Dave Harker

Dave Harker edited George Ridley, Gateshead Poet and Vocalist in 1973, co-edited The Big Red Song Book in 1977 and published One for the Money: politics and popular song in 1980. His Fakesong: the Manufacture of British 'folksong,' 1700 to the present day, published in 1985, was the first volume in the Open University Press's Popular Music in Britain series, which he co-edited.

He edited Songs from the Manuscript Collection of John Bell and Songs and Verse of the North East Pitmen, c.1780-1844, published by the Surtees Society in 1985 and 1999, and he retired from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2000, in order to get more involved in education.

He published Tressell: The Real Story of 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists' in 2003 and co-authored The Flying Pickets. The 1972 builders' strike and the Shrewsbury trials with veteran flying pickets from the NE in 2008. Dave was elected as Secretary of the North East Shop Stewards' Network in 2008, and was re-elected in 2009, 2010 and 2011. He runs www.nessn.org.uk - the NESSN website.