6/12/2007

Interview with Alun Parry

By Sandra Gibson

Alun Parry is acknowledged as one of Liverpool’s leading acoustic based performers and songwriters. His albums Corridors of Stone and Liverpool 800 and his work to promote live music have received widespread critical acclaim. In this abridged version of a recent interview Parry speaks about the values that underpin his work.

‘True Love of Mine.’

The title song on your latest album is a passionate love song to the city. What does it mean to love Liverpool?
My association with Liverpool was doubly assured: I was born here and named after a Liverpool centre-forward called Alun Evans. It feels like home; I can only go on holiday for four days and I want to be tethered back to here. Things don’t feel atomised here – there’s a village feel about it. It’s simple – it feels like a good place to be and I like the sense of solidarity. Liverpool people have long been associated with this – we help one another out; we stick together; we’re politically bloody-minded. In the Thatcherite mid Eighties - a time of economic disaster for the city - Liverpool and Everton were playing in the F.A. Cup Final at Wembley. But it was the call of ‘Merseyside’ that went round the stadium. Any partisan feelings about individual teams were subsumed in the defiant roar of being from Liverpool. I remember this ambassadorial imperative from a very early age. Family holidays were taken in Blackpool. ‘Behave. You’re not in Liverpool but you’re from Liverpool,’ my mother would say. I’m proud of Liverpool because my heart and the heart of the city seem to beat to the same rhythm. I have a strong value system and a certain positivity in adversity, which I feel Liverpool broadly shares. At the same time I would want to distance myself from ideas of superiority or a sense of ‘nationalism’ about the city. The grotesqueness of self superiority, coupled with the idea that birthplace and ‘heritage’ as the issue of overwhelming importance, is a credo I find revulsion for.

‘Read the buildings and you’ll see.’

With the recent opening of the new Liverpool International Slavery Museum in the year that marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery there has been a lot of publicity about this part of Liverpool’s history and one of the songs on the new CD addresses the issue. How do Liverpool people in general deal with this?
Eric Lynch, a black man in his seventies does tours of the waterfront. I didn’t know 95% of what he told me about slavery. ‘Read the building and you’ll see,’ he says. When you look at the carvings glorifying the slave trade on the buildings in Liverpool and Bristol you start to understand the economic mindset that perpetrated this terrible trade. I am ashamed - but I don’t know if I’d necessarily use that word for everyone else. I would say most people don’t think about it too specifically. That’s why Eric’s tours and the Slavery Museum are important: they keep the issue visible. Some people want the ‘grotesque’ carvings of slaves manacled removed. I don’t agree with this; people need to see these ideas.

‘For I see a world that is owned by the few.’

Some of your songs have a strong political content, dealing as they do with the work conditions of ordinary working people [My Granddad was a Docker] and more contemporary issues of immigration and asylum seeking [I Want Rosa to Stay]. To what extent do you walk your talk?
I would call myself extra-parliamentary. I believe the biggest power we have is social power. Changing things is a ponderous parliamentary process; there are simpler, more direct means. When the issue of BNP flyers being delivered with the post arose there was a call to change the law but all that was needed was for the postal workers to refuse to deliver them. I believe in the power of ordinary people to affect change. I don’t believe this in a romantic sense; I ‘m speaking practicalities. This belief is a recurring theme in my work, my music, my politics, and my approach to DIY music. There’s a long history of working class toil in Liverpool and the song about my granddad celebrates that. People like him built the city just as surely as anybody else did.
I don’t just sing about political issues. The Labour government began imprisoning asylum seekers in my local prison: HMP Walton. I founded, with some colleagues, an action group called Merseyside Against Detention which campaigned against this: holding several demos at the prison; getting a double page spread in the Liverpool Echo; and ensuring it was the front page story in the Independent on Sunday. In addition, we went to the prison regularly and campaigned on behalf of the detainees. This is some of the background to my motivation for writing I Want Rosa to Stay. The song celebrates those positive attributes that immigrants have to offer at the same time that it challenges the dodgy economic arguments against their presence and the cynical deflection of attention away from the inadequacies of the status quo onto a scapegoat.
I’m always happy to play for free for any cause I broadly agree with.

‘Don’t just sign the petition.’

I notice from your blogs and the article you did for The Big Issue that you have a direct, concise, journalistic style.
I have some tenuous connection with political journalism in that I used to work as a volunteer on Labournet, a site that arose as a result of the dockers’ dispute that went on for nearly two years. We used the net to disseminate information on a global scale: looking at media coverage from a worker’s point of view. It was the sort of stuff that doesn’t otherwise get an airing and it was immediate – the photos and reports were all up there the same day. It was bottom-up reporting - ordinary people telling their stories without relying on Murdoch or the BBC.

‘The listener decides.’

It appears you have some radical views with regard to the economics of the music business.
I’ve applied the busking philosophy to my present circumstances. My albums are conventionally available in the shops with a price marked on them but on my site I’m making my music freely available, just as I did on Bold Street. There is still an option to put money into my ‘busker’s hat’ – the purchaser decides how much. It’s revolutionary – it goes against the trend of trying to sue kids for downloading music off the internet.
I’ve never understood why, if I’m bringing in a load of fans to listen to my music and spend money over the bar I’m also expected to pay a lot of money to hire a room that would otherwise be empty. I don’t mind paying for a good P.A. and an in-house engineer; but if I’m providing the P.A. and the engineer and doing the promotion and booking the support bands and bringing in lots of trade for their bars I don’t see why I should be charged. I hope to encourage a self-reliant method of getting gigs, showing, for example, where musicians can stage their own gigs without unfair room hire charges. I’m also encouraging people to let me know which venues actually pay something for the services of musicians even if it’s only a percentage of the bar tab to keep it risk free for them.
My campaign to highlight music friendly venues has the support of Echo music writer Jade Wright who is publicising it on her blog. Information will be collated and there will be a free on-line directory of such venues.

You’ve talked about DIY music promotion. How did you develop it?
You can’t get much more DIY than my musical origins - I wrote songs as a kid then became a busker using my uncle’s classical guitar. I like to have power over where I play; I look out for music friendly venues; I like to negotiate the deals personally; I like to select the support acts carefully. If I have this control I get a better deal and the people I perform with benefit as well. My aim is to fill a room with an audience (whom I don’t charge) and a stage with good musicians. I also want to be performing my own music. I actually love being in a band. The band is not a traditional ‘lets find our sound band.’ I have my sound from my days as a solo artist. I now want people to add to that sound rather than create a new one so I write all the songs.

What’s happening now?
My latest venture is to try to set up a similar arrangement in other cities and towns. I’ve taken Manchester, Preston, Liverpool, Birmingham, Derby and Leeds and the idea is to do an acoustic night in each of these once every two months at which my band would perform. In addition I would search the internet for three acts local to the area I’m in. They have to be acts I like; I’m a big believer in quality control so I never just go on recommendations. I’m also very careful about venues; I don’t want someone’s night out parking itself at my event!

For the full version of this interview and more information about Alun Parry please visit www.parrysongs.co.uk
Click here to read Sandra's review of Liverpool 800: True Love Of Mine

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