In the third podcast in the series, we focus on the work of the late Jan Fairley, a scholar, journalist, broadcaster, champion of World Music and a long-standing Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Popular Music. The podcast explores Jan’s passion for music and politics, her devotion to Latin American music, and her particular expertise in Chilean music.

We hear from some of Jan's friends and colleagues, and from Jan herself in an interview she gave just before being hoisted onto the vacant fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2009 as a participant in Antony Gormley's One & Other public art project.

Click here to listen to our Spotify playlist of music associated with this podcast episode.

Contributors to this episode were:

Professor Sara Cohen, James and Constance Alsop Chair in Music and Director of the Institute of Popular Music, University of Liverpool

David Horn, founding Director of the Institute of Popular Music and one of the founders of the international association for the study of popular music (IASPM),

Carlos Arredondo, musician and songwriter

Simon Frith OBE, sociomusicologist and Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Edinburgh

Helmi Järviluoma, Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Eastern Finland

Original music composed, recorded and produced by Francisco Carrasco and Esteban Pérez

Jan's friend Galo Ceron played Danza de la Paloma Enamorada by Atahualpa Yupanqui

Podcast editing: Richard Smith, with many thanks to Richard Anderson

The next podcast in the series will focus on the experiences of Chilean exiles and their families in the North of England and the role music plays in their lives.

We are very grateful to the Wellcome Collection for permission to use extracts from Jan's 'One & Other' interview and to the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research for the initial funding that enabled the development of the podcast series.

In this second episode in the series, we explore in more detail the Robert Pring-Mill collection of sound recordings, posters, albums and ephemera related to politically committed poetry and 'songs of struggle and hope' from Latin America. Pring-Mil was a university lecturer in Spanish at the University of Oxford and a fellow and tutor in Spanish and Latin American literature at St Catherine's College, Oxford. His collection was donated to the Institute of Popular Music (IPM) at the University of Liverpool on his death in 2005.

We hear from Lisa Shaw of the University of Liverpool's Department of Languages, Cultures and Film and Sara Cohen, Director of the IPM, who discuss the collection and their plans to bring this to the attention of wider audiences and engage with Liverpool's Chilean community. We also hear from Robert Pring-Mill himself on the songs and their political context, via extracts from recorded lectures in the archive, and from his daughter, Monica Fisher, about her father's interest in Latin American songs of resistance and hope. Also featured are excerpts of songs by Chilean artists such as Víctor Jara and Violeta Parra who were important in the Nueva Canción folk music movement in the 1960s and 70s, and whose songs were so important to the anti-Pinochet resistance between 1973 and 1990 and in more recent protests.

Click here to listen to our Spotify Playlist of music associated with this podcast episode, in which the full versions of songs can be heard.

Contributors to this episode were:

Monica Fisher, daughter of Robert Pring-Mill

Original Music composed, recorded and produced by Francisco Carrasco and Esteban Perez

The next podcast in the series will focus on the work of Jan Fairley, a scholar, journalist and broadcaster, and a long-standing Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Popular. The podcast will cover Jan’s passion for music and politics, her devotion to Latin American music, and her particular expertise in Chilean music.

We are very grateful for a grant from the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research which has enabled the development of the podcast series.

Extracts from songs are used for the educational purpose of quotation as set out in Section 30 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (As amended 2014).

The Chile in/en Liverpool: Music & Memories - Música & Memorias podcast series explores the power of musical reminiscences to promote well-being.

This episode is being launched on 28/09/2021 - what would have been the 89th birthday of Victor Jara - the eminent Chilean poet, teacher and singer-songwriter of the Nueva Canción Chilena (New Chilean Song) movement. Jara was murdered by the Pinochet regime following the coup in 1973.

In this first episode, we'll hear from Lisa Shaw of the University of Liverpool's Department of Languages, Cultures and Film who has led a project in Brazil and the UK on the power of cinema and film music to improve the emotional health of older people and those living with dementia through reminiscing. She is joined by Sara Cohen, Director of the Institute of Popular Music (IPM), and Jacky Waldock, who is a researcher on sound and place-making. 

We'll be introduced to the late Robert Pring-Mill, whose collection of sound recordings, posters, albums and ephemera inspired this podcast series. Pring-Mill was a University of Oxford professor who taught and studied Spanish and Latin American literature. His interest in politically committed songs and poems dated from a visit to Chile in 1948. We'll hear quotations of songs by artists such as Víctor Jara, Quilapayún, Inti-Illimani, Los Prisioneros, Violeta Parra and others who were important to the anti-Pinochet resistance between 1973 and 1990. These remain significant in today's Plaza de la Dignidad campaigns for constitutional, political and economic reforms in Chile.

Future episodes will include a series of 'Inheritance Tracks' interviews, where members of the local Chilean community in Merseyside talk about music they have inherited, and music they cherish. One of the project's aims is to encourage people with ties to Chile and their families and friends to share music-related reminiscences. The podcast episodes will explore different aspects of memory and well-being, such as IPM musicologist Jan Fairley's work and activism, music and the Merseyside Chile Solidarity Campaign, the Cultural Resistance to Pinochet in Santiago.

Click here to listen to our Spotify Playlist of music associated with this podcast episode.

We are very grateful for a grant from the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research which has enabled the development of the podcast series.

Contributors to this episode were:

Alex Blair, Languages student, University of Liverpool;

Original Music composed, recorded and produced by Francisco Carrasco and Esteban Perez