When South Yorkshire’s Hatfield Main Colliery closed its doors for good, miners from the British countryside town banded together to record a Christmas song that could raise money for charity.
Retired miner Mick Lanagan and his group called Joe Solo & The Hatfield Brigade are already strong contenders to top the festive music charts, and each Merry Christmas from Hatfield Main single sold includes a donation to the Doncaster food banks.
“We’re in front of people like Take That, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, so it would mean the world to us to be Christmas number one,” Lanagan told The Mirror.
“The initial aim is that we are looking at the Doncaster food banks but if sales go well we’ve got coal communities in Wales, Scotland, Yorkshire, Kent … they all need help. If you buy this single, click share on Facebook, tweet it, it’s as good as a bag of shopping for our food banks. We know the next round of benefit cuts is going to make their queues even longer.
“In a country they keep telling us is the fifth wealthiest in the world to have people queuing up for a food bank, it’s an indictment on the country itself. We should be ashamed.”
Filmmaker Ken Loach is backing the song, which was recorded by families affected by the June 2016 shut down of the Colliery that featured in the hit movie Brassed Off.
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