A couple of weeks ago I accepted an invite to have a sneak preview of a brand new Liverpool venue that launches tomorrow and is open for business from Friday night onwards.

The venue is called The Brink and is located at the heart of Liverpool’s music scene, in trendy Parr Street. They are actively looking to make contact with musicians and promoters who want to stage events in their lovely gig space. (Contact details below.)

The Brink is an innovative new social venue in that they don’t serve alcohol. They believe that a great time is better fueled by people and their creative spirited energy.

What they do promise though are great quality food and drink.

To back that up they’ve gone out and hired Tom Gill as head chef. He was formerly head chef at the Everyman. So if you’re missing lunch at the Everyman since it closed, you now know where to eat instead.

I very rarely drink myself so this venue really appeals. Sometimes you just fancy a good night out in town that’s a bit off the beaten track yet still very central – and without all the aggro and leeriness that you often find where the ale is flowing.

It’s all WiFi enabled too, and is open throughout the day and into the early hours.

The Brink’s Damien Kelly told me: “The Brink is the perfect place for anyone who wants an experience of something a bit different. The Brink is for those who want all the fun and delights of a great night out but without drugs and alcohol in the mix. So join us for a big slurp of aliveness.”

The Brink is open for business from this weekend onwards. Go and check it out.

Also, musicians and promoters, give Damien a shout on 0151 703 0582 to chat things over. Or email him on damien DOT kelly AT thebrinkliverpool DOT com

It really is a lovely space and they have their own PA in house too.

For more about The Brink check out their website at http://thebrinkliverpool.com/

I had the fabbest day yesterday in Hope Street at The Hope Street Feast.

If you’ve never been before it’s the bestest thing. There’s so much weird and wonderful stuff going on as well as some great music too.

And Hope Street really does need celebrating in my view.

I started off with a full set on The Phil’s outdoor stage in Myrtle Street that was a joy to play. Thanks everyone for turning up and singing along.

Then came the biggest treat of all. After my set, I whizzed next door into the Philharmonic itself where Ian Prowse (of Amsterdam and Pele fame) had asked me to play a song with him during his set.

I’ve never played the Phil before – one of the few Liverpool venues I’ve not – so I was delighted to accept Ian’s offer.

We didn’t know what we were going to play yet of course. Ian suggested an old Billy Bragg rocking number, To Have And Have Not.

I’ve not played that since I was a stroppy teenager but there’s a compartment in my head labeled “Billy Bragg Songs”, so all I needed to do was open that and it all came flooding back.

A quick rehearsal back stage ten minutes before we went on stage and we nailed it.

The Phil itself was packed out which was brilliant. What a lovely venue it is. I always felt it would be a lovely place to settle down and play some music for people and I wasn’t wrong.

And then 1,2,3,4 – “Up in the morning and out to school, mother says there’ll be no work next year!!”

Joyous stuff. Great to have the teenage nostalgia mixed in too.

And you know what the hardest part about singing Billy’s songs is? Not drifting into a cockney accent. It took me all my Scouseness to sing in my own voice and avoid yelling “Ap in the morrrrnin an ahhht to school.”

I managed it though. A great day.

(Thanks to my namesake Sue Parry who was sat in the front row and took the snap on her phone.)

I’ll be appearing on the After 8 stage run by The Phil’s Rodewald Suite at The Hope Street Feast on Sunday 18th September.

As ever, it’s a great line up with the likes of Amsterdam’s Ian Prowse and Groundpig’s John O’Connell playing the same stage during the day.

You can catch my set at 2.45pm, and the stage itself is in Myrtle Street.

If you look in the publicity it doesn’t name me, it just has Special Guest. Which makes me feel all super important hehe. I might even wear shades.

Oh alright then, I won’t. But I will have a great time, so come and join me.

Letter To Kathleen Demo by alunparry

Robert Tressell, the author of Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, died in Liverpool a hundred years ago.

This song, Letter To Kathleen, is my response to an email I received from Kate Richardson.

Kate is Vice President and human dynamo of the Manchester Trades Council.

Her email contained Robert’s last letter to his daughter Kathleen, which I’ve copied at the foot of this post.

Robert raised Kathleen alone and they were especially close. When Robert had to leave her with her aunt while he attempted to raise the money in Liverpool for two tickets to Canada, it caused him great pain to be parted from Kathleen.

Neither of them knew the parting would be forever.

Kate recently contacted me asking me for a more usable version of the song as she is addressing a Tressell conference in his home town of Hastings on 20 September. She only had the live version that I sung at Stuart Borthwick’s lecture on Tressell in April and the sound quality was iffy.

So I’ve done a rough demo of Letter To Kathleen and I thought I’d let you have a listen too.

And now the letter itself:

August 1910

I feel so unhappy being away from you and miss you more than I can say. It makes me very miserable to think of all you used to do for me and of how unkind and irritable I often was in return and although I know that you always made allowances for the worry that caused me to be like that, I cannot forgive myself and try in vain to comfort myself with the thought that you know I never meant to be unkind and that you know I love you more than anything else in the world.

I have thought of nothing but you since I lost sight of you on the platform and the world seems a dreary place to me because you are not here. I cannot write down here all that I feel and want to say to you but if it were true that circumstances compelled us to live apart from each other permanently – then I would much prefer not to continue to live at all….

Je vous aime toujours

Dad

Letter To Kathleen Demo by alunparry

I know it’s over 3 weeks until the next Woody Guthrie Folk Club but already more than half the tickets have been sold.

The next one is on Thursday 29th September 2011 at The Ship & Mitre.

Book your tickets now to avoid disappointment at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/125479