The little girl on the cover of my Liverpool 800 EP is celebrating her 50th birthday today.

Paula Neary was photographed at the Liverpool dockside by her father 45 years ago.

Her dad, Joe, from Kirkby, then pretty much forgot about the photograph for 43 years until the internet came along and he posted it on Flickr.

By coincidence, around that time I was looking for a suitable cover photograph for my Liverpool 800 EP, spotted it online, and loved Joe’s evocative snap.

So this one is for you Paula. Have a great day on your 50th birthday.

You may be based in Kent these days, but the image of you at the waterside 45 years ago adorns the record stores of Liverpool to this day.

Happy birthday!!

For those who’ve not booked your tickets yet to see me play support to Billy Bragg, there’s a special offer on.

The good folks at the WoW festival just sent me this so I’m passing it on to you.

£10 tickets now available for Billy Bragg playing at the Picket on Friday 22nd. Quote ‘WoW’ when contacting Philharmonic Hall Box Office (0151-709-37989).

Also on the bill are Attila The Stockbroker and David Rovics, so it promises to be a tremendous night.

See you there

You may remember that I flew to Belfast three weeks ago to play a gig at the Visteon factory canteen.

I was playing for the Ford Visteon Workers who were occupying the factory.

I felt deeply honoured and proud to be there, providing music to people who had been betrayed by their bosses and decided to fight back.

They had been given 6 minutes notice that they were being made redundant by Ford. But were getting no redundancy pay and no pensions.

BBC Northern Ireland has just produced a special on their plight. Please watch it.

This is the boss’s loyalty.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00kjbrc/Spotlight_Shutdown/

There’s a short 20 second animated bit at the start before the programme begins.

Thanks to Dan McCallister for letting me know about the programme.

Victory to the Visteon Workers – betrayed by Ford.

I just received this exciting news in about a rerun of the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists play. Read on…

6 actors from Liverpool will be travelling to Hastings to perform at a special festival celebrating the life of Robert Noonan, writer of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.

Before that, the actors will be performing their dramatic adaptation of the novel at North West venues, including the Kirby Unemployed Centre.

Noonan wrote “The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists” in the early 1900s, under the pseudonym of Robert Tressell. The book became a big success, especially amongst Trade Unionists and became known as the “Workers’ Bible” because of its powerful condemnation of the way working people were treated.

“Our adaptation was first performed last year for the Unions 08 celebration in Liverpool organised by the Liverpool PCS union,” writer of the piece, Tom Mclennan, relates. “It was a great success and members of the Tressell Society who had journeyed up to see it asked us to take it down to their annual festival in Hastings.”

Noonan had worked in Hastings as a house-painter and sign-writer and it is obvious that the “Muggsborough” of the novel is based on that South Coast resort.

Mark Ward, manager of the Kirby Unemployed Centre, was only too glad to book the show before it went down South.

“Many of the same challenging circumstances that Noonan wrote about are facing people now,” Mark believes. “Rising unemployment, a housing crises, a boom and bust economy, an economy driven by ruthless, cutthroat competition – it’s all there in “The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists” as well as a vision of another way of running our lives.”

Mark is particularly keen on attracting young people to the show at the centre, so that a new generation can experience the powerful message of the book.

“Don’t forget,” he concludes, “ Noonan is buried in Walton Cemetery so there’s a local Liverpool link to the personal life of the great man.”

The performance at Kirby Unemployed centre will be on Tuesday 30th June, 7.30pm. Other North West dates are:

* Mon 29th June, 7.30pm, The Casa, Hope St, Liverpool
* Wednesday 1st July, 7.30pm, The Met, Bury
* Thursday 2nd July, 7.30pm, Salford Arts Theatre
* Sat 4th July, 7.30pm, Concordia Hall, Church Road, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex.