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Last Paying Day

from No Redemption Songs by Ribbon Road

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  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Digipack with original artwork by Geoff Heslop

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  • DVD + Digital Album

    DVD with a film of Keith Pattison's black and white photographs of the 1984/5 Miner's Strike in Easington with original songs by Brenda Heslop, performed by Ribbon Road

    Includes unlimited streaming of No Redemption Songs via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Digipack CD of 'No Redemption Songs' and DVD with a film of Keith Pattison's black and white photographs of the 1984/5 Miner's Strike in Easington with original songs by Brenda Heslop, performed by Ribbon Road.

    Includes unlimited streaming of No Redemption Songs via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

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about

When the miners gathered together after the long Strike to take a vote on staying out or going back to work. There was no real choice and for many it would be the end of their working life – their ‘Last Paying Day’.

‘I think the hardest part was when it came off the telly about the men going back to work. God, that was awful that. I couldn’t talk to him. I was in floods’.

lyrics

LAST PAYING DAY

There’s a place inside where the mists roll down
where wrong isn’t right and a smile’s not a frown
it’s broken up and it’s all in bits
where the square hole isn’t where the round bit fits

And I’ve never been a one who doesn’t work hard
I’ve never been one to take it that far

But to do this to an innocent mind
is a shock to the system
and a blast to the blind
anything can happen if this is true
nothing’s gonna save us if this falls through

And I’ve never been a one not to work all day
I’ve never been one to turn away

But if it’s all they can offer, if it’s all they can do
I’ve seen it all, I’ve seen it through
all these men sitting in this room
it cuts like a knife through the morning gloom

There’s a place inside where the whistle blows
I get up in the morning ‘cos the cock still crows
I see to me pigeons and I see to the dog
but the kids are gone and the fishing rod

And I’ve never been a one for idle hands
I’ve never lived off of any other man
but if this is the deal, if this is the way
then I’ve seen my last paying day

There’s a place inside where everybody goes
where nobody cries, but they all know
what it is to be bullied, to be driven apart
it’s a place they used to call your heart

And I’ve never been a one not to give a hand
I’ve never been one not to understand

But we’re all sitting here black and blue
without any choice of what to do
they hold up their guns and we reach for the sky
everybody knows it’s do or die

And I’ve never been a one not to keep my word
I’ve never been one to make myself heard
but if this is the deal, if this is the way
then I’ve seen my last paying day
but if this is the deal, if this is the way
then I’ve seen my last paying day

credits

from No Redemption Songs, released August 23, 2014

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Ribbon Road image

Ribbon Road UK

Ribbon Road are:

Brenda Heslop
Geoff Heslop

For over 30 years, Brenda Heslop has been one of the undiscovered talents of songwriting. Only now is she starting to get the attention she has so long deserved, with singers taking up her lovely songs and spreading the word.
Geoff and Brenda now release material under the name Frank and Rose and have a separate Bandcamp page ... more

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