Verse 1
The village lights were fading
As the morning gathered cold
A line of weary shadows
Walking where their fathers strolled
Boots upon the cobbled road
Flasks of tea and tired eyes
No speeches made, no banners waved
Beneath the dark Welsh skies
Verse 2
The cage began its shaking
Steel on steel and chain on chain
Dropping through the earth itself
Into darkness, dust and strain
A Davy lamp, a yellow glow
A canary’s fragile song
Every man knew why they came
And knew they might be wrong
Chorus
At the coalface
Where the mountain meets the bone
At the coalface
Where a man is on his own
Swinging steel against the darkness
Breathing dust and counting days
Giving strength he scarcely owned
At the coalface
Verse 3
A mile beneath the valleys
Where the daylight never shone
They crawled towards the blackened seam
And carried slowly on
The hammer drill kept screaming
Through the rock and through the din
While sweat and coal became one thing
Upon each face and skin
Verse 4
The conveyor never rested
A steady river running black
The coal climbed towards the surface
While bent backs could not turn back
Some thought of wives and children
Some stared into the night
Some simply watched the minutes pass
And prayed to see daylight
Chorus
At the coalface
Where the mountain meets the bone
At the coalface
Where a man is on his own
Swinging steel against the darkness
Breathing dust and counting days
Giving strength he scarcely owned
At the coalface
Bridge
No statues stood to greet them
No fortunes lined their way
The world above grew warmer
By the work they’d done that day
The lights in distant cities
The fires in distant homes
Were fed by men deep underground
Unknown to those they warmed
Verse 5
Then came the long ride upwards
The rattling cage once more
Back towards the evening sky
And the waiting pithead floor
The black dust met the water
As it swirled and disappeared
And tired eyes met mirrors
That had aged another year
Verse 6
Down at the local working men’s
A quiet pint was poured
The talk was never grand enough
For history to record
A joke, a song, a football score
A laugh to end the day
And thoughts of those who weren’t there now
Who’d somehow slipped away
Final Chorus
At the coalface
Where the mountain meets the bone
At the coalface
Where a man is never known
Yet every hearth that glowed with warmth
And every lamp that blazed
Owed something to those unseen hands
At the coalface
Outro
The winding gear stands silent now
The seams lie still below
But in the valleys of South Wales
Their memory yet will grow
For the world remembers kings and wars
And men of wealth and fame
But many lives were built upon
The miners’ strength
And name.
Lyrics Michael Forty
Voice Michael Forty