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The Oldham Tinkers are a British group of singers, formed in 1965 by John Howarth and brothers Larry and Gerry Kearns in a pub in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. [1] They sing in Lancashire vernacular with subjects ranging from childhood, music hall, to poetry and historical subjects, mainly about Oldham and surrounding parts of southern Lancashire. [2]
They have published their songs on Topic Records since, initially with various other artists, Deep Lancashire (1968) and Owdham Edge (1970), but subsequently by themselves on:
and on the Topic Records anniversary compilations:
Their song Peterloo about the eponymous massacre was also included on the Ozit Records CD:
They recorded various radio sessions for the BBC from 1969.
Larry Kearns died in June 2016. [3] but David Howard has taken his place for the performances they continue to give [4] and on their latest record:
The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Eighteen people died and 400–700 were injured when cavalry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation.
Loreena Isabel Irene McKennitt is a Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer who writes, records, and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern influences. McKennitt is known for her refined and clear soprano vocals. She has sold more than 14 million records worldwide.
Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional association football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. The team compete in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system, as of the 2024–25 season.
Bolt Thrower were a British death metal band from Coventry. They formed in 1986 and released their first album with Vinyl Solution in 1988. The band then shifted to a new record label, Earache Records, soon becoming one of the best selling bands on that label. Their last label was Metal Blade Records. The band had a succession of members, and had toured Europe, the United States, and Australia. Over the course of their 30-year career, Bolt Thrower released eight studio albums, three EPs, one live album, three compilation albums and two demos. Their albums have sold over 100,000 copies in the United States as of 2005.
Mike Harding is an English singer, songwriter, comedian, author, poet, broadcaster and multi-instrumentalist. Harding has also been a photographer, traveller, film maker and playwright.
Oldham Rugby League Football Club, is a professional rugby league football club based in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. The club plays home games at Boundary Park and competes in Championship, the second tier of British rugby league.
Frankie Armstrong is an English singer and voice teacher. She has worked as a singer in the folk scene and the women's movement and as a trainer in social and youth work. Her repertoire ranges from traditional ballads to music-hall and contemporary songs, often focusing on the lives of women.
Doris Helen Kearns Goodwin is an American biographer, historian, former sports journalist, and political commentator. She has written biographies of numerous U.S. presidents. Goodwin's book No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1995. Goodwin produced the American television miniseries Washington. She was also executive producer of "Abraham Lincoln,” a 2022 docudrama on the History Channel. This latter series was based on Goodwin's Leadership in Turbulent Times.
Lees is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, amongst the Pennines east of the River Medlock, 1.8 miles (2.9 km) east of Oldham, and 8.2 miles (13.2 km) northeast of Manchester.
Tractor is an English rock band founded in Rochdale, Lancashire by guitarist/vocalist Jim Milne and drummer Steve Clayton in 1971. Both had been members of a beat group, The Way We Live, since 1966. They are notable both for their appreciation by John Peel and Julian Cope, but also for their longevity because as of 2007, they were still performing. The band was produced initially by schoolfriend sound engineer John Brierley.
The Lancashire dialect refers to the Northern English vernacular speech of the English county of Lancashire. The region is notable for its tradition of poetry written in the dialect.
Waterhead, is an area of Oldham, and an electoral ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, an upland area in the Pennines, the ward of Waterhead has population of 12,876, decreasing to 12,029 at the 2011 Census.
Ian Cameron Mercer is an English actor. He is known for playing Gary Mallett in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street from 1995 to 2000, having previously appeared in 1987 as Pete Jackson. His other television credits include Brookside (1982–83), Cracker (1993), and The Street (2007).
The Lancashire Hotpots are a comedy folk band from St Helens,, England, formed in 2006. The group perform and record songs about Lancashire, technology and British culture, such as "He's Turned Emo", "Chippy Tea" and "eBay Eck".
Margaret Barry (1917–1989) was an Irish Traveller, traditional singer and banjo player.
Andrew Goodway is a former English professional rugby league footballer and coach. He played for Oldham, Wigan and Leeds in the Championship and Manly Warringah Sea Eagles in the NSWRL competition. He played as a prop, second-row or loose forward. He is a former Great Britain and England international.
Harry Boardman (1930–1987) was an English folk singer who was born in Failsworth, Lancashire. He sang both unaccompanied and accompanying himself on the Anglo concertina or banjo. "Boardman has specialised in the lore, songs and dialect poems of his native Lancashire. A fine singer, his recorded and printed work has done much to preserve the otherwise ignored aspects of his local tradition."—Fred Woods. He was active as a folk singer and collector of Lancashire folklore from the late 1950s with some collaboration from his wife Lesley. In 1991 the Harry Boardman Memorial Trust was established to increase public awareness of traditional music and related arts, including the folk music of the British Isles and local traditions of North West England. Harry appeared regularly, together with Dave Hillery and Terry Whelan at the Wayfarer's Folk Club, at various locations, including the Pack Horse Hotel in Bridge Street, Manchester from the late 1950s. Boardman was a folk club organiser from 1954 until the year he died; the home of his club in the 1970s and 1980s was the Unicorn Hotel in Church Street, Manchester. His interest in the songs of working folk came from his socialist beliefs.
Robert Poole is a UK-based historian, currently professor of history at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston. He gained his PhD from the University of Lancaster in 1986, where he was associated with Prof Harold Perkin's Centre for Social History, organising the 1996 conference of the Social History Society on 'Time and the Construction of the Past'. He has also held positions at the universities of Keele, Edge Hill and Cumbria. He has also been Leverhulme Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Manchester (2000-1), an associate of the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester (2010–17), an associate of 'The Future in the Stars' research programme, Friedrich-Meinecke Institut, Freie Universität Berlin (2012–16), and visiting senior research fellow to the History Group, University of Hertfordshire (2013–15).
The Iron Muse (A Panorama of Industrial Folk Song) is the title of two albums released by Topic Records, the first as a 12-inch Long Play vinyl record released in 1963 and the other as a CD released in 1993.
Peterloo is a 2018 British historical drama, written and directed by Mike Leigh, based on the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. The film was selected to be screened in the main competition section of the 75th Venice International Film Festival. The film received its UK premiere on 17 October 2018, as part of the BFI London Film Festival, at HOME in Manchester. The screening marked the first time that the festival had held a premiere outside London. Leigh said he was delighted that Peterloo would be premiered "where it happened".