OK its Sunday, its raining and theres nowt on the television

How about having a look at this, I'm sure Mr C will approve.

Its called "The Price of Coal" written by Barry Hines and directed by Ken Loach (Kes) and its a two part drama set in Barnsley in 1976.

I didnt realise it was available on Youtube and last night was the first time I'd seen it since it was originally shown on TV. I had great fun translating some of the dialogue into English for my Missus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDpBuFqWeSs

Enjoy

PS Watching the grittier second part this evening.

 

Cheers for that Turvey, will watch it later.

 

I've got the box set Ken Loach, Ken Loach at the BBC. It has Price of Coal and 10-11 other films, Cathy Come Home etc. Great vlaue at less than £20.

 

Theres a scene, if I remember rightly where they paint the grass green for a dignitaries visit...this is true... not poetic license,I delivered to Prince of Wales Colliery in Pontefract and they'd cleaned the place up like an operating theatre, whitewashing kerbs, total repaint of the buildings etc..and it is true they had really painted the grass green for a visit by Prince Charles...can't remember what year though.

 

Can remember a visit to our colliery in the seventies not sure who it was but must have been pretty important, manager had us whitewashing the coal that wasn't covered by corrugated tins behind the girders

 

the whole film about the royal visit was based on the royal visit to silverwood colliery,its filmed at Thorpe hesley pit.

 

The young lad in that is called hadyn conway, who I mated about with occasionally when we were kids. Some of the other kids in street football scene were also my mates, but I missed out because we were on holiday.

Hadyn later went on to be a guitarist in one of the later incarnations of Saxon.

 

hayden still plays with OliverDawson Saxon.

 

Thanks Turvey, that's my late night viewing sorted.

 

Yep that's correct and the second part the explosion was based on the Houghton Main disaster of 1975

 

it is mate,and I have a copy of the mines inspectorate report into the Houghton disaster,i did a study on it when I was on HND at the tech.

 

here he is now.

 

Not seen him since i was about 18, he's not changed a bit!

 

Thought he'd be able to afford a decent guitar.
Hadyn went to Kirk Balk, a few years ahead of me. He was in the Gamekeeper too, another Ken Loach film for the BBC, filmed around Stainborough Park around the same time, late 70s.

 

hayden and graham oliver are both endorsed by vintage,which is distributed out of leeds as far as I know.A lot of 'northern guitarists' get these endorsments.
that one that hayden has in the picture is the one based on peter greens les paul,the one with the out of phase sound.It gets very good reviews and Geoff whitehorn in particular gives it a lot of credit,
hayden used to play on the club circuit with 'TEASER' for quite a few years,but has been playing with graham oliver and steve dawson for a long time now,probably 20 years or more,i'm not quite sure.Rest assured,he can afford a proper guitar,i've seen him with les pauls,flying 'v's,all gibsons,not cheap copies aswell as high end jacksons.
if you are ever up here they do a jam night at Mexborough athletic club run by colin who's the lead singer with wizz kids,Oliver dawson saxon members regularly attend,everyone is real easy going and they always accommodate musicians of any level,they are there to keep music live.

my mate(another musician,bass player) was in both the price of coal and the gamekeeper,he was an ncb apprentice fitter and the production team used Barnsley tech for quite a few parts.

 

no it was not

it was actually filmed at Skiers Pit.... the working mens club was the "top Club" in Hoyland. Barry Hines lived at Hoyland Common and taught at Kirk Balk. My Mother was the School secretary at the time, she typed up all of Barry's manuscripts ready for the publishers etc.

Skiers is now no more sadly.... but the remains of the Hall that young Casper climbed for his kestrel chick still stands... its on the edge of the Bell wood near Tankersley Golf course.... can be seen well from the M1.

If you remember the scene in Kes where the kid is loaded up with all the bad boys fags.... a similar scene actually did happen in Kirk Balk, the headmaster was MR Robey. The kid had been sent to him to show his excellent work by Mr Marsh, Mr Robey just assumed he had been sent for mis behaving and gave him six of the best.... "Boggy" Marsh raced up to his office after the tearful child had returned, to complain... all that Robey said was.... "oh Well its character building" and went about his business. Barry Hines saw the humorous side of it all and worked into KES.

 

Re: no it was not

the pit top scenes in kes where you see the men getting on and off the cage were filmed at wharncliffe woodmoor.my mate is dave glover(the lad who gets sent off in the football match),I asked him where the pit top scenes were filmed.
at skiers spring the men travelled underground down a drift on a paddy,not by shaft.

the price of coal pit top scenes where you see the lads getting on the chair were filmed at Thorpe hesley pit.

 

they must have used both pits then

I know for sure that Skiers was used for some of the location shots at least. Kes too had many S.Yorks locations too.... yet when cobbled together it all was supposed to be just one village.

 

Re: no it was not

I've not watched it yet but I seem to recall Omi's in it somewhere (he can get weer watter can't)

 

Re: they must have used both pits then

http://www.filminglocationsdetectives.com/films/kes.htm