Karl Frederick Dallas (29 January 1931 – 21 June 2016) Karl Dallas blog Retrieved 2 July 2013 was a British journalist, musician, author, playwright, peace campaigner, record producer, and broadcaster. He was described as "the most vigorous, influential, and informed folk music journalist in Britain".
Biography
Early life
Dallas was brought up in a communist household, and was named after
Karl Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
and
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels" ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.Becky Barnicoat, ''Weekender: Karl Dallas, writer, 82'', The Guardian, 27 April 2013 Retrieved 2 July 2013 His father Jack Dallas was an ex Scots Guardsman and a founder member of the
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...
(CPGB). Karl lived as a child in
Whitley Bay
Whitley Bay is a seaside town in the North Tyneside borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It was formerly governed as part of Northumberland and has been part of Tyne and Wear since 1974. It is part of the wider Tyneside built-up area, being around ...
, Northumberland, and later attended Bec School in
Tooting
Tooting is a district in South London, forming part of the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is located south south-west of Charing Cross.
History
Tooting has been settled since pre-Anglo-Saxons, Saxon times. The name is of Anglo-Saxon ori ...
, London. He had a half sister Kathleen and like her joined the CPGB. He started writing poetry, and writing and performing songs in London in his teens, using the name Fred Dallas. His songs have been recorded by The Spinners ('' The Family of Man'', written in 1955, after Dallas saw the exhibition of the same name), Ewan MacColl,
June Tabor
June Tabor (born 31 December 1947 in Warwick, England) is an English folk singer known for her solo work and her earlier collaborations with Maddy Prior and with Oysterband.
Early life
June Tabor was born and grew up in Warwick, England. ...
and others. He also contributed music reviews to the ''St Marylebone Record'' and '' Musical Opinion'' magazine.
Journalism and public relations
In 1957 Dallas began working as a full-time reporter, later becoming a freelance writer on music – including pop,
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
, classical and
folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...
– and fashion. Many of his articles were published in the ''
Melody Maker
''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...
''; he also wrote for ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'', ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'', and many magazines. He published his own magazines, including ''Folk Music'', ''Folk News'', and ''Jazz Music News'', and in 1967 wrote his first book, ''Swinging London: a guide to where the action is''. His other books included ''Singers of an Empty Day: last sacraments for the superstars'' (1972), ''The Cruel Wars: 100 soldiers' songs from Agincourt to Ulster'' (1972), ''One Hundred Songs of Toil: 450 Years of Workers' Songs'' (1974) and ''The Electric Muse: The Story of Folk into Rock'' (with Dave Laing, Robin Denselow and Robert Shelton, 1975). For a time he ran his own
public relations
Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...
agency, with clients including
Pan Books
Pan Books is a British publishing imprint that first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers, owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany.
History
Pan Books began as an indepe ...
,
Topic Records
Topic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.M. Brocken ...
Transatlantic
Transatlantic, Trans-Atlantic or TransAtlantic may refer to:
Film
* Transatlantic Pictures, a film production company from 1948 to 1950
* Transatlantic Enterprises, an American production company in the late 1970s
* ''Transatlantic'' (1931 film) ...
,
Island
An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...
and Sonet labels, and as a concert promoter. From the late 1970s he also wrote on information technology, and contributed articles to most British computer magazines.
Later life
He was a lifelong
atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
until converting to Anglican
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
in 1983.
He moved with his wife to live in
Bradford
Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...
in 1989, and retired from full-time journalism in 1999. He became chairman of Bradford Community Health Council, and, in 2003, travelled to
Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
in a
double-decker bus
A double-decker bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. Double-deckers are used primarily for commuter transport, but open-top models are used as sightseeing buses for tourists, and there are coaches too for long-distance travel. They app ...
as part of the group of campaigners intending to act as human shields in the event of
invasion
An invasion is a Offensive (military), military offensive of combatants of one geopolitics, geopolitical Legal entity, entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory (country subdivision), territory controlled by another similar entity, ...
. Following his return, he wrote ''Into the War Zone'', which he described as a "musical tragicomedy" satirising his experiences as a human shield in Iraq. The play was performed by the Writers Company in Bradford in 2005.
He wrote several other plays, including a seven-hour play on the life of
Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
, as well as several books, including ''The Fourth Step'', described as "a thriller of the international drugs trade", and ''Good News for the Last Times'' (2010), a "prophetic vision for the 21st century" based on his religious experiences. A book of his critical writings, ''The Lie That Tells The Truth'', was published in 2012.''The Lie That Tells The Truth'' at ''Reality Now!'' Retrieved 2 July 2013 In later life he continued to broadcast regularly for Bradford Community Broadcasting, and reviewed books, music and films for the '' Morning Star'' daily newspaper. Karl Dallas at Journalist Directory Freelance Database Retrieved 2 July 2013
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' and the '' Morning Star'', the latter including a fond reminiscence from
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk music, folk singer-songwriter. He is known for singing protest song, songs of protest against social injustice, and storytelling while performing songs, following the tradition of his fa ...
Bandcamp
Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...