When Lindisfarne backed the miners, and almost got a crate of beer out of it

North East music legend Ray Laidlaw has relived the days of Lindisfarne in 1984 - and why they were right behind the strike.

Lindisfarne - the band which had hits such as Fog On The Tyne, Run For Home and Meet Me On The Corner - also produced a song for the miners.

It was called Heroes and was composed by band member Alan Hull.

But the whole band supported the strike and Ray said: "My grandad was a miner and lots of my friends' relations had been in the pits. We felt a sense of solidarity.

"We were travelling and doing gigs and the motorways were being closed. We were stopped a number of times."

It was Alan Hull who came up with the song in support of the miners and Ray said: "Alan could just turn up with his guitar anywhere. He did a lot more than we did but we were fully in support of it."

He recalled once incident when the band was in a pub in Kent.

"It was a countryside pub and the bloke in the bar kept looking at us. Someone went to the bar and he said 'are you lads pickets?'

"As we were leaving, he said 'are you sure you lads are not pickets. Because if you were, I would have given you a crate of beer."

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