PHOTOZINES

Research and reporting have been a part of my working life from the time I spent working in the Central Electricity Generating Board as an electrical engineer. In the early ’70s I was seconded to the Work Study Department and took part in reviewing and reporting on manning levels in power stations including authoring and presenting to senior management a report on coaling operations at Ironbridge Power Station.

Then through my involvement in the radical folk scene I met Charles Parker, a BBC Producer, who created the Radio Ballads with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. They used “actuality” recordings in their productions – effectively oral history. Together with Trevor Fisher, Charles Parker and others I helped organise the Parkhouse Convention in 1973 at which the idea for Banner Theatre was formed. With Don Perrygrove I then visited Yorkshire to interview miners and Arthur Scargill for their first production A Collier Laddie.