Singer Bruce Springsteen has been hailed as a “hero” following the revelation of a “life-saving” $20,000 donation to striking miners, which was brought to light in a recent BBC documentary.
During “When Bruce Springsteen Came To Britain”, it was revealed that the 75-year-old invited women from miners’ support groups to his 1985 show at Newcastle United’s St James’ Park stadium amid pit closures across the country.
Juliana Heron, who ran a support group of wives of miners faced with losing their jobs, joked in the feature that she was initially reluctant to attend the stadium as she supported Newcastle’s rivals, Sunderland, before her friend Anne Suddick was presented with the cheque.
She explained: “I got a phone call off Anne Suddick, she was the kingpin for the… support group, she says, ‘Juliana, do you fancy going to a concert?’, and I said, ‘what concert?’, she says, ‘it’s Bruce Springsteen’, I says, ‘well, who’s Bruce Springsteen?’.
“I say, ‘it’d be difficult for me to go in there as a lifelong supporter of Sunderland football club, I’ll cross myself when I go in’, but I’ve got to say, I’ll remember that day for the rest of my life.
“During the interval, this man tapped Anne on the shoulder, and he says, ‘could you please come and meet Bruce Springsteen?’, so she went in, and she was about half an hour anyway, she comes back, and she sits down.
“She says, ‘you’ll never believe this, look’, and she just handed this cheque that says 20,000 dollars, she says, ‘yes, it’s for the… support group in Northumberland off Bruce Springsteen’.
“I say, ‘wait, he doesn’t know us’, she says, ‘yes, but he knows what we’re doing’.
“He’s a hero to us, he didn’t do it for publicity. He did it because he wanted to do it, and that would have helped a great deal in the support groups.
“It was absolutely life-saving, it was life-saving.”
Speaking about his support for the miners, Springsteen said in the documentary: “My parents were working-class people, and I watched them struggle their whole lives.
“I’d been reading about it (the strike) in the newspapers, and so it was just something that felt it would be a good thing to do.
“It wasn’t a big thing, it was just a good thing to do at the time.”
Beginning his career in the 1960s, Springsteen has gone on to have 12 UK top 10 albums and four UK top 10 singles, he is best known for songs such as Born In The USA, Glory Days, Dancing In The Dark, and Born To Run.
The full programme, When Bruce Springsteen Came To Britain, will air on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer at 9.30pm on May 31.
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