| Description | Tracks 1 - 16:
These are recordings made by Charles Parker of a number of people talking, reciting and being coached in how to recite passages for the tape recorder.
Track 1 is an introduction by Charles Parker and a light hearted exchange with Davy Miller. Track 2 features Miller reciting 'Workers' Wives' which considers the practical resilience of women in the face of adversity. On Track 3 he relates the story of 'The Iron Sergeant' who 'has fought in peoples wars from the time of Spartacus and Watt Tyler to Vietnam and Chile'.
A miner describes the 'worst mine in England' on track 4. Its location is not specified but he refers to the 'Ballarat' (?) seam. On track 5, this man reads out an extract from the Liverpool Mercury of 04/12/1849, concerning the Potters Emigration Society and its scheme to resettle people in 'the New World'. Reference is made to Mr Twigg. Charles Parker coaches the miner in this reading.
Also on Track 5, Parker coaches the same man on the reading out of a letter from George Martin of Rochester, New York to his brother dated 14 May 1849. This letter concerns the rising tide of immigration into New York State and details the plight of Irish migrants sent by Lord Besborough who had recently arrived in Albany, New York. Of 88 disembarking from the ship, they were all entirely destitute and 14 had had to be sent directly to the poor house, with the likelihood that most if not all would follow.
Tracks 6 - 8 are for 'Take 3, Track 2 Q57B' where Jane Ross is coached by Parker in reading out quotations for Gem and Jane Powell, formerly Chartists. This considers the difference between 'The Land of Plenty' (the New World?) and England with its 'hereditary titles ...... and the fag end of nobility'. Track 8 also includes a brief recording of Anne Miller reciting this quotation. Hannah Wears is also coached on this passage (Tracks 15 - 16).
Track 9 contains very little and and Track 10 is silent. Tracks 11 - 13 record Mick Sands being coached by Parker. For Q22D (Tracks 11 -12), Sands recites a quotation from Thelwall's 'Rights of Nature'. Tracks 12 -13 cover Q28A, in which he reads Bronterre O'Brien's 1833 view that the working class is working to address the injustices set against them.
Total: 31:35 minutes
Dubber's reference number: PLA KF565D0345880 |