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In the 1950s, the EMI midget tape recorder was developed. With this machine, it became easier for reporters and radio producers to record the voices of ordinary people on tape. One of the people working for BBC radio in Birmingham at that time was Charles Parker (1919-1980). With colleagues Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, he produced eight programmes, known as the Radio Ballads which wove real voices, sound effects, folk song and music in an extraordinary way, to create powerful radio programmes. Charles Parker came to believe passionately in the value of the testimony of working people and the creative importance of 'the oral tradition' and its relationship to folk music. This became the key to his work in radio, theatre and in his extensive teaching activities.

The Charles Parker Archive is deposited in Birmingham City Archives. It consists of tapes, production books, papers, correspondence and scripts for most ot the programmes Charles Parker produced and the organisations in which he was active.  It contains a wealth of material for studying the culture of the 1950s to1970s,  — broadcasting, the folk revival, pop music, community arts — as well as contemporary social and political issues. Charles made programmes with blind people, Irish labourers, workers in China in 1972, Asian teenagers, protesters against the Vietnam War and other minorities traditionally denied a voice on the air or in historical records.

The tapes are being digitised and catalogued as part of the ‘Connecting Histories Project’, and later this year (2007)  the recordings should be available to hear in the City Archives.

Category: Product

Institute: Birmingham Libraries Central Library

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