[Verse 1]
5:15 AM
Snow laying all around
A collier cycles home
From his night shift underground
Past the silent pub
Primary school, workingmen's club
On the road from the pithead
The churchyard packed with mining dead

[Verse 2]
Then beneath the bridge
He comes to a giant car
A shroud of snow upon the roof
A Mark X Jaguar
He thought the man was fast asleep
Silent, still and deep
Both dead and cold
Shot through with bullet holes

[Chorus]
The one-armed bandit man
Came north to fill his boots
Came up from Cockneyland
E-type jags and flashy suits
Put your money in
Pull the levers
Watch them spin
Cash cows in all the pubs
But he preferred the new nightclubs
[Verse 3]
Nineteen sixty-seven
Bandit men in Birdcage heaven
La dolce vita, sixty-nine
All new to people of the Tyne, oh

[Verse 4]
Who knows who did what
Somebody made a call
They said his hands were in the pot
That he'd been skimming hauls
He picks up the swag
They gaily gave away
Drives his giant jag
Off to his big pay day

[Chorus]
Oh, the bandit man
Came north to fill his boots
Came up from Cockneyland
E-type jags and flashy suits
Yeah, the bandit man
Came up the Great North Road
Up to Geordieland
To mine
The mother lode
[Verse 5]
Seams blew up or cracked
Black diamonds came hard-won
Generations toiled and hacked
For a pittance and black lung
Crushed by tub or stone
Together and alone
How the young and old
Paid the price of coal

[Verse 6]
Eighteen sixty-seven
My angel's gone to heaven
He'll be happy there
Sunlight and sweet clean air, ah

[Bridge]
They gather round the glass
Tough hewers and crutters
Child trappers and putters
The little foals and half-marrows
Who pushed and pulled the barrows
The hod boys and the rolleywaymen

[Outro]
5:15 AM