This is the website of ‘The Musicians’ Union: A Social History’ – an AHRC and ESRC funded research project based in the School of Culture and Creative Arts at the University of Glasgow.
The project began in April 2012, so we are still at an early stage of both our research and building the site. There will be lots more content to be added over the next four years – so please return regularly to the site, or keep in touch with us for news of updates.
The Research
Drawing on a range of sources including the Union’s own archives, housed at the University of Stirling, and interviews with participants, we hope to reflect the manner in which the Union has played a significant part in the shaping of musical, cultural and political life in the UK throughout its history. To date has been a largely unexplored narrative, often consigned to a footnote in other more general accounts, and it is our aim to redress this balance with a number of publications (including at least one book), various conference papers as well as a conference and exhibition to be held in Glasgow in 2016.
The Website
These pages are intended to give a flavour of the work involved in unpacking and making sense of the archives of the Union and its predecessors, which date back to the formation of the Amalgamated Musicians’ Union in 1893.
To begin, the website is broken into the following sections. From The Archives is a regularly updated selection of interesting stories and analysis of events from across the Union’s history to give a flavour of the nature of both its work and the people and events surrounding it.
The timeline will decade-by-decade provide a more coherent and detailed account of the most significant events, disputes and people who have been central to the Union’s story. This will start with the main events in the Union’s history, but will be continuously updated as our own knowledge of the finer details of the machinations of the Union develop. In addition to this, the People section will look at some of the main characters from the Union’s history, starting with short biographies of the eight men who have held the post of Secretary of the Union.
The research team contains details on who we are and why this history is of interest to us. Lastly, the contact us page has a form which we hope you will use if you have any comments, corrections or information that you can contribute that will help us in our quest. You can also join our mailing list if you are interested in either contributing or finding out more, or follow us on Twitter.
Professor Martin Cloonan
Dr. John Williamson
August 2012
