Hello Folks
Here be notice about 2 free events that are happening in Birmingham on the next
2 Saturdays:

This Saturday (17th May, 2pm) I shall be strumming and warbling refrains to
accompany stories about Poll Tax resistance - all in a library in Smethwick (see
below).

The following Saturday and more conventionally, Eastfield are playing...
Saturday 24th May 2008 - BIRMINGHAM Adam and Eve...Bradford Street,
Digbeth....Eastfield and The Alcohol-Licks....8pm. Free
entry...************************************That Poll Tax thing....
A friend, Adrian Johnson has written a novel, based around the time of
widespread resistance to the poll tax culminating with the infamous riot in
Trafalgar Square where the police totally lost control and people truly voiced
their opinions. A day those of us that were there will never forget.
Adrian will be reading extracts from his novel whilst I accompany him with my
acoustic guitar and sing the odd chorus. It will be a short show of about 30
minutes. At Thimblemill library in Smethwick this Saturday from 2pm...see the
following blurb for location etc.







Press release: April 14 2008
Kind and Generous Productions, Smethwick, England

West Midlands readers invited to ‘Jack and Sandra’s Poll Tax Party’
Thimblemill Library, Thimblemill Road, Smethwick, B67 5RJ
Sat. 17 May, 2008 2-4pm
(Tickets are free, first come first reserved, tel. 0121 429 2039)

As part of the national Year of Reading, Bearwood based, Guardian journalist and
novelist, Adrian Johnson, shares stories from his new book ‘Jack and Sandra’s
Poll Tax Party,’ together with Birmingham musician Jessi Eastfield at Sandwell’s
Thimblemill library on Saturday 17 May, 2008 between 2-4pm.

In the book, Adrian Johnson explores the loves, passions and heroism of Jack and
Sandra in the year 1990 when 18 million people from across the UK refused to pay
their poll tax and contributed to the end of Margaret Thatcher’s 11 year long
political reign.

Senior Labour MP, Tony Benn said:
“Adrian’s stories powerfully explore and dramatise the lives of the millions who
campaigned against the poll tax.”

In half an hour of song and short stories Adrian Johnson and guitarist Jessi
Eastfield explore how local people defied the poll tax, made friends, met lovers
and made a difference - together!

Then, readers at Smethwicks’ Thimblemill library get their chance to share
stories and memories from the early 1990’s – a time that came complete with
dancing Sun flowers, Sinead O’Connor and the sounds of Madchester’s Stone Roses.

Adrian Johnson said:
“I write about the courage of real people across the UK and how they made a real
difference - standing up to idiocy and incredible, political folly.”

Across the UK an official amnesty on unpaid poll tax has never been declared and
Adrian’s stories imagines what happens - in the 20th Anniversary year of the
demise of the Poll Tax - when bailiffs knock the door and ask Jack Jameson for
£12,000 of his unpaid tax.

Ends

Adrian Johnson is available for media interviews and comment prior to this
appearance in Thimblemill Library on Saturday 17 May 2008. The show will then go
on to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Northampton over the summer of 2008.
email: polltaxstories@...

http://kindandgenerous.weebly.com/index.html from Smethwick





Photo by Steve Eason, 1990 – Getty Images.

See the BBC video:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/31/newsid_2530000/2530763\
.stm

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