Alun Parry has recently added the following shows.

May 14, 2010 - Derby, ML - Bradley Nook Farm
Address: Bradley, Hulland Ward, Derbyshire - Map
Time : 6:00 PM
All Ages

Other Info:

This is an outstanding festival. I've seen the top secret lineup for 2010 and its cracking so I'm delighted to be playing!

I'm on the deliciously sounding Campfire stage, and playing right after me are....oh yeah its top secret I nearly forget. But they're a very very well known band. Zips lips shut.

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Today is election day.

Yeah I know they're all a bag of shite with their noses in the trough. But today is about stopping the fascists accessing a quarter of a million pound to spend on their hate.

And because it's proportional representation, not only does every vote count - but every person who doesn't vote actually increases the fascists tally.

How?

Let's do some numbers.

Imagine that there's just 8 BNP voters in the whole of the North West (I wish!).

If 1,000 people vote then the BNP score just 0.8% (8 divided by 1,000).

But if only 10 people vote then they score 80% (8 divided by 10).

So not voting ups their score.

By staying away from the polling station today, you'd be upping the fascists vote.

What the fascists need

They need you to stay at home today.

Because if they get just 8% of the vote here's what they'll get:

* the poisonous NIck Griffin will be YOUR MEP
* they'll have £1/4 million of OUR money to spend on their vile divisive politics

Who to vote for

I'm not going to tell you who to vote for. That's up to you.

But get out and vote today - and vote for anyone other than the fascists.

I understand if you don't want to vote Labour - there's no way I'd vote Labour these days.

And the way Labour treats refugees is abysmal so I see them as a racist party.

But make sure you vote - because any vote against the BNP really screws them up.

Left options on the ballot

No2EUYes2Democracy is a party backed by the RMT union which essentially calls for a worker's Europe rather than a boss's Europe.

People like Roger Bannister of UNISON and Alec McFadden of the Merseyside TUC are standing for them.

Socialist Labour is the party set up by Arthur Scargill some years ago, and also have a list of candidates including my mate Kai Andersen.

There's also the Greens if you wanted a different option.

Vote Vote Vote

There's enough parties broadly on the Left to allow you to vote against the fascists without having to give your approval to the snout-in-the-trough brigade.

So vote. If you don't, you increase the fascists score.

If you stay at home or spoil your ballot paper, it increases the BNP's chance of victory.

Finally

Voting is today (June 4th). Please get out and cast your vote.

Or you could wake up tomorrow to find your MEP is a fascist with £250,000 to spend on spreading hate in your community.

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.

Can you believe it? Liverpool's very own radical bookstore is 35 tomorrow.

And how appropriate for its birthday to fall on May 1st too!

In fact, so happy are the folks at NfN that they're slashing prices on everything for the day.

It's 10% off all books and CD's.

News for Nowhere stocks my albums too so you can get them that bit cheaper for one day only.

If you've never been to News From Nowhere pop in and celebrate. They're based at 96 Bold Street, Liverpool L1 4HY

Well, not quite, but the closest thing you're going to get to that!

I've just heard that the tremendous Tayo Aluko is bringing his Call Mr Robeson show to the Southport Arts Centre on July 23rd.

Call Mr Robeson is the winner of the Angel Award for Artistic Excellence, and Tayo himself was named Best Male Performer at the Brighton Festival Fringe last year.

The life of Paul Robeson is fascinating from a personal and a political standpoint - and nobody does Robeson better than Tayo.

This show will definitely interest those with an interest in history, politics and music.

As you know I've had some involvement on the music side this year with the Writing on the Wall festival.

So let me put a special offer your way regarding the Writing on the Wall festival.

On Thursday 7th May at 8pm, the WOW Festival are showing the play BEATING BERLUSCONI at The Contemporary Urban Centre (CUC), 45 – 51 Greenland Street Liverpool, L1 0BS

It's the hilarious true story of how a Liverpool fan ended up in the private executive box of AC Milan owner and Italian Prime Minister during Liverpool's famous victory in Istanbul.

Tickets are £10 each and you can get your tickets from The Philharmonic Box Office on 0151 709 3789.

But if you quote the reference "WOW" then you'll get 2 tickets for the price of 1. Bargain!!

To find out more about the full Writing on the Wall Festival programme this year, click here

Today is Workers Memorial Day.

Remember those who died at work.

And fight for the living.

For more information http://www.hazards.org/wmd/

To mark the day, I've uploaded a live recording of Run Patsy Run, which is particularly appropriate.