The Runaway Mine Train

Let us be clear from the top, because the internet rarely is. The Runaway Mine Train by Joseph Laurence is an original song, written from scratch, inspired by the Runaway Mine Train at Alton Towers. It is not the ride's soundtrack, not an official Alton Towers release and not connected to the park's own audio. It is one songwriter's love letter to a ride he has adored his whole life - turned into a piece of cinematic pop you can actually press play on.

So if you came looking for the music that plays on the coaster, this is not that. What it is, hopefully, is better: the feeling of the ride, bottled. The rattle of the track, the climb of the lift hill, the scream into the drop and the grin you cannot wipe off afterwards - all of it written into melody, chords and a chorus built to soar.

This one is pure joy. It started, like a lot of the best days do, at Alton Towers - the smell of the woods, summer queues that are somehow part of the fun, that first lift hill, and the roar as a coaster tears past the trees. The Runaway Mine Train has been a lifelong favourite, the kind of ride you love long before you can explain why, and this song is everything that ride makes me feel.

The picture came first, the song followed. The melody arrived the way the good ones tend to - uninvited, at the piano, refusing to leave - and from there it grew into a fully arranged world: big melodies, big drops and that golden-hour shimmer over the top. It is the sound of a perfect day out, and it is unashamedly, joyfully nostalgic.

It is an original Joseph Laurence song about a roller coaster - a real one, at a real park, made by someone who has been a fan of theme parks far longer than he has been a songwriter. There is more to come on that front. The Runaway Mine Train is the first word, not the last.

If you want the shorthand: this is sun-soaked, euphoric cinematic pop. Warm, widescreen and built to lift. It opens like the gates on a summer morning, climbs like a lift hill and then lets go - a chorus that drops with the same stomach-flip rush as the ride itself, melodies that ache a little under all the joy, and an ending that leaves you wanting to queue straight back up.

It is nostalgic without being twee, big without being cynical, and a little bit silly in the very best way. The kind of song that sounds like a perfect day you have already had and cannot wait to have again.

Here is the part I still cannot quite believe. After the single came out, Alton Towers themselves had it playing in the office.

"To my absolute delight, Alton Towers have had The Runaway Mine Train playing in their office. I wrote a song about a ride I have loved my whole life, and the people who look after that ride pressed play. I am not sure it gets much better than that."

It is not an official affiliation and the song was never commissioned by the park - it is simply a fan's song that found its way home. But for a piece written out of pure love for the place, having it heard inside Alton Towers itself is about the most golden-hour ending a story could ask for.

The Runaway Mine Train is out now. Press play on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music or SoundCloud - then turn it up, picture the lift hill, and ride.

If you would like to use the song in a video, film or project - including theme-park, fan POV and coaster edits - it is available to licence direct from the artist. Get in touch and we will sort it quickly.