Tue 20 May
IPO Festival
The Cavern Club, Liverpool
More gig info here
Alun Parry Blog
Photo Fest: Album Launch - Are You Pictured???
More photos.... Labels: album, band, launch, parry, photo, photographs, pics
This time its from the Liverpool 800 album launch party at The Casa on 31st August. What a fab night that was.
You'll remember I took a few snaps from the stage. Are you on them?? Have a look.
And keep an eye out for a certain Liverpool rock star who was snapped singing along to our encore!!
Click on the pic for a full size version.
All pics by TheMusicSnapper
5:48 PM | Permalink |
PhotoFest: Virgin Gig 27th August
I'm having a photofest on the blog today. Just click the pic to see the full picture.
These photos were from our gig at Virgin Megastore in Liverpool on the 27th August 2007.
All pics taken by TheMusicSnapper
2:43 PM | Permalink |
A New Model For Downloaded Music?
Those who read my ramblings on here will know my view that gigs, rather than downloaded music, is where I think it's at.
And you'll also know that I don't think downloaded music can command a high financial value due to it's ease of replication.
If Radiohead's experiment in their own version of Buskernomics is anything to go by, then even an established act with a huge fanbase can only command £2.90 per album.
And it seems that everyone in the music business is scrambling round trying to find a way to ensure that some money comes in from recorded music.
The bullyboys who cling to the past try to sue the fans.
Others are more creatively trying various inventive experiments to come up with new models for recorded music.
Yet it strikes me that there is an already working model that is right under our very noses. All that needs to be done is for it to be applied to music on the internet.
Think of bars. They play music don't they? You're sat there having your pint and in the background some song is playing over their PA system. What if that's your music? How do you get paid for that?
The answer is through the Performing Rights Society. The bar get a license to play music, and the musicians get some cash for the music they've played.
It strikes me as hard to monitor to 100% accuracy but it's a system that does the job and is pretty much accepted by all.
So why not the same for internet music?
Let's imagine that the PRS charged a relatively cheap monthly license to downloaders, and that once you had paid that license you were entitled to download anything at all from them.
Given the PRS collect monies on behalf of so many artists and publishers, their catalogue would be enormous.
How attractive is that? You'd be able to download pretty much anything for a small subscription. And legally too!
Sure, you could get it completely free if you wanted to be a smart alec, but why bother when this is so cheap and convenient?
Moreover, it'd be crystal clear to the PRS which songs were downloaded, so it'd be unbelievably easy to pay the artists accordingly.
What do people think?
1:06 PM | Permalink |
Defend the union, health services and Karen Reissmann
I want you to imagine someone for a moment. The person I want you to imagine is a psychiatric nurse, with 25 years experience. I want you to imagine that this person is committed to her job and the patients she helps. She is so committed in fact, that whenever the people she works with face service cuts, she opposes them actively.
Finally, I want you to imagine someone so good at what she does that she is promoted to the role of Senior Practitioner.
That's someone you want in your NHS isn't it? Experienced, expert, committed to her patients.
Well yesterday, on 5th November, she was sacked. I want you to join the campaign to get her reinstated.
Her name is Karen Reissmann, a leading UNISON trade union activist who was employed until yesterday by Manchester Mental Health & Social Care Trust. She is the Chairperson of the Manchester Community and Health Branch and an elected member of the union's National Health Group Executive.
She was suspended from her job on Friday 19th June due to her trade union activism and her firm opposition to cuts in services. (Or as her bosses put it "enganging in activities which have seriously affected the reputation of the Trust.")
Ironically, this happened on the very day her skills and expertise were recognised with a promotion from Senior Community Nurse to Senior Practitioner.
If you are a trade unionist, you will already see that this is not just an attack on Karen Reissmann, but an attack on the rights of trade unions altogether. When a trade unionist is targeted for trade union activities, it is an attack on us all that should be resisted energetically.
Indeed, many of her colleagues have decided to engage in continuous, indefinite strike action from this Thursday - an action that also deserves our vigorous support.
If you are someone who cares about the NHS, then you'll want patients not to be robbed of dedicated nurses like Karen Reissmann who will not simply work with her patients but defend them from the service cuts imposed upon them.
For both those reasons, Karen Reissmann must be reinstated to her post.
So what can you do about it?
There's lots you can do.
You can send messages of support to Karen at karen@reinstate-karen.org
You can write to Sheila Foley, the Chief Executive of Manchester Mental Health & Social Care Trust on sheila.foley@mhsc.nhs.uk
You can raise the issue with your own union, or start a petition in your own workplace, or sign the online petition, or help fundraise for the defence fund.
Visit the What You Can Do page of Karen's website to keep in touch with all the various ways you can help out, and to find links to the online petition.
8:49 AM | Permalink |
M19 Fun Last Night
I can't let last night's gig at the M19 bar in Levenshulme (thats Lev as in Levitate not Lev as in Levi) pass by without giving it a blog posting of its own.
What a fab night and what a fab audience to play to. It's always lovely to play for a crowd of people who are not just attentive but bloody good fun too. It felt like chatting away to a mate instead of to a crowd of strangers.
If you were there last night, thank you from all of us.
Thanks too to the wonderful Claire Mooney who, as well as being the headline act on the night, looked after us fantastically before the gig and afterwards too.
Not only that but by jove what a show she puts on. Yes, I really did say by jove!! This is not just a great singer songwriter - but a great entertainer. I've only heard Claire's stuff online and on the radio before and she's great. But trust me, this is someone you have to see live.
So once again thanks to M19, thanks to Claire and her fab band, and thanks to everyone who turned up to see the night.
(In joke alert for the M19 crowd). It was "dead, dead good - boss!"
10:57 AM | Permalink |
Last posts
- Listen Up At The Merseyside Derby
- Carling Gig: Thank You All
- These little town blues....
- New Lineup For The Alun Parry Band
- Named in Top 10 Liverpool Bands
- A Blue Plaque For A Working Class Hero
- Farewell to 07
- Extended Alun Parry Interview by Sandra Gibson
- Photo Fest: Album Launch - Are You Pictured???
- PhotoFest: Virgin Gig 27th August
Archives
- March 2007
- April 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007
- July 2007
- August 2007
- September 2007
- October 2007
- November 2007
- December 2007
- February 2008
- March 2008
|
Alun Parry is regarded as Liverpool's most respected radical musician.
|
I'm an independent musician. Help me keep producing my music. Donate with Paypal |
Keep in touch with gigs and stuff Join now |
