poetry thoughts and latest bits off news..

never seem to get as much time as I would like
sometimes for writing down as much as I would
like creative stuff, so I usually refer people
simply to my website (http://andyn.yolasite.com/gigs.php)
or my band 'Words and Music (http://wordsandmusic.yolasite.com/gigs.php)
so they can see what or where I have being performing
but sometimes often in the morning, it is great
to just go through things briefly if you know
what I mean.

As Words and Music we with a possible third member
did a headline for the Busking for beer tour
for Jeffarama and although the set perhaps didn't
exactly the way I wanted it to, we really enjoyed ourselves
and are now resting as Jeff (Keys) has now caught
some pretty bad virus from what I have heard.

However, I have being using that spare time to try out
lots off new poetry on other nights, I ended up for
exampe doing a last minute slot for Busking for Beer
at their Salford venue recently which was fun as
I compared it to a f**king disco, but i was half p*ssed - lol.

Also Made a enjoyable return to Inn Verse at the saluation
inn after a few months break which I again used to test
just new material, before last night going down to Poetry Pillow
which is run by Dom & Steve, both of which I know really
well from Freed Up and I really enjoyed too, as it was
a totally different environment from Freed Up, which
I love but can be very stressful sometimes.

Next up, gigs wise I am on Lit Media Reviews again tommorrow
interviewing a lady called Janet Conor which I am looking
forward to, as well as doing a major slot for Unsung Magazine
this thursday at a place called The Attic in Manchester (where
I know I have some stuff published but god knows what yet),
as well as the week after performing at my own night Poets and..
, Freed Up the night after and then hoping energy permitting to
go to the finale night off Busking for Beer in Bolton.

Yep, it is going to be mad busy.

But I wouldn't have it any other way.

Fly to the moon (New Poem)

Even as far back
as I can remember
I wanted to be able
to stand up
on my own feet
and fly to the moon.

I wanted to be
able to jump off
the stage
and keep running
up the pier
until I could
run no further.

I could fly
ten pin bowls
with all the other
children
and kick sand
all over adult's
faces.

Hide behind
the pier's walls
and watch the sea
wave at me
like it was saying
nice one mate.

Instead I am
chained to this box
like a performing bear
and everyday
am forced up and down
in the same routine.

I will be forced
to do back flips
like Superman
then stand here
and be beat round
the head
by my husband
until
it falls off.

That's the way
to do it
certainly doesn't
come close
to describing
my emoitions.

Certainly the last month or so has being quiet with it

being summer time and stuff.

On the readings front, I have kept it quite quiet

with one reading at Unsung Magazine in July which

was fun to do, and then besides that a couple of low

key gigs with ‘Words & Music’ in the Sale and

Altrincham area where both of us learned a lot

from playing there.

September however it is now back to normal

or as normal can be with me sometimes.

First off all, I am back at Freed Up Poets in

Manchester after a few months off this week.

(10^th September 2009) Looking forward to it.

I am also down next week for reading out a

few poems at Manchester Museum next

Thursday (17^th September 2009).

Night after possibly, I am going to be

reading at Poetry Pillow which is another

night from Freed Up’s people (18^th September 2009).

on the 20^th September, Words and Music

spring back into action with a gig in

Oldham (Greater Manchester) at the

Gardner’s Arms.

No idea yet for the week after, but

I reckon I’ll be doing something or

Something.

I do know on Sunday 3^rd October I am co

hosting again on the internet radio

station ‘Lit Media Reviews’ which should be

a hoot.

Next major thing for me after that will be

at Bolton Rugby Club where I will be involved

in the 5^th night off Poets and.. After the

madness of the 4^th night – I am really hopeful

for this night – I really am hopeful as have got a

number off new names to me expressing

a interest in it.

The rest of the year isn’t etched out in stone

yet, but there are a few other magazine launches

which I may be involved in, so we’ll see…

Certainly – I have the Words and Music

album on the way now. Me and Jeff have a

track listing off 16 or so tracks (with new ones

On the way also possibly for follow up’s).

I have also had the proofs back for the final

DIH album ‘Meterophosis’ which feels sad

listening to it now, but it is time to move on as I like

to say as this’ll be our third full length album

and there is also about 7 EP’s dangling around also.

Seeing Andy, my voice in M.A.N. next week – will

discuss our long delayed 3^rd album ‘From a Boy’,

and then discuss a meet up in November to begin work

possibly on a 4^th album.

All go as norm – lol

Poets Express Review 11/07/2009

Poets Express Review 11/07/2009

Hosted by the beautiful Kylyra from ‘Dark World International’ -
Poets Express is the first of a annual night off Poetry
performance hosted in Bantry, Southern Ireland.

‘Dark World International’ for those not in the know is
a independent label in Southern Ireland that has being in
force since 1993 or so I think and has released a host of
albums by acts as varied as Deemed Psychotic,
Future Dialogue, Tor’s Angst, Kylyra and
Dream Quest to name but a few that
over my dealings with them has produced a body off work
that has never ceased to surprise and delight as it
jumps all over the musical landscape.

I first met Ky from Dark World International back
at the end off 2007 over the net and had a great
time with her and her brother, Tor over in
Southern Ireland in September 2008.

Since then, the pair of us had swapped stacks of
poetry over the net, and pushed each other without
even realising into totally different directions.

Fast forward to 2009, Ky agreed for a poets event
in Bantry in the true Dark World International fashion
where it would not be a performance poetry night
like what I was used to in Manchester where it
would just be one man or woman with
a mike but designed to push the boundaries
just that little bit more,

The difference was evident off with the opening
act, Shaky Dawg which was I believe was Dark World
itself’s latest signing which was designed to
do something different.

Sounding like honest to god like Johnny Cash fronting
Nine Inch Nails, the band were great and surprised me
in a really good way with their opening track ‘Road Trip’
which sounded like a road trip that Jack Kerouac
could well have gone down if he had being alive in 2009.

After a wonderful start like that, it certainly left me
wondering how unpredictable this nigh t was gonna
go in a good way like my own night ’Poets and..’
frequently does.

First up on the open mike slot was a young
lady called Rowena Doak who Ky described
as her best friend and as the Poetry Chef
as she was looking after the refreshments
that night.

What really impressed me bout Rowena (besides
the fact she made some lovely food) had never
performed her poetry before and if my memory
was correct had never even showed before to
anybody. I found her poetry was sparse in a
good way and clearly were very personal
which are not always a good idea to share
but I liked the honesty in her writing and
made me think she should certainly carry
on writing.

After that in the first major slot was a
young poet from Belfast called Dale Mawhinney
who I was advised by Kylyra had designed the
logo for Poets Express and had had a number of
exhibitions in Northern Ireland.

I missed part off his set as I am ashamed to
admit as I was ordering cake from Rowena and
tormenting a bit, but I felt Dale I felt delivered a
confident set which went off in different ways
which I wasn’t expecting frequently. This included
most memorably for me a long introduction poem
which I recalled him telling me after was heavily
influenced by Spike Milligan about the first
seven days of man. Nice stuff.

Another open mike slot followed by a local
writer called Eric Rhodes who I was advised
had wrote and published two books to date
’Oasis of Love’ and ’The King, the
Father and the Mother’.

Eric I felt delivered some really thoughtful
pieces during his short slot which I felt
shown a lot of skill in more page based poetry
than actually the performance which I have
no objection to as I felt it added a
nice balance and contrast to Dale’s set.

I found out afterwards this was Eric's first reading
and in places, if I am honest his nerves did show a little,
but that is no bad thing as I can well remember
my first few readings and I was a good deal more
nervous than he was. A small tip for him in
Future would be to keep doing these open mike
slots to help him get these nerves.

I myself found doing these on a number of occasions
During my early performance days to build up my
Confidence as I think he does really have something
there and it would help there.

There was another open mike slot after that from
a gent called Tom Jordan who I think was from
Cork City who was the official photographer
for the event. Tom’s set surprised me also as he was
Walking on stage he borrowed an acoustic guitar from
I think the soundman (Tor again), and he did just
one poem and one song, both of which had a very
haunting sound to it, which I would like to have
heard more.

Tomas O’Carthaigh from Country Offaly the author
of two books to date ‘Writings in Rhyme’ and ‘Passing
By our planet’ was next. I had had some dealings
with Tomas from the website Write Out Loud
and on the social networking website facebook previously,
and was looking forward to seeing what he delivered.

Tomas has a very unique style certainly which in
places of my own style from a couple of years
when I wrote a lot of very philosophical,
short poems. On his set, he delivered these with
agust and on more than a few of them certainly
were pieces which could have being read again and
You could have got a totally dfferent meaning from.
Nice stuff.

I followed next. I’m not ging to write about my
own set in a great depth a I don’t think it’s
particularly fair I write aout my own set much.
I will add for the record however I thoroughly
enjoyed doing the set and think the mix off
Music I had with my pieces and
guest vocals (Ky and my friend, Antonioni)
surprised and delighted the audience in equal doses.

Straight after that, we had a very short reading from
Siofra Martin who had recently won the Eurochild
award for best young poet 2009.

Siofra I felt was fantastic and showed stacks more
courage and ability than I would have done at her age,
and I would have certainly liked to have heard more.

The Kids Express winners were announced next
and like with Siofra, I felt the two winners
(Ruby Sullivan and Erin Barclay) both wrote
brilliant, thoughtful poems which had to
be among some of my highlights of my night.

That was officially the end of the first half,
although the Dark World act ‘Future Dialogue’ did
then provide a interlude with their more acoustic
based offerings. Sadly I however missed their set totally
as I was talking outside to a lot off people.

The second half was started by a 4 piece
performance troop called Screaming Blue Murmur
who I was advised had toured Australia, the United States,
New Zealand and Kuala Lumper to name but a few places.

Their mixture of poetry, acoustic music and drumming
and singing was a sight to be seen and bloody hard to
describe, although It was excellent and well worth
checking out.

My friend, Antonioni followed next on the open mike stage and he
did three spoken word tracks backed with music which I felt got
a excellent reaction from the crowd, in particular the last song
Body Song which got half off Shawky Dog, Ky and me as a
chorus.

The night was rocking by that point, and a last minute addition
to the set, Andrej Kapor was next who I believe was a friend off
Cah-44 who had to pull out of the show owning to personal
problems.

Andrej’s set for a headline act perhaps seemed a bit
briefer than a lot of the other acts, this was understandable
perhaps because of the notice, but to give Andrej credit
I felt he rose to the occasion and held the audience
beautifully in the palm of his hand.

There was another open miker after that, Adam Ormes
who I believe came from Bantry itself. Adam’s set
was surprising probably in part because he didn’t go
to the stage itself and instead jumped onto the seats
in the audience and launched into a song with a
couple of quick poems straight away. It was a brave
move all in all, I felt in hindsight and one that
I felt worked as it proved the point that material
can be read anytime, anyplace.

Derek Fanning, author of ‘The tunnel’,
‘Epic poem’, and ‘Journey through elvish realms’
and a journalist was the last invited guest after that.
Derek followed the musical approach by Adam
by launching into a solo song with a amazing voice
to start off his set, which I am sure he also closed his
set with.

In-between Derek in contrast to what he was
led to between from his published stuff launched into
a set that wasn’t filled with some long, epic poems - instead
reading much to my surprise with limericks and short poems.
to give Derek credit, I loved them and thought his delivery
was pitch perfect, and enthralled me. Excellent stuff all round
which went down a storm with the audience too.

Kylyra should have finished the night after that, but much to my
surprise there was a last minute open mike slot from a Australian
mother and son I think called Kerry & Thomas.

Kerry & Thomas delivered a short set with a venom that
surprised me in contrast to nearly everybody else.
There is nothing wrong with venom in a set, but the duo
however made two major mistakes which affected
the quality of their set hugely.

First, they delivered that went well beyond the
5 minute slot that they were meant to do. The point
behind shows is simply the fact that slots are
split into set times. If everybody went and did double
what they were meant to do, we could have being
there until three or four in the morning.

That of course is a minor thing as it does happen,
but their second error which was a major flaw, and
something all poets should bear in mind as a general
tip was well they really fell down was they delivered
a very adult set with a fistful off bad language
which was ill-advised considering this was advertised
as a all ages show and there was a number
of children still in the audience.

Ky herself finished off the night and bought it to a
suitable close with a 15 minute or so set with three
Pieces ‘Interview’ which purred with a defo.
Grace Jones feel, ‘Clutched and..’ which was dedicated
to the beat poets and felt like it too before concluding with
the more playful ‘Poets Expresss’ which bought the night
to a suitable close. (I know Shaky Dawg
Came back out for a few more songs but I
was gone by that point).

On the whole, I felt it was a excellently ran night
with a lot of stirring performances from
nearly everybody there. I don’t know yet whether
this will be a ongoing concern but I think it
will be!

I look forward to it and encourage everybody
To get involved for 2010!

Words & Music Website

Some of you may know but I have a new band
on the go with my good buddy, Jeff W aka
Octave Sounds (Picture as above).

We have being busy forming my poems
over Jeff's music nicely and hope in due course
to have some new stuff ready for what-ever.

In the meantime, here is our website

http://wordsandmusic.yolasite.com

Why not have a look for yourself and
let us know what you think!

New Website

Dear all;

Geocities is closing which hosts my main website which sucks big style, so I have began the long and rambling process off moving.. Unlike a house thou, this is gonna take a while.

Here is the link for the new website:

http://andyn.yolasite.com/

It is far from complete, as there is dozens off archived interviews
to be transferred across literally, and I need to sit down and
design a page for the other poets poetry I host on the
geocities, but the structure is there.. Another month
or so - it'll be done and then I can get back to normal,
or as normal goes with me sometimes - lol

poets and... review

Poets and… Review

Our third event as Poets and.. ran on 29th April 2009
and I felt was certainly the best one we had done so far
and helped set the scene for the future.

Featuring the beautiful and fantastic Kylyra from
‘Dark World International’ – perhaps for the first time I felt
showed the potential what our Poets and.. night could do.

First started off in November last year, I was reminded
When looking at the DVD shoot off the first night (which
I received only in the post the other day) how
Far we had travelled in a short space off time.

Our first one I felt looking back at the DVD certainly
From my perspective and my co-setter up, Gary – both
Of our works had increased in confidence so far it
Was interesting to look at.

Certainly from my own perspective – the third show was
The tightest yet, despite some minor problems with the
Sound which I know caused some problems.

I think the audience was the joint highest we’d had so far
(with the first one) and certainly had the most varied
night we’d so far with Antonnonni doing a improvised
piece with my musical buddy, Jeff and Rob Goodier
also cropping with a song among some of the excellent
poets we had on board.

Me & Jeff did three pieces for our proper set, and
Despite a slight slip in our first piece ‘Don’t be Cruel’
The second and third pieces ‘Return to Kemptown’
(done jointly with my noise buddy, Matt Dalby) and
‘A Love poem for my shoes’ were a lot looser
and I was generally really happy with it.

Highlight of the night of course had to be Kylyra’s set
For me. Brimming with confidence that can be only have
Come from hours and hours of practice – she purred
Across her set with a Grace Jones diva quality with
a mixed backing that ranged from Beat Jazz to industrial
and completely engulfed the attention of the audience.

She even dragged me onto stage to help her out with
a piece called 'Not for the hair' which was a hoot.

Hopefully I'll be able to get the chance to do that piece
with Ky at somepoint in the future.

3 x brand new short short poems

Dear all;

Here are a couple of brand brand new short short poems.

Cheers

Andy N


The Poem is a limited edition (I)

It’s certainly not
Buy one,
Get one free.

**

The Poem is a limited edition (II)

It’s so limited
Nobody else
Will see if
Apart from you.

**

The Poem is a limited edition (III)

Which in a way
Summed up your love.

latest poetry updates and views

Dear all;

Here is what I have being up to recently poetry wise (and a few honest
notes with each performance) and what is forthcoming etc:

Just done…

1) I appeared on second ‘Scratch Poets’ event on 8th April 2009
where I gave a debut performance off ‘Return to Kemptown’ minus
any involvement from my band ‘Words and Music’ or my mate the
soundscape poet ‘Matt Dalby’ (more on that later on (which we had
being rehearsing for a good month or so before this was done). Hard to
judge how the piece went down, but it felt comfortable reading it out to
people and I like to think it went down quite well. I also read out
‘Fire like Love’ a slightly older piece which I felt was a nice contrast
although I did stumble a bit with that.

2)I did a couple off poems at ‘Freed Up’ on 16th April 2009 where I
performed my first reading off ‘Don’t be Cruel’ and ‘Purple instead
off Blue’. If I am honest I don’t think this was my best ever reading
as the sound on the mike was quite poor and didn’t get spotted until
afterwards. I know some poets would have being quite upset about
that, but I wasn’t that upset I must admit as I was happy with the two
poems I read out – both off which will be making appearances elsewhere
in due course.

3) I then next appeared at Muta Poem on 23rd April 2009 as a
favour for my pal, the soundscape poet, Matt Dalby
(http://santiagosedeadwasp.blogspot.com/) with my pal,
Jeff as ‘Words and Music’ and fellow poets, Alex and Antoniononi,
(Tony). The night was a odd night all in all, but certainly the set
me and Jeff did we were very happy with them although I got
the feeling from other blogspots for example we weren’t
everybody’s cup off tea. Personally for me on the night however
I particularly enjoyed the concept off Matt’s night where he tried
to get people to remix other people’s work on a creative exchange
and perform them and then also for the second half do some pieces
inspired by what had being seen before.

Memorable events of the night for me were Antoniononi (Tony)
wrote a long poem and asked Jeff to jam along with him on the
spot, which I thought worked really well. Alex did a partly
improvised poem on Bros, which involved him in some cases
rolling up and down the floor, which was spell binding, and
completely off the cuff. Matt also was also first rate in particular
with a piece that he said was completely off the cuff. He also helped
out Jeff and me as ‘Words and Music’ which I think also went
pretty well (I did some good feedback from a number off
people over it).

Next up:

4) Firstly on Lit Media Reviews (www.blogtalkradio.com/litmediareviews)
tonight on 26th April 2009 I will be doing a short interview
at 10.30pm. Don’t know what I will talking about here yet but it will
include all of the above and what’s next.

5) Second, ‘Poets and…’ on Wednesday 29th April 2009 the
third off the open mike nights that I help run. I am hopeful this
one will be our best one yet. I’ll do four pieces with
‘Words and Music’ on this and cropping up elsewhere during
the night too (More to be revealed of course).

6) Third, 6th May 2009 for Amenity International I will be
appearing at a fundraising event for them reading out poetry
about Children in Conflict. I have two pieces done for this and am
trying to get a third done in time for the night also.

7) Fourth, 16th May 2009 – As part off ‘Words and Music’
we will be doing a couple off songs at Bolton’s
‘Poets and Acoustic’ night at the Blue Boar in Bolton.

8) Fifth, 17th May 2009 – I will be popping up during
Chorlton’s Art Festival at Lloyds Hotel during their annual poetry
reading. I loved it last year and am hopeful this year’s will be just as good.

9) Sixth, 21st May 2009 – I’m back over to Freed Up again for another
short set off stuff I haven’t started sorting out or writing yet.

10) Seventh, 18th June 2009 – I will be performing at
Manchester Museum (more details to follow)

Further a field:

11) End off June – will be doing the 4th one of ‘Poets and..’
with special guests to be announced nearer the time (I hope)

12) 11th July – Poets Express in Bantry (Southern Ireland) for Ky
which will be a major thing for a simple Manchester Poet like me.

13) August / September – perhaps sorting out a reading
on L.S.Lowry at a venue T.B.A.

14) End off September – will be doing the 5th one of
‘Poets and..’ with special guests to be announced nearer the time.

15) Autumn time – arranging a charity do for a selected charity
(Gary knows more about this than me)

16) End of year – doing a Trio Writers play.

As you can see – all go! This won’t include other open
mike nights here and there maybe at Scratch Poets
or Write Out Loud.

New Music update

After a lull off activity on the music front for me – it has picked up again with a bang.. And I mean a bang!

Owning to PC problems – everything has being on hold for over two months but it looks likely that everything is back to normal now, so over the week-end just gone – I had a play around.

First off all, Andy my voice in M.A.N. sent me over some new vocals which are not suitable for the forthcoming ‘From a Boy’ CD but could well make a great EP, so I did most off that over the week-end which I jokingly called it’ One Week-end Stand’ EP.

Also managed to squeeze in a few new Grey Ear, White Noise tracks which takes up tracks for the forthcoming album for them to about five or six tracks now. Need to let Pete, my voice in that band hear them.

Rehearsals are also going good for my new band ‘Words and Music’ – this is completely different from anything else I have done, and dare I say it reasonably commercial! We’ve done two gigs already despite the fact we had only wrote 4 songs by that point (We now have a working set list off 8 songs with another few to follow).

No plans for an album yet, as this is going to be mostly a touring band I reckon although I do have some good live rehearsal recording ). Will keep you advised of course.

Have being doing loads off poetry readings, but I’ll tell you more about next time.

Matt Dalby: Tare & Matt Dalby: Fight (CD Reviews)

I first became aware off Matt Dalby through his
interaction at one of Manchester’s open mike poetry nights last
year called Freed Up.

I forget the night in question, but I always remember Dom
One of the co-hosts of the night describing it as ‘Sound Poetry’
And I can always remember thinking to myself – it’ll probably
Be something experimenting with the language of poetry a little
But it wouldn’t be anything too different.

I was totally wrong.

I’d never forget when he came on stage with his own little amp
And effects pedals and spent the next four minutes blasting the
Heck out of the audience’s eardrums with some good old fashioned
White noise and looped vocals and surprised more than a few people.

I’ve done this over the years with a lot of my studio projects (and also
rarely in the live circuit) and when I heard it, it made perfect
sense to me.

Since then, I’ve seen Matt appear at a number of other events
and he has guested on both of my ‘Poets and..’ nights (and
most memorably had Gary’s brother asking him ‘is that Poetry?’)
and he has never ceased to surprise me.

So of course, releasing CDs is now a progression step
for him after spending a year or so on the open mike poetry
circuit. What is surprising however is the plan
for him to release one CD for every month in 2008
And sell them for the sum off £3 (Sterling).

The first one ‘Tare’ released in January 2009 is a
seven track mini album all with short title tracks
such as ‘hum’, ‘tier’, ‘tare’ to name but three but
each track even if there were 6 minutes each or 2 minutes
carrying layer after layer which in some cases took me five
or six go’s to get my head around, which is as good a
recommendation as you can get.

The second one ‘Fight’ released in February 2009 is
quite a different beast altogether with it being just
four tracks – the longest ‘House of Violence’
clocking at nearly 17 and a half minutes. I’d got tracks
like that most memorably pieces by Flying Saucer Attack
who go on like that, but I know they were mostly done with
guitars laced with feedback – this however was very different
considering I know from a conversation with him how he did,
and certainly listening to it is a challenge, but a
challenge I enjoyed listening to – how the hell it would
go down on a poetry open mike night is a different
question altogether.

I know Matt describes this as ‘Sound poetry’ and
this is perhaps something he needs to think about for himself
as certainly at the moment it is not really poetry in the
sense of Ted Hughes but not really experimental music as it goes
off in a completely different direction, which is my
eyes is always a good sign, or as I like to think
‘21st century poetry’

I recommend it and certainly advise you to pop over to
http://www.myspace.com/sonicobnox just don’t expect it
to sound like Ted Hughes.

Forgotten

Dear all;

This was first debuted at ‘Poets and…’ last week.

It was recorded with a piano backing me.

When I get chance - I'll upload the recording from it!

Enjoy!

Cheers

Andy N

Forgotten

Remember those buried
In your hearts
And also your thoughts.

Remember those buried
In other countries
As well as those
Closer to home.

Remember those buried
In mass graves
And those who were
Buried alone.

Remember those were
Lined up against the wall
And butched with no mercy
As well as those
Who died
And were not
Found for a week.

Remember the death camps
And their hollow
Starved looking eyes
As well as those
Who died while watching
TV.

Remember the deserted streets
That had being bombed
Seemingly endlessly
By planes
And events much closer
To home
Which haunts you
Like a ghost.

Remember those who you see
On TV
Being blown all
Over the place
Like snooker balls
And friends who you
Will never see again.

Remember, remember
Those who are only here
In our hearts now
And whose words
Blow like fragments
In the wind
Before flickering out
In the distance.

Think of the last time
You saw them
And then when you
Say goodbye
To them
Think to yourself
With a content smile
You’ll see
Them in a week or so
But you never do,
You never will,
You never will.

Think of their faces again
And their casual smile
‘Aye, I look forward to it’
And think afterwards
But what if?

What if
You had being there?

What if
You could have
Done something?

Would the effect
Still have being the same
Or would it have being
Like forgotten memories
Trudging on landmines
On a journey
That would have
Blown up anyhow,
Somewhere, somehow.

Would the effect
Still have being the same
Or would it have being
Like a row of forgotten dominos
That would fall down
In a chain reaction
No matter what you do
Somewhere, somehow
But never forgotten.

Monkeyrack Writers and Spotlight Lancaster

One of the great things I have discovered while
advertising the event I co-host 'Poets and...'
(http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=56414263840&ref=ts)

is other interesting events and similar-ish sorts
off nights that are run by other groups.

One which I encountered recently on myspace
are 'Monkeyrack Writers' a small but certainly
from what I can see welcoming writing group based
in the Lancaster area off Manchester.

A lot of their back history is contained on their
myspace page but it kind of reminded a lot off the
history off 'Trio Writers' (which formed in 2008,
but was previously known as 24 Hour Arty People
from 2003) . Like us, they have also gone through
a few homes and also produced a few collections
over the years, and from what I can see are also
involved in a cabaret night held regularly (which
is something our own Poets and... night could
head into before you know) called 'Lancaster
Spotlight'

I recently spoke to Moll from Monkeyrack, who
I guess is also involved with 'Lancaster Spotlight'
recently who recently mentioned to me at the
start of each of these nights which is held on
the third Friday of every month a open mike
element of their night but also in February
there is going to be a open mike poetry night.

If I can con, my pal Tony into driving down,
we could be making a trip down that way for
February.

It could well be worth a visit.

More details are:

http://www.spotlightlancaster.co.uk/ (Spotlight Lancaster)

http://www.myspace.com/monkeywrackwriters (Monkeywrack Writers)

Music for One - The Red Thumb (Review)

What I love about listening to a variety off music is the fact

sometimes you honestly never know what you are going to.

On Christmas Day for example I set my music matchjukebox

on my PC to play some tracks at total random, and it

pulled out some tracks which threw me a little certainly.

First up it brought up some post disco music from Blackpool called

‘Little Boots’ which was then followed up with some mood music

from the last but one Nine Inch Nails album ‘Ghosts’, which was

then followed in due course by a couple of tracks from one of

my bands DIH (off it's forthcoming album) and then suddenly it

threw out some tracks I didn’t know.

I had a look further into this and jukebox didn’t say who the

track was. It just said audio track 2, which said to me it was

probably something I would have ripped from a CD or CDR to

drop onto my mp3 player. Either way, it was beautiful instrumental

recorded just an what I was getting with a guitar with a primal

hunger that I had heard since Nick Drake’s ‘Pink Moon’ album.

The music was mood music certainly with a timeless hunger that

could have recorded in the 1930’s or 1940’s but had a feel to

it that suggested to me it sounded like it had being recorded

recently. I looked into the mp3’s further and traced them to

a folder on my PC which told me the name of the artist

was ‘Music for One’ and the album was called‘The Red Thumb’.

Without offering tons off whaffle, I first met Canadian

born Sherry Ostapovitch aka Music for One at a house

party concert in Levenshulme in 2005. I’d never forget

that set as she played a frightening guitar set which mixed

crunching solo guitar with effects and delay pedals which

left both me and my mate stunned for a few days later.

This album is a lot softer and completely different in

tone, as interestingly on the sleeve notes it says it

was recorded on a 2 track tape recorder in a handful

of hours in Spring 2007 with no multi tracking

or editing. Certainly from listening to the album, the tone

is certainly suggestive of a night time recording with

songs in a complete change in tone from the first time

I saw her.

Songs here since certainly seem to be reaching back

to the past, hence the reference to Nick Drake

before but also touching to old, old blues records

which probably makes sense considering a cover

version of Skip James’s (Devil’s got my woman) is

at the end of the record which could be slight

reference to her own guitar playing with the title

alone.

Either way, the playing here is ghostly and on

some songs for ‘The wind from the Irish Sea’ the guitar

is so faint, it almost sounded like it was almost recorded

in another room in places, but played so subtle when

you get into the album, it is a difficult place to pull yourself

out off.

Recommended.

For more details – contact Sherry directly on

musicforone@riseup.net

OR go to this page on her page which has a couple off mp3's

available for sampling (they are lovely)

http://www.musicforone.com/recordings.htm

Helloooo 2009

Dear all;

Perhaps I should try and write a poem welcoming 2009 to all off us,
but frankly I can't really be bothered at the moment.

At the moment, I am still coming to terms with the end off 2008 if I am
honest, and now 2009 is with us, I am working slowly but surely towards
the end of the next ‘DIH’ album ‘Metamorphosis’ which I completed the
10th track for it earlier on today. Current plans are suggesting somewhere
around the 14 to 16 track mark for the album, which will take it
somewhere towards the 40 minute mark.

Don’t expect this to happen over-night as this itself has taken the
better part off 2 years to get this far.

Writing wise, after I finished off Poets and Pasties at the end
off November 2008, I took a somewhat quieter approach to
reading and performing afterwards.

I did do a reading at the The Cabaret Formerly Known As Bucket
(http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=23454554933)
at the end off November (just after Poets and Pasties) where I did
two short sets off poems ‘Voices on the Phone’, ‘She’, ‘Confused Identities’
for the 1st set which went down well and ‘Ten and a half lies’ and
‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ which went down really really well in the 2nd half.
‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ was great fun in particular as I got the full of the
audience up to help me out with the chorus for the poem, which
gave me a real real buzz if you know what I mean.

December wise, I did a six poem set at ‘Write Out Loud’ in Sale,
which gave me chance to try out another poem under my alias as
the Feedback Poet where I did a poem called ‘Seven’ as well as two
poems from my ‘Nothing to Save’ poems (Part I and III) which
are really more page poems, as well as one of my Xmas poems
‘Christmas Present Thank you letter’ and two kids poem
‘Brian likes to poke the bear’ and ‘My mum makes Christmas
pudding pasties’ which I enjoyed doing although it did worry me a
lot how under attended the night is. I think the night in question has
got a lot off work to do to keep going, as sadly there simply
isn’t a demand for it I think from the number of people who are
attending. It’s not really my place to say why it isn’t working,
but speaking from personal experience in marketing and P.R.,
if things ain’t going the way they should be going after a few
meetings, a change in thought somewhere.

The following night, Tony talked me into going along to another
open mike poetry night called Inn Verse based in the centre off Manchester (http://www.facebook.com/s.php?ref=search&init=q&q=Inn%20Verse&sid=0cb921d5ee8fd39812c919c8a6c93e8c#/group.php?gid=15047779703)
- this was a bit different to Write Out Loud which was a very serious
atmosphere by being very laid back, and certainly I think it
reflected in my own performance where I read out four poems
’12 Days after Christmas’, ‘Snow Ghost’ (A poem co wrote with a
pal, Audrey ages ago, a cover of a poem by David Rollibard (which
I forget what off the top of my head since) and a oldie called
‘A Lesson in interesting writing’.

I hadn’t being to that event before, but it was nice to
be spotted by the organiser, Simon who introduced me
(even though I had only seen him maybe once before in passing).
It settled me down a lot and I enjoyed reading there. Am glad
I stayed off the beer thou as I saw the effect it had a few other
people who got their poems back to front or in some cases forget
them altogether.

Otherwise, in December I did two radio sessions for my pal,
Coll at Literaryspot for Blogtalk Radio, firstly on 21st
December 2008 with Justin Blackburn which I performed
generally more serious poems, the poems in question being
‘Christmas Poem (2008)’, ‘The Snowman came alive’,
‘Nothing to Hide (I)’ and ‘I found’.

The second interview on there also featured among
others my pal, Kylyra from Dark World International and
my buddy, Gary from Trio Writers and it was a hoot doing
It. On this one, I performed two brand new poems
(which I haven’t performed on the live circuit)
‘Send in the Clowns’ and ‘On the Booze’ with ‘A Lesson in
interesting writing’ thrown in at the end to catch
everybody out.

Now 2009 is here, it is now time to get thinking about
what I am going to do this year. At this moment,
Poets and .. (Formely Poets and Pasties) will be doing
their second event in February 2009, which will take some
work as well a third one probably in April 2009 and I will also
be doing two other performances (I think) in March 2009 and
May 2009, but more details will follow on that soon of course.

I still need to get to the finishing point off ‘The End’ my
novel, which I intend doing a bit more work on over this
week-end (I think it is now 140 pages and around about
40,000 words) but it is looking good.

I also have a number of music projects to finish this year
(See mention to DIH before), but the DIH one will probably
be first I will aim to finish, and then I’ll think about Grey Ear,
White Noise and M.A.N.

All in all, it is going to be a busy year as normal! No change I know!

Keep Rocking

Andy N

Setting Sun – http://www.geocities.com/aen1mpo