The dispute led to civil discord politically, socially, and in violent confrontations between trade union pickets and the United Kingdom's police forces in the affected areas.

This was one of the most divisive and bitter civic conflicts in Britain in the 20th Century, and its societal and economic impact on the working class coal-mining based communities in Wales, across the English Midlands and the North was severe.

[2] These strands came together in "Red Hill Mining Town", a rough version of which was worked up during the early Joshua Tree album writing sessions in late 1985.

[2] During recording, Bono was displeased with an early vocal take and wondered why his voice made him sound "like a rich man with pound notes stuffed in his pockets when it's a song about unemployment".

"[6] For the 30th anniversary reissue of The Joshua Tree in 2017, new mixes of several songs were created, including "Red Hill Mining Town".

The 2017 mix of the song was worked on using stems from the original recording; the band and Lillywhite communicated over e-mail, as the producer was residing in Indonesia.

[6] Other changes for the new mix were complicated by audio spill; U2 had recorded the song as a single studio performance, resulting in the drums leaking onto the track for the bass guitar amplifier.

Bono, believing he could sing the song better and with more sincerity, told Lillywhite, "I hate the singer", and subsequently re-recorded his vocals for the verses.

While Bono had clear ideas on how he wanted it to sound during The Joshua Tree sessions, Mullen recalls that the rest of the band and production crew were "[not] sure where he was going with it.

He said the blocked harmonies show the band "striving too ambitiously and conventionally for effect" and likened the song to a "scarf-waving variant of 'Sailing' written for the National Union of Mineworkers".

[4] Niall Stokes said that the song "capture[ed] eloquently [...] the sense of doom that surrounded the death of the small close-knit mining communities".