"Blaydon Races" ( Roud #3511) is a

Geordie Geordie () is a nickname for a person from the Tyneside area of North East England, and the dialect used by its inhabitants, also known in linguistics as Tyneside English or Newcastle English. There are different definitions of what constitute ...

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

written in the 19th century by Geordie Ridley, in a style deriving from

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Br ...

. It is frequently sung by supporters of Newcastle United Football Club, Newcastle Falcons rugby club, and Durham County Cricket Club.

Blaydon Blaydon is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, and historically in County Durham. Blaydon, and neighbouring Winlaton, which Blaydon is now contiguous with, form the postal town of Blaydon-on-Tyne. The Blay ...

is a small town in

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Millennium Bridge, The Sage, and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary ...

, situated about from

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

, in

North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary author ...

. The race used to take place on the Stella Haugh west of Blaydon. Stella South Power Station (demolished in 1995) was built on the site of the track in the early 1950s, after the races had stopped taking place in 1916.

Lyrics

Blaydon Races Picture by William Irving at the Shipley Aret Gallery

The song is quoted from the author's manuscript in Allan's as follows: \relative c'' Tune: "Brighton".

History

Ridley sang the song at a concert in

Balmbra's Music Hall Balmbra's Music Hall was an early Music Hall in the centre of Newcastle, England, in the middle of the 19th century. In about 1848 a first floor room of the Wheatsheaf Public House at 6 Cloth Market, Newcastle, was opened and in later advertisem ...

on 5 June 1862. It is likely that on this occasion the song ended with the exhortation to see Ridley's show on 9 June, and that the final verse was added for that later performance. Although the account of the trip to Blaydon is a fiction, the heavy rain and missing cuddy (horses) were reported in the local press.

Places mentioned

"Scotswood Road" was and still is a long road parallel to the left bank of the river Tyne, running westwards from Newcastle city to

Benwell and Scotswood Benwell and Scotswood is an electoral ward of Newcastle upon Tyne in North East England. The ward encompasses the Benwell and Scotswood housing areas, as well as the Newcastle Business Park, which is located on the banks of the River Tyne and ...

, and which at the time of the song ran through industrial and working-class areas. " Airmstrang's

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. ...

" was a large engineering works at Elswick, which made large guns and other firearms. The "Robin Adair" was a pub on Scotswood Road which has since been demolished.

Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in para ...

is a reference to the small village which stood where the Vickers now stands.

150th anniversary campaign

In December 2010 an online petition was launched calling for "...a clear and sustained commitment on the part of Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead Councils to work hand-in-hand with the Geordie people...to help deliver an appropriate celebration of the 150th anniversary of Mr George Ridley's world-famous anthem of Tyneside." On 9 November 2011,

Chi Onwurah Chinyelu Susan Onwurah (born 12 April 1965) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne Central since 2010. She was shadow minister for Industrial Strategy, Science and Innovation ...

MP presented a parliamentary petition to the Speaker of the House of Commons in support of the campaign. From August 2011, campaign group members were in discussions with the two councils. As a result of these discussions, the core campaign objective of delivering an on-street event on the actual anniversary of 9 June 2012 was achieved. A series of additional "satellite" events were also organised including a week-long beer festival at The Hotspur pub, Percy Street, Newcastle upon Tyne on the night of 9 June 2012.

Modern race

The

Blaydon Race The Blaydon Race is a athletics race from Newcastle upon Tyne to Blaydon, in England, that is steeped in local tradition. It takes place on 9 June every year and starts off with the singing of the "Blaydon Races" -- with the words as the basis ...

is a 5.9-mile athletics race from Newcastle to Blaydon that takes place on 9 June every year and starts off with the singing of 'The Blaydon Races', as the words are used as the basis for the whole race.

Other uses

* "Blaydon Races" is often used as a chant by supporters of Newcastle United Football Club. * The song was adopted as its marching anthem by the British Army Infantry soldiers of the Fifth of Foot ( The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers), of Fenham Barracks, Newcastle upon Tyne. Today it is the Regimental Song of The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, the modern descendants of The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. * In November 2009 a charity version of 'Blaydon Races' was recorded by Jimmy Nail, Kevin Whately and Tim Healy, from the cast of '' Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'', in aid of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, featuring an additional verse about him. * William Irving's 1903 painting. 'The Blaydon Races – A Study from Life' is on show at the Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead. The painting depicts the fairground festivities associated with the race.

Recordings

* ''The Friends of Fiddler's Green'' on ''The Road to Mandalay'', 1994 * Bob Davenport and The Marsden Rattlers, released in 1971 on "BBC's Folk on 2 presents Northumbrian Folk" (BBC Records REC 118S P, UK, 1971 * In the opening scenes of '' The Lone Ranger'' (2013) the song playing in the background on an organ is "The Blaydon Races"

Notes

External links

Blaydon Races 1962 Centenary
{{Newcastle United F.C. English folk songs Football songs and chants Songs related to Newcastle upon Tyne 1862 songs Northumbrian folklore Scotswood