My radio ballad Tressell And Me is being broadcast on Preston FM this Friday (6 Jan).

It will feature in the popular 7pm show Best Kept Secrets presented by Paul and Lucy Breeze.

You can hear Preston FM on 103.2FM in the Preston area or worldwide over the internet by going to http://www.preston.fm/ and clicking on “listen live”.

I’d like to thank Paul and Lucy and Preston FM for sharing the radio ballad with a wider audience.

I am actively encouraging others to do the same, so please contact me with any ideas.

I have produced a radio ballad exploring the socialist ideas within the book The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.

I hope that you enjoy it, that you share it, and that it helps spread socialist ideas in a way that is easy to understand.

I would love for it to become a well used resource within the labour movement – that’s my main hope for it. Enjoy!

Listen here:

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Download it here (right click and choose Save As)

Or find it on iTunes at http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/alunparry/id492465811

My mate Stephanie Power is making a film for the TUC for the November 30th actions.

And she needs YOU to be in it. Please pass this message on to others who’d be interested too.

Here’s the details from Steph herself, so get in touch with her direct if you fancy it:

I’m making a film for the TUC nationally, for their day of action against cuts to public sector pensions on November 30th.

The film will be about 2 minutes long and is scripted.

I am looking for a wide range of public sector workers – from the NHS, schools, museums and galleries, civil servants etc – to read the lines from the script.

I’m trying to find about 18 people to read two lines each.

I’m looking for men and women and people from different ethnic minority backgrounds.

Although we are filming in Liverpool, the film also needs to represent peopel from around the country, so I’m also looking for people who aren’t just from the city. (Not asking much am I!)

We will be filming on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th November at the A Foundation in Liverpool near Cains Brewery.

Filming shouldn’t take more than twenty minutes for each person.

On the 3rd, we will be filming til about 10pm. If you could pass this round to anyone who might be interested and able to take part, that would be great.

The film will be used as part of the TUC’s campaign materials in the run up to November 30th.
My contact details are stephanie@powerproductions.org.uk or 07793 459035

I was shocked and surprised to see press releases and facebook event pages saying that I am playing an “anti riot rally” concert on Friday night!

I want to make it clear that I am absolutely not.

I have not even been asked to play this event so am puzzled how I ended up on the bill without my consent.

Moreover, if I had have been asked to play, I would have declined.

I know and like the people who are organising this event but, personalities aside, I think this concert is politically simplistic and serves no useful purpose.

I’m more concerned at the underlying social issues that led to the events of this week and I think there are far more complex factors at work.

The riots may have stopped for now. The inequality, greed and alienation at the heart of our society goes on unchallenged.

So to clarify – I don’t support this concert and I am NOT playing it.

Once I find out how I ended up on the bill, I’ll let you know.

UPDATE (Fri):

I’ve been told it’s a communication problem that led me to being on the bill. It strikes me that the problem might be that the main guy who runs Liverpool Acoustic isn’t directly involved with this.

I’ve asked the person who is running this “rally” directly why I ended up on the bill, so will let you know when I get an answer.

However, some of my followers are curious as to why I’m listed as Attending on its Facebook event page. After all, that makes me look like I’m supporting this event too doesn’t it?

Well I can explain that one, but I’m not happy about that either.

LA had organised a gig tonight as part of its normal schedule and I was going to that. That was pulled earlier in the week.

It would appear that Liverpool Acoustic’s organisers have simply altered the details from that gig and left any attendees in place.

This is a real breach of trust. I click to say I’m Attending a straightforward night of music and the next thing I’m listed without my consent as attending an anti riot rally being staged in a top floor art gallery.

This is a new event. A new event should have been set up and circulated, rather than invite me on one pretext, and then change every detail so it looks like I’m attending and supporting something entirely different.

I want to close by saying that Liverpool Acoustic have done wonderful things and are an invaluable part of Liverpool’s music scene and have helped countless acoustic musicians and promoters, and will continue to do so in the future. I really respect them and the work that they do and have a longstanding friendship with them.

Yet I do think they have made a huge error of judgement in putting their name to this event.

I also think the individual event organiser (who is NOT the same person who organised the original gig by the way) is out of order in taking that event and merely changing its details, and that Liverpool Acoustic need to delete that event page completely.

UPDATE (Fri PM):

While still unclear how I ended up on the bill for this, I’ve received an apology from the folks at LA and they assure me that they’ve learned lessons as well as going out of their way to put the record straight.

As I said before, the folks at Liverpool Acoustic do great work on the local acoustic scene, I respect the work they do, and consider them friends. That remains the case.

I still think this gig is ill advised, but given that I’ve made you all aware of the facts, and given that the gang at LA have done their best to make amends, I consider it the end of the matter.

Peace.

On Monday (August 15th) I’ll be singing as part of the Liverpool Bloody Tuesday Commemoration.

This is the 100th anniversary of the day that two unarmed Liverpool men were shot dead by soldiers on Vauxhall Road during the 1911 Transport Strike.

The soldiers had been sent onto the streets to help put down the strike by Winston Churchill. Five days later, two more civilians were killed by troops in Llanelli.

These are the last occasions in history when British soldiers have killed civilians on the streets of mainland Britain.

As with Bloody Sunday, Churchill and the government whitewashed the whole thing.

This event is aimed at restoring to public memory the names of the two men killed, John W. Sutcliffe and Michael Prendergast.

It may also serve as a reminder to those calling for troops to be sent onto the streets today.

I will be singing as part of the ceremony, as will Ian Prowse from the Liverpool band Amsterdam.

MEET AT THE ELDONIAN VILLAGE HALL, VAUXHALL ROAD, LIVERPOOL, AT 11AM, MONDAY 15 AUGUST 2011.

TO BE FOLLOWED BY LAYING OF WREATHS AT THE SHOOTING SITES AND AT FORD CEMETERY