in the shoes
Of the kids playing down the back lane
Then the word went around they’re changing the town
To improve the inhabitants lot
They needed the land on which the house stands
And they’ll take it if we like it or not
And it’s true what the old people say
When they tell you that those were the days
The sold us the scheme the town planners dream
Of modern council estates
A new way of life to end all the strife
The slum clearance order creates
But the old found it strange being told they must change
The only life they’ve ever known
But they hadn’t a say at the end of the day
The seeds of despair had been sown
Yes we all found it strange being told we must change
The only life we’d ever known
We new it would cost, a community lost
Their actions I’ll never condone
And it’s true what the old people say
When they tell you that those were the days
Now it’s gone are the walls the old market stalls
The sheds and the cast iron lights
The toilets outside where we all used to hide
When we played “knock down ginger” at night
Ah, but what’s left behind will never remind
My children of what once had been
For concrete and glass has smothered the past
All that they’ve left me are dreams
And it’s true what the old people say
When they tell you that those were the days
The Band (Wynford Jones, Geri Thomas & Laurence Eddy)
A clock strikes three in the streets of a valleys town
Little old lady crying as she wanders home
Memories linger of a band playing in the park
Once she was a young girl but time has left its mark
The hand moves on as the seconds tick her life away
Time flies by but still the brass band plays
Still it plays
Old man strolling killing time to waste a day
He throws a stick for his dog to chase and play
Striking clock reminds him with every chime
Of the days he played first cornet in perfect time
The hand moves on as the seconds tick his life away
Time flies by but still the brass band plays
Still it plays
Young boy walking to practice in the welfare hall
Thinking of the future time means nothing at all
With his life before him for their memories he hasn’t a care
Glancing at the clock standing in the market square
The hand moves on as the seconds tick their lives away
Time flies by but still the brass band plays
Still it plays
Dic Penderyn (John Stuart Williams & Geoff Cripps)
As I walked out one summer’s morning
Along the streets of Cardiff town
I heard the sound of shipwrights working
The stroke of hammers beating down
Tell me now what ship you’re building
Upon the cobbles of this square
What kind of mast is that you’re raising
With such a blunt and heavy spar
No ship we build this August morning
No mast we raise upon this street
But a gallows tree for Dic Penderyn
A trap to fall beneath his feet
Remember all poor Dic Penderyn
A random death was his sad fate
Remember when you tell his story
That he found it, hard to hate
Where have you gone you woods of Merthyr
Where have you gone you hunted years
Leaf and life have gone together
Lost in the dust of furnace fires
Where have you gone you birds of Merthyr
Where have you gone these broken years
Gone to the mountains and the heather
No songs now soothe these bitter tears
Cause for Complaint (Wynford Jones & Geri Thomas)
Forty years I’ve done my graft
McGregor’s come and he’s closed the shaft
A knighthood for him, the dole for me
How’m I gonna feed my family
Chorus
Hey you! Stand up and fight
Let ’em know that it’s not right
Our cause is just so make ’em see
They can’t do this to you and me
For all these years I’ve sweated streams
Working hard in the four foot seams
They tell me there’s no need for me
They’re closing down my colliery
Chorus
Fifteen pits in this valley of mine
Last one closed this Easter time
Nothing left for my son to do
What happens to those who came after you?
Chorus
Nothing left of my home town
All the shops are closing down
Empty places are all I se
And empty faces staring back at me.
Chorus
What’ll I do when my job is gone
There’s food to buy, there’s clothes to put on
Shoes for your feet the rent is due
The tallyman’s calling, he’s looking for you.
Chorus
Jack of All Trades
The Government tells me I have to compete
To work in this modern world
It seems I must learn some new techniques
If I don’t want to spend my life on the dole
And they tell me I have to adapt myself
To what industry’s looking for
There’s no room for the union rule
Of one man, one job, any more.
And it seems every card they’re dealing
Is the ace of spades
Well I’ve never been much of a gambler before
I”ve never been one for a Jack of all trades
They tell me what this country needs
Is high technology
With microchips and processors
And fiscal government policies
And they tell me technical whizz kids
Are what we need today
With computerised experience
And a realistic view of pay
And it seems every card they’re dealing
Is the ace of spades
Well I’ve never been much of a gambler before
I”ve never been one for a Jack of all trades
The Blue and the Green (Laurence Eddy)
A sunset walk by cliffs and rocky shore
The tide was high couldn’t drown the world no more
Over silver seas as gulls all turn for home
Just you and I out walking all alone
Chorus
It could have been another place another time
A childhood’s dream to see a world I’d never seen
To be with you where meet the worlds of blue and green
And seeing that light in your eyes as in mine}
I almost turned and said no walk tonight
But you would show me all your new found sights
And walk me where you thought I’d never been
And show me all the sights that you had seen
Chorus
And so it was we saw from cliffs on high
The dolphins dance and feed as they pass by
And as we watch and wonder at their play
Do they watch too, if only we could say
Chorus
Remember when we saw from cliffs on high
The dolphins dance and feed as they passed by
I shan’t forget when gulls all turn for home
Just you and I sat watching all alone
Chorus
Summer Comes Rolling Around (Wynford Jones)
A light in the morning
Takes me by the eyes
Across the horizon
A beautiful sky
Chorus
When summer comes rolling around
When summer comes rolling around
When summer comes rolling around
It’s free
Feeling the peace
The tranquility
People surrender
Yourselves to the sea
Chorus
Keep looking keep looking
And you’ll probably find
The meaning of living is all in your mind
Just take it easy
And do what you can
Life is a key in your hand
Chorus
A light in the morning
Takes me by the eyes
Across the horizon
A beautiful sky
Chorus
Er Cof Am (Geoff Cripps) Instrumental
This melody is dedicated to the memory of Geoff’s parents but also written for the four out of five Cripps brothers from Kent, who, having arrived in Gwent to ‘rendezvous with a better tomorrow’, shortly after perished fighting for that ideal in the trenches of the First World War. (Er Cof Am = In Memoriam)
1984 Wynford Jones and Geri Thomas)
Whatever happened to the comradeship
To fill the working man with pride
We used to stand together
Everyone of us side by side
We’d fight as hard as we could
To keep the wolves out from the door
But we dropped the latch and let the buggers in, In 1984
What happened to the local Bobby
He used to walk the beat
No need for shields and batons
When he patrolled the streets
Now in the name of law and order
They stand a thousand strong or more
It’s community policing in 1984
From Orgreave down to Maerdy
In each community
Stand fast you union miners
Protect your liberty
Some men died on the picket line
For home and family
And some men scabbed on the union
For a brand new Ford Capri
They sold us down the river
To be scabs for evermore
And that’s the way of the union man in 1984