Newcastle on the Tyne is Home to Me

~ jmchild

CHORUS
Newcastle you’re my city, I’m pleased to call you mine
Standing oh so pretty on the banks of Tyne
No matter where I should dare to travel land or sea
Newcastle on the Tyne is home to me
Newcastle on the Tyne is home to me

You’ve seen it on the telly when it went up in flames
Just because some young men were playing silly games
Stealing cars as they close the bars then baiting the police
They crashed and died and their parents cried
Still proud their sons were thieves

It’s got a transport system competitors would like
The only trouble with it, it’s dangerous at night
The metro cars as they close the bars aren’t the safest place to be
Now the boys in blue, to protect me and you
Can ride the metro free

Newcastle’s got a night life, just like London’s west
Plenty shows and disco’s, it’s up there with the best
Even the stars when they close the bars aren’t safe from attack by freaks
In an affray, Gazza they say
Was off the team for weeks

Credits : Recorded and Produced by Mick Sweeney at the Cluny Studio, Newcastle upon Tyne in April 1992.  Julia Mitford, Lead Vocals & Flute; Wilf Mitford, Guitar; Pamela Mitford, Violin.

As I mentioned in the Bonny Banks of Benwell post, there was a lot of news in the early 1990s about riots in Newcastle, and Dad was keen to point out some of the positives of the area where he once lived.  In contrast, in this song he leans into a range of different negative stories hitting the news such as issues with the Metro system at night and impacts of the increasingly popular Geordie nightlife in general.

A memorable one for Newcastle United fans would be football star Gazza’s attack in a Newcastle nightclub described in the Sunday Sun as “Gazza Agony”1.  A quick dig into the newspaper archives of the time sees the event described as a ‘farce’ and ‘pantomime’ after a mix of stories about what happened, no formal complaint from Gazza, and the nightclub issuing a reward for information2. 

Check out Dad’s celebration of Gazza The Geordie From Gateshead written when he was at the peak of his career

Late night revelling and transport no doubt continues to be a source of issues on Friday and Saturday nights, however these days we have things like Safe Newcastle and Women’s Streetwatch.

Sources

  1. Sunday Sun, Sun, Sep 29, 1991 ·Page 1-2 “Gazza Agony” (https://www.newspapers.com/image/906467807)  ↩︎
  2. Sunday Sun, Sun, Oct 06, 1991 ·Page 5 “Club boss puts up 1000 to catch hit man” (https://www.newspapers.com/image/906456433/ ↩︎

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