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

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

This one is off topic in terms of music, but I’m involved in a social history project surrounding Liverpool Football Club.

I’m wanting your photos (and vids if you have them) that relate to supporting Liverpool Football Club in the 1960s.

You can upload any pictures and files by clicking the link here and using the password 60skop

I’m also wanting your stories, so if you were following LFC in the 60s drop me a line at my contact page here.

Also, if you’d prefer to get in touch personally than use the uploader, just drop me a line at my contact page here.

Thanks very much for all your help.

If you missed my interview yesterday morning regarding the struggle of the Dirty Thirty during the Miners Strike you can click the link below to listen in to myself and author David Bell whose book inspired my song.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00f2ssy/Ben_Jackson_07_03_2011/

Just slide along to 1hr 23mins and 38secs (or thereabouts!) and you can hear the interviews and a bit of the song.

You can read the full BBC Website report into the story too. That’s here -> http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/leicester/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9416000/9416878.stm
Here’s the song itself in full: