SPECTRAL visions of North East coal mining communities were exorcised through song in a unique Blackwood folk gig last week.

Touring act, the Pitmen Poets, played to a full house on Friday, January 8, at the Blackwood Miners Institute, reviving a mixture of traditional poems, stories and songs from Northumberland and Durham’s coal mining communities.

Ex-Lindisfarne writer / frontman Billy Mitchell, Bob Fox, Jez Lowe and Benny Graham are all veteran folk forces in their own right but their chemistry, humor and combined talents have to be seen to be believed.

Against the backdrop of archival footage and video, the four musicians took the audience on a narrative journey through the triumphs, tragedies and struggles of coal-mining communities.

Even if the poetry was a tactic to “keep the riff raff out” according to Billy Mitchell, the set list pays heavy tribute to the observations and satirical ditties of the "original Pitmen Poet", Tommy Armstrong.

From images of boot polish, tin baths and bustling markets to the bitter anger and violence of the miners strikes, the Pitmen Poets present history in a  tactile, poignant way that still resonates with ex-mining communities today.

With foot-stamping choruses, audience participation and the odd scatological joke, the show was a sublime experience and a concept-act that that gives mining communities the credence and memory that they deserve.