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