The Charge (2005 Remaster)

Our history speaks in thunder from a thousand village halls
In blood and sweat and sacrifice in honouring every call
So the forces gather against the thorn a-piercing in the side
A brave new world is beckoning so the older world must die
In the offices of the city at all the tables of oak and power
The snares are laid and baited for the approaching of the hour
A hundred justifications and the presses are ready to roll
The gateways to the nation they are firmly under control
On! On! On! Cried the leaders at the back
We were galloping down the blackened hills and into the gaping trap
The bridges are burned behind us and there's waiting guns ahead
Into the valley of death rode the brave hundreds
We called for some assistance from the friends that we had known
But this is the 1980s and we were on our own
We never felt like heroes or martyrs to a cause
Just battle-weary soldiers in a bloody civil war
On! On! On! Cried the leaders at the back
We were galloping down the blackened hills and into the gaping trap
The bridges are burned behind us and there's waiting guns ahead
Into the valley of death rode the brave hundreds
The massacre now is over and the order new enshrined
While a quarter of the nation are abandoned far behind
The leaders utter the clichéd words so righteous in defeat
But no-one needs morality when there isn't enough to eat
The unity bond is broken and the loyalty songs are fake
I'd screw my only brother for even a glimpse of the piece of the cake
We only cry in private here behind the shuttered glass
When we think of the charge of this brigade the severing of the past
On! On! On! Cried the leaders at the back
We were galloping down the blackened hills and into the gaping trap
The bridges are burned behind us and there's waiting guns ahead
Into the valley of death rode the brave hundreds
On! On! On! Cried the leaders at the back
We were galloping down the blackened hills and into the gaping trap
The bridges are burned behind us and there's waiting guns ahead
Into the valley of death rode the brave hundreds
On! On! On! Cried the leaders at the back
We were galloping down the blackened hills and into the gaping trap
The bridges are burned behind us and there's waiting guns ahead
Into the valley of death rode the brave thousands