Charles Parker Archive: interesting links

1 Organisations related to the CPA Trust

Friends of the Charles Parker Archive - this group was set up in 1981 at the same time as the Charles Parker Trust, and have supported the Trustees in various ways. In return Friends receive an Annual Report, are entitled to concessionary prices for publications in print or sound and are invited to the Annual General Meeting of the Trust.

Friends of Philip Donnellan, Parker's colleague, friend and acclaimed film maker. Philip Donnellan's importance to the development of TV documentary and social understanding of post-war Britain cannot be underestimated.

Banner Theatre, carrying on Parker's documentary traditions. Parker was a founder member, and the Radio Ballads have been a major influence on Banner’s work.

Peggy Seeger's own site, with plenty of material on Ewan MacColl

Topic Records - traditional and contemporary folk music, from English, Scottish & Irish folk singers & musicians. In their 60th anniversary year the company released a brand new CD set of all eight Radio Ballads.

The Radio Ballads are covered on the BBC's Radio 2 website along with an account of their 2006 Ballads, and you can listen again to the originals through the "Listen Again" facility

"The missing Radio Ballads" - letter from Ian Campbell about A Cry from the Cut and The Jewellery.

Doc Rowe Archive and Collection - Doc was strongly influenced by Parker regarding the importance and potential of recording technology and an overall concern to document popular culture and the vernacular 'folk arts'.

The Grierson Trust commemorates the pioneering Scottish documentary maker John Grierson (1898 – 1972), famous for Drifters and Night Mail and the man widely regarded as the father of the documentary.

Musical Traditions - an excellent Internet magazine that includes reviews of the original Radio Ballads

Mudcat Cafe - full of basic information, with a good library of folk music and references.

Folk Roots - the "essential worldwide roots music guide"

English Folk Dance and Song Society has acted for over 100 years to preserve and promote the traditional song and dance of England. There are many resources in its Vaughan Williams Memorial Library

Centre for Political Song at Glasgow Caledonian University

Falling Tree Productions has a news page with information on two radio programmes relating to the work of Charles Parker. Like Blackpool went through rock, Sara Parker and Sean Street's programme for The Archive Hour on Radio Four, is the anniversary programme dealing with The Ballad of John Axon and the Radio Ballad legacy. The Ballad of the radio feature is another programme for R4 for later in 2008. Interesting listening for lovers of Irish folksong may well be another programme produced by Sean Street, The Queen of Connemara on the music of Delia Murphy.

Your Icons - this link may seem somewhat bizarre but this article deals with the midget tape
recorder and has a photo of Charles Parker, "in action" as it were. It has some background material on Charles Parker and his involvement in the Radio Balads in relation to the EMI midget tape recorder.