Futureheads' Barry Hyde digs out personal coal mining link

BBC News

29-03-2025

The Futureheads' guitarist Barry Hyde has said he discovered his own tragic mining roots while working on his latest album.Hyde was commissioned by Sunderland City Council to create an album - Miner's Ballads - inspired by north-east England's mining heritage.He said he did not know a lot about the industry before starting to work on the project, but unexpectedly found out two of his relatives had been killed in a mining disaster."What I really learned from it was that, as much as not many people miss the mines, there was an amazing community and soulfulness around that job," Hyde said.
In preparation for the project he bought books with lyrics of folk songs and "started to dig into it from that side", rather than focusing just on the history."I was reading essentially poetry about the world of the collier," Hyde said.It was then he discovered he had a very personal connection to coal mining.
'Profound humanity'
In February 1882, a gas explosion at Trimdon Grange Colliery, near Durham, killed more than 70 miners.Hyde found he was related to two of them who were aged 12 and 14 when they died.The closing track of Miners' Ballads, an adaptation of a song by the "Pitman's Poet" Tommy Armstrong, is about the tragic event. Hyde, who runs the Peacock pub in Sunderland city centre, said: "It was hard for me to sing it because of the profound humanity of the lyrics, especially around looking after the orphans who lost their fathers.""God protect the lonely widow," the lyrics read."And raise each drooping head."Be a father to the orphans"Never let them cry for bread."Hyde said the high risk nature of the job brought communities together."It made people appreciate each other and appreciate getting your partner to come home at the end of the shift."And maybe we miss that in the modern world, although we don't want these dangerous jobs back. "
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