So this is a new demo from yours truly. I should say ‘demo’ means it was recorded at home with minimal post-production and not in studio conditions. I just have a bundle of USB mics – one I point at my mouth and the other at my guitar – and then I sort of hope for the best. This does have some additional instruments that were added after the recording. I’ve been experimenting with atmospheric “pads” these are ambient drones which are made on synths and other digital
The song was inspired by listening to the BBC Radio4 programme “Redcar: Made in Steel” (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t5zp5) which addressed the closure of the steelworks on Teesside (where I was born and raised). I was drawn by a comment by a local writer Linda Robinson she described the steelworkers walking off the plant as the last “torpedoes” that came off the rails she remarked that one of the men didn’t cry, but there were little white lines that down his face. There’s another thread in the song which is about my generation (70s/80s) who were told by politicians to “get your bike” as seek a future elsewhere – without being too am-dram about it – It strikes me as being particularly cruel to see people as mere economic resources to be shunted around the country at the behest of an elite, who then discards those people when they are surplus to their requirements.
I found the footage of the closure on YouTube via “The Steelwerker” (love the spelling!) from a film no longer available called “The Last Cast” by Dene Films.