Home News 800th Birthday

Songs of praise for city

Aug 28 2007 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

A musical album is the 800th birthday gift from a Liverpool singer to the city he loves above all others. David Charters reports

THEY called his grandfather Sad Owl in those days when men humped swollen sacks down the quays, beneath the cranes of the old docks.

It was a bustling port then.

And today the grandson, a troubadour of the new age, will think of Sad Owl and the thousands of men like him, whose rope-blisters and jokes, muscled legs, stooped backs and smiles, rest in the folk memory of this city, forever.

This is Liverpool’s 800th birthday and it’s for everyone here – those living people in the offices, the factories, the schools, the hospitals, the homes, universities, the rich, the poor, the powerful and the dependent.

But it’s also for those who have gone to another place like Sad Owl, whose real name was Frank Carter.

They shouldn’t be forgotten on this day of bunting, dancing and pomp because they belong to the history of Liverpool, the city they made.

That is why on his album dedicated to this anniversary, Alun Parry has included his song, My Granddad Was A Docker. It is a lyrical appreciation of a man and his part in the city’s history, suggesting that the spirit of all Liverpudlians, old and new, are with us today.

One verse says: “My granddad was a docker, he’d never let you down, he lives within my heart now, as he helps me write this song”.

This is one of six new songs on Liverpool 800: True Love of Mine, Alun’s offering to the city as it marks the anniversary of King John granting its Royal Charter.

And in his own style this chap has much in common with the minstrels gone by, who walked these parts, performing ballads of the moment – perhaps touching on the true motives of John and his henchmen, who wanted a naval base here, so that English troops could be sent quickly to quell rebellions in Ireland, over which he had claimed lordship.

Alun, 36, has also busked in Liverpool.

He was born in Wavertree to Alec, a civil servant, and Norma, who worked for Vernons Pools. Alun, who has a brother John, now 42, was educated at Lawrence Road, Morrison County and Blue Coat schools, before studying political science at Liverpool University for three years, graduating as a BA.

“I didn’t learn to play the guitar until I was about 16 or 17, quite late,” he says.

“The melodies for songs would come into my head and I would tape record them, so as not to lose them. That is how I still work.”

For most of his musical career, Alun has been solo, but on this CD, which comes after the success of his Corridors of Stone album, he is backed by Chad Draper on bass and Howard Northover on drums.

“I used to be a busker, really quite cheekily, because it was about three or four weeks after I started playing the guitar. I got a couple of those six-chord song books. I was trying to memorise them and went out on to Bold Street to busk.” One of Alun’s heroes is Woody Guthrie (1912-67), writer and performer of the dust bowl ballads, who had a profound influence on the generation of folk singers, which included Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan.

And, maybe, in the window-mirrors of the shops, Alun could see the smile of those old poets. At the time he was playing his uncle’s bronze-stringed, classical guitar. His repertoire depended on the number of chords in the song.

But he was successful enough to make the £85 for his first guitar and had sufficient left over to buy his nan a radio.

“It was great practice, because I had to go out and play,” he says. “After that I played in folk clubs. I have played on bills at the Royal Court, the Playhouse, Barfly and the Everyman Studio.”

Alun is a full-time musician, having been for 2½ years an official for what was then the National Union of Public Employees (now Unison).

In the finest tradition of folk singing, he sides with the common man. It’s a compilation of songs in which Alun has hooked personal experience to the special mood of this city. The sense of collective being is strong in the simple verses.

“I realised I had a collection of songs which were inspired by Liverpool,” says Alun, who is married to Jo Whitlow, a family centre manager.

“I decided to put them together for the 800th anniversary. I think Liverpool is fab, but I don’t dislike other places. I don’t go to town on the whole superiority thing. When people come here, not only from other cities but other countries as well, they often stay. This the best recommendation you could have.”

There will always be Sad Owl, who died in 1979.

“We called him Pop in the family, but he was Sad Owl on the docks because he had a very thin face and big eyes. They all had nicknames on the docks.

“My mum is one of those women who always chats on the bus and she was telling this retired docker all about him and he remembered Sad Owl.”

In this way, men and women enter our history.

davidcharters@dailypost.co.uk

Alun’s album

THE songs on the album are: True Love of Mine, Under Neptune’s Hand, Liverpool Love Song, My Granddad Was A Docker, Red And Blue, Coming Home.

Alun is hoping to appear at street parties in Liverpool today. A promotional tour for the album has also been arranged with the following dates.

Today, Borders, Speke, 6pm.

Tomorrow, Bumpers, Hardman St, Liverpool, 8.30pm.

August 30, Carters Arms, Kirkby, 8pm.

August 31, The Casa on Hope Street, Liverpool, official launch, 8pm.