MINER STEVE AT MUSIC INDUSTRY COALFACE

A FORMER miner has written a musical to commemorate the British mining industry.

He hopes COAL will become a hit more than 30 years after Britain’s most damaging industrial dispute, the miners’ strike of 1984/85.

Former Nottinghamshire colliery worker Stephen Brailsford, 54, from a family rooted in mining heritage for generations, scripted the original musical using songs from the time. He has recruited author the Rev G P Taylor to work on the project with him. The pair CHARLIE YATES are pictured right, with Mr Brailsford on the left.

Stephen, from Scarborough, said: ‘We lived in the mining village of Rainworth and just after the strike in 1985 I started at Rufford Colliery, near Mansfield. “My father and grandfather were both miners and lots of members of the family were also down the pits.

“The miners’ leader Arthur Scargill called area ballots instead of a national one, and miners in Nottinghamshire didn’t vote to strike, so we had flying pickets coming down. The area was very, very volatile.

“Rufford was not on strike at the time and it was because Nottinghamshire miners voted not to take action.” He added: “I am fed up with people remembering coal-mining for the miners’ strike or the diseases people got down the pits.

“In Billy Elliott the miners were portrayed as people who wanted to drink and fight.

“But what I remember from my time was the humour and the great camaraderie.

“Mining is my heritage and I want it to be remembered as something good. It gave a lot of work to generations of workingclass people.

“The central character Nigel is a university educated geology student who goes down the pit and falls in love with Karen, the daughter of a Tory MP.” Stephen said: “I have related a lot of my own experiences growing up in the 80s in the play.”

Violent confrontations between flying pickets and police characterised the strike, which ended in victory for the Tory government and led to the closure of most of Britain’s remaining collieries. It was called “the most bitter industrial dispute in British history” and involved 142,000 mineworkers. Rev Taylor said: “It’s an absolutely brilliant concept as Nigel was effectively sleeping with the enemy by bedding the MP’s daughter.”