"And I'll tell you, honestly, I will love it if we beat them. Love it.
"But it really has got to me. I've voiced it live, not in front of the press or anywhere. I'm not even going to the press conference. But the battle is still on and Man United have not won this yet."
Newcastle United’s Manager, Kevin Keegan - 29th April 1996 (Manchester United went on to win the title by four points)
I wrote of visits to the grand Victorian theatres in Newcastle in several pieces in the past. However, I recently saw a new production in one of Newcastle's younger and more intimate theatres.
The ‘Live Theatre’ was set up fifty years ago to serve and represent working-class communities. It was initially a touring theatre company performing in venues across Northeast England. Then ten years later, the company assumed permanent residence in the historic almshouses, warehouse, and courtyard on the redeveloping Newcastle Quayside.
The theatre now focuses primarily on fresh writing. Over the past decades offering for the first time to the public, many productions hailed in the northeast. More than that, some productions have gone to London's West End and Broadway. Such plays and musicals include 'The Pitmen Painters', 'And a Nightingale Sang in Eldon Square' and 'Cooking with Elvis'.
My first visit to the ‘Live Theatre’ was to see 'Love It If We Beat Them', a play by Rob Ward that explores the themes of power, principle, and the Labour movement. It's set in 1996 and has as its backdrop the infamous season that saw Newcastle United fail to secure the Premier League title despite being 10 points clear at Christmas. The play tells the story of Len, a long-term, hard-left activist who has decided to run as a candidate for local Labour MP. However, the arrival of Victoria, a New Labour frontrunner from Manchester, throws a spanner in the works. With clashing loyalties and tensions reaching a fever pitch, who will be the winner goes down to an explosive head-to-head challenge.
The play asks the question: what is power without principle? And what are principles without power? And it does so by being funny, moving, and thought-provoking, offering a unique perspective on a pivotal moment in British history.
It was an excellent production by all involved, and it offered parallels with other plays based on the people of northeast England, such as 'The Pitman Painters' and 'Close the Coalhouse Door'.
'The Pitmen Painters' is a moving and inspiring play by Lee Hall based on the 'Ashington Group' of painters. A Pitman is a name given to a coalminer in northeast England (the mine was 'The Pit' - an apt term that reflects the dark and claustrophobic environment of those whose working lives were deep underground). In the 1930s, a group of Pitmen from the mining town of Ashington, encouraged by Robert Lyon, a local teacher, started painting. Lyon believed that through Art, these men could explore their creativity and express themselves. I saw the play at the National Theatre in London some years ago and enjoyed its authenticity and humour. However, I suspect the actors toned down the Geordie accents, from those in the earlier Live Theatre performances, for audiences in the south of England and beyond. Nevertheless, the play is faithful to those of England's Northeast and an insightful exploration of class, education, and the power of Art to transform lives.
'Close the Coalhouse Door' is a play (that I mention in my piece 'Aberfan' of a couple of years ago) by Alan Plater based on the short stories of Sid Chaplin (who, before becoming a writer, worked as a pitman). First performed in 1968, this powerful and moving play is set in a mining community in the Northeast of England. It explores the lives of Pitmen and their families as they struggle to make ends meet in the face of declining coal production and a changing economic landscape. Alex Glasgow, the son of a northeast Pitman, wrote the song, which inspired the play, just before the Aberfan disaster of 1966. Glasgow added a powerful 'bairns' (northeast – and Scottish term – for children) verse to the song after Aberfan. While the play is a story of struggle, hardship, and resilience, it also explores the themes of class, community, and family.
I first saw a broadcast of the play on TV in 1969 as part of the BBC's 'Wednesday Play series. I've since seen it performed on stage several times. On the last occasion at the Oxford Playhouse a few years ago. Before the performance, some audience members took advantage of the cafe bar. Tucking into quiche, goat's cheese sandwiches and other such delicacies while quaffing chilled dry white wine. I couldn't help but chuckle at what my grandfather and fellow Pitmen might have made of that.
A coalhouse was the northeast England name for a brick-built outbuilding used to store coal. Sometimes adjoining an outside toilet (a netty). Coalhouses were a common feature of the terraced houses that formed the mining towns of England's northeast. The one we had at the terraced house where I lived until my late teenage years stood around two metres high and a metre square in our front yard. I’m pleased to add that the house benefitted from an inside toilet.
Our coalhouse was typical in that it had a street-facing hatch around one and a half metres from the ground through which 'The Delivery Coalmen' would empty sacks of coal. The coal was then taken for heating and cooking through a door on the other side of the coalhouse facing into our yard. Coal is no longer the fuel of many, if any. Yet, interestingly local delivery people still refer to the outbuilding I have at my present home as the 'coalhouse' whenever they leave me a note telling me where they’ve left things when I'm out.
As a boy, I marvelled at the strength of the coalmen as I watched them lift sacks of coal, from the open back of the coal lorry, onto their shoulders and then heave the contents into the coalhouse. A sack weighed around 8 Stone (50 Kg), so coalmen had to be strong. But constantly lifting such weight (they would typically deliver 10 tons of coal a day to people's homes) took its toll, and many suffered chronic back problems over time. To offer meagre protection, some wore flat caps with a broad flap at the back that hung over their neck and shoulders.
While plays such as I've described don't offer a whimsical escape from everyday life and thus may not be to everyone's taste, they are also not just anguished portrayals of things of the past. And they are not just of the northeast or coal mining. Instead, they offer truisms of the working life of many today, with their daily struggles and disappointments but also of their hope and endeavour.
Well-written, directed and performed plays such as these are emotionally powerful. At times they might make us sad and even cry. But they can also let us smile or even laugh. But most of all, they make us think.
And to go back to the title of this piece. If NUFC win their last two games of the Premier League season, they will finish above Manchester United for the first time in nearly 50 years.
But I'm not counting my chickens. I saw my first game at NUFC's St James' Park some fifty-six years ago and have followed them through thick and mostly thin. I am too aware that they take the scenic route to success. Having said that... I will love it if we beat them. Love it.
I enjoy entertainment that isn't just " empty calories / junk food or fast food for the mind ". I keep my TV on to provide white noise & as an extra light source in my apartment. Any form of entertainment that reaches me on a really emotional level or teaches a lesson is 24 kt. gold or platinum.