A hard-hitting new musical show about the miners' strike is to be performed to mark its 30th anniversary.

We're Not Going Back was written by Boff Whalley, guitarist for now-disbanded radical band Chumbawamba.

The play was commissioned by the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside region of general union Unite and will be performed by Leeds-based theatre group Red Ladder.

But the union is desperately seeking sponsors so that the play can tour the country.

The show follows the fortunes of three sisters living in a pit village during the strike as they become determined to set up a Women Against Pit Closures (WAPC) group.

Mr Whalley said: "Thirty years ago I was part of a miners' strike support group in Armley, Leeds. It was a strange time - there was a real sense of 'taking stock' of what my politics were. That year of the strike changed a lot of my ideas."

Chumbawamba toured with two other bands raising funds for the strike.

"For me, the strongest part - the heart - of the miners' strike was the family support, specifically the women, the Women Against Pit Closures," Mr Whalley added.

He decided the show should be about the role of women in the strike, and recently attended a reunion of a Leeds WAPC group.

"It was an incredible evening. Despite the strike's outcome, all the hardship and poverty, the main memory of that year for the women was of laughter, fun and surprise - a big adventure," he said.

"How to take on the machinery of the capitalist state; and have a good time doing it. I knew this feeling had to be the underlying belly of the play."

Unite regional secretary Karen Reay said the show could be "rolled out across the country," and could target venues such as schools and colleges "or any venue where this story can be told and will resonate with all our members and activists and their families."

All donations should go to Unite the Union, 55 Call Lane, Leeds LS1 7BW.