Talking Grunwick
This 'talking blues' number concerns the two-year strike at Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories in north London, where there were frequent clashes between strikers and the police, and which saw the state mobilise its forces against the workers in a precursor to the Miners' Strike of 1984-5. In the middle of the dispute, a film was made by the Newsreel Collective, Stand Together, which went out over the summer of 1977 and to which Leon contributed this song.
"Talking Grunwick" focuses mainly on the company's owner, George Ward, portraying him as a "tinpot tyrant" who lives a life of luxury off the backs of his long-suffering workforce. Although the film was released in 1977, the song has not been otherwise recorded, and when included in Leon's 1981 songbook, For the Good of the Nation, it included a final verse, "Now the strike is over...". Since the dispute was in full swing at the time of the film, we must suppose that this section was appended after the event.
Neither the film nor the recording of the song appear to have ever been made available commercially.
"Talking Grunwick" focuses mainly on the company's owner, George Ward, portraying him as a "tinpot tyrant" who lives a life of luxury off the backs of his long-suffering workforce. Although the film was released in 1977, the song has not been otherwise recorded, and when included in Leon's 1981 songbook, For the Good of the Nation, it included a final verse, "Now the strike is over...". Since the dispute was in full swing at the time of the film, we must suppose that this section was appended after the event.
Neither the film nor the recording of the song appear to have ever been made available commercially.