Durham miners have explained the gratitude they felt to Bruce Springsteen after he donated to their cause in the mid-’80s.
The Boss gave £16,000 to the Durham Miners’ Wives Support group in 1985, and the miners have today paid tribute to Springsteen in the new issue of Uncut (dated July 2013 and out now).
Dave Temple, then a miner and now a press officer at the Durham Miners’ Association, explains: “I went into the office and [Support Group chair] Anne Suddick said, ‘Bruce Springsteen’s just donated £16,000 to us.’
“And I said, ‘Who’s Bruce Springsteen?’ We had got desensitised – we were getting donations from all over.
“But it was a great thing that he did, and it did lift everybody’s spirits.”
You can read the full piece on Bruce Springsteen’s 40-year impact on the UK in the new issue of Uncut, out now.