Cause For Complaint – Lyrics

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