Jibba Star and Shadow Slog Holiday

Tuesday 21st October 2014

Good to get home tonight and not feel totally hammered. On the bus back from Durham I started going over a poem from Sunshine for my Star and Shadow set – reading and re-reading. The typed line-breaks on my notebook copy are different to the handwritten page in the book published last year. I didn’t want to put the computer on to play with line-breaks best suited for memorization, so I got out the old manual typewriter and while the burger cooked on the George Foreman grill, I started banging the lines out at the drop-leaf table. It takes a while and mistakes have to be rectified with Tippex and retypes further down the page then folded over the mess and stapled flat to get the final draft. Maybe this is why I was better at learning in the good old days. Computer cut and paste takes seconds. I need to spend more time with the poem – manual typewriter composition is slow. It was a nice change. Sessions were good again today. 11.07 pm.

Wednesday 22nd October 2014

Another Full-on day. Woke at five and was still obsessing about poem memorization. Got through a recital in the workshop this morning but I’m fighting to retrieve the lines. It’s going to be a good few weeks before I can perform it totally off book. Did a one to one session in Peterlee this afternoon. William Carlos Williams poem, My Box. Some good discussion about shape on the page. Evening was Exquisite Corpse and song lyric rewrites. Back home the house is cold but the monographs are pressed flat. I’ll take some to the gig this weekend. Tomorrow I’m at Mind and haven’t finalised what we’re doing. Probably group sestina and titles on poems for newsletter. I have fallen asleep on buses quite a bit in the last couple of days. I’m at Jenni’s for three nights from tomorrow. I don’t have any energy left for writing. Looking forward to my bigly week off. Oh yes. 10.35 pm.

Thursday 23rd October 2014

Had the most positive informal interview this afternoon. A young woman came down to reception at Cambian Appletree and her opening line was: Oh my god, Steve Urwin! Do you remember me?” And yes, I did. She spent time sitting in on the creative writing groups I ran at Broadgate Farm a few years ago. She was on placement from Durham University. So that was good. I said I’d give a taster session a go in a few weeks time. Bus to Newcastle for Jibba Jabba and a three-night stay at Jenni’s. Haven’t had a chance to get back online after the interview so I guess I’ll just see her at the Cumberland. Bus is noisy with a bunch of young merrymakers upstairs. Pleased this is the express and I’ll be off in twenty minutes. Tempted to get carvery at The Goose but just had an egg mayonnaise sandwich. Session at Mind great this morning. It was a bit of a free-form book browse, write your own thing from a choice of options (including dilation of poem, golden shovel, flash fiction), look at newsletter poems and discussion kind of morning. Waddy was an A2Z poem and Triolet. And like I said, meeting at Cambian Appletree went well. I’m there again in a month. 5.50 pm.

Friday 24th October 2014

from Morning Pages:

Good Jibba Jabba last night. Other events clashed with it, so turnout wasn’t as high as usual but still a good crowd. Simon Wood’s Hang drum playing was brilliant. I love the hypnotic sounds and rhythms he gets out of those flying saucers of his, particularly Memory 43. And it was good to hear him give a little bit of background on the origins of the instrument.

   An MC guy was first on the open mic and then AJ McKenna, so the bar was set pretty high. Some page poems followed and a song medley from Ian McGregor Hart. Toby Campion came all the way from Leicester to deliver a cracking fifteen minutes, enjoyed the horrible dance floor, poignant haircut and funny baby poems.

   Second half we had some improv comedy murder mystery from Gerry Byrne set in a Hull library featuring Spiderman and Poirot’s sister – a difficult number to pull off solo but she got some laughs.

   Open mic part two Ian McGregor’s ‘Conversation Killers’ went down really well. Amongst various spoken word shenanigans we heard Asa Maddison road-test a high-speed ‘Boom’ for a forthcoming slam appearance in York; and Katie Yosarian played a comedy song about hypochondria. Ken Mood did off the cuff stuff that had moments of meandering social commentary with random rhyming imagery thrown in here and there. Ken Creen did a wallpaper shop narrative; and a first timer from Consett gave us a dark page from her journal. I did ‘Terrible Business’ early on then returned to the stage for ‘Armageddon Man'.

   Closing the night with a career-spanning set was James Oates. Lovely to see the metaphor man back in the Cumberland Arms. A real treat to hear old faves like Guru Fixed My Bicycle, Bigg Market Tarantella and Puberty on the Sheets alongside brand new material. Displaying a seemingly effortless ability to blend cosmic moments, philosophical insights, and stunning imagery with some cracking comic timing over the space of a few stanzas, the man’s work goes down well at any kind of poetry event; last night’s mix of lightweight crudity, witty anecdote and literary gem winning favour with the Cumberland’s attentive audience.

   Another great night excellently programmed and hosted by the lovely Jenni Pascoe, all done and dusted by half ten. After which I talked paper stock and technical stuff with Chris Harland for his upcoming Talking Pen pamphlet.

Saturday 25th October 2014

Great time at The Writers' Cafe Fundraiser for Star and Shadow gig last night. Mint poetry sets from some of the best spoken worders in the region. Loved Alix Alixandra's songs. She really ought to have an album out by now. Someone make this happen please. Thanks to Gilded Thieves. Nev Clay you were awesome. Pikey Beatz had most of the room up and on their feet giving it big energy and although not my kind of music I really enjoyed the rather sombre number towards the end of their set. Some superb alt/goth/post-punk disc spinning by DJ Juli Watson to close the night too. Thanks to Marie Lightman, Asa J Asa J. Maddison, Jenni and everyone else there. Cheers!

Long lie in this morning. Checked stuff on Facebook. Had bacon and lentil soup with Jenni this afternoon. Read some Brendan Cleary poems then went into town to check out stationary and art paper at Details. Enjoyed looking at old vinyl in Beatdown Records – Pistols, Hanoi Rocks and Joy Division singles, Godspeed You Black Emperor albums. Bought more food supplies. Walked back over the Redheugh Bridge to Jen’s as dusk came on. Watched The Strange Case of Benjamin Button on tv, surfed the net, ate cucumber and potted salmon sandwiches. Jen laughed at my wrestling a sticky toffee apple wrapper. Later we had chilli with tortilla chips. Lazy weekend. OK. 9.22 pm.

Sunday 26th October 2014

Woke early, did my morning pages and checked out Brendan Cleary books on the net. Me and Jenni had bangers and mash with carrots, green beans and gravy for lunch. Listened to the musicals radio show and Johnnie Walker’s Sounds of the Seventies. Jenni slaughtered me at Backgammon. Had cherry pie and custard, watched Columbo and new film of Under Milk Wood. Then back to Moorside for email checks, Homeland on tv and fried egg on toast. Ready for bed. 11.38 pm.

Monday 27th October 2014

First day of the holiday week proper. Checked emails after lying in bed late going over some book ideas. Then emails and work on a poetry collection I’m publishing for someone next year. Then keying in notes. Slowly. Very cold in the house, pain in left shoulder and knuckles. Ordered Brendan Cleary selected poems today. High winds mean no longboarding for me. Maybe later in the week. Listened to Toyah. Watched Gotham whilst folding pages for a hundred page notebook – tomorrow I’ll fill it over a ten hour period called Home Town Slog. Then proper rest on Wednesday. Need to get away from the computer for a while. Think I’m pretty much done here. 10.52 pm.

Tuesday 28th October 2014

Home Town Slog. One hundred A5 pages in a day. One of the hardest yet. Really wanted to jack it in after about thirty. Just not in the right frame of mind for it. Pleased I kept it going though, despite the mixed up scribble. Got home to find train tickets arrived for Wayne Hussey gig in Leeds. I only just saw him in Newcastle at the beginning of this month, but the Leeds gig is being filmed for a DVD and travel seemed to click nicely, so I thought why not. Switched on the computer and found that Kirsten at Apples and Snakes has made an event page for Buddy Wakefield’s December Cumberland Arms gig. Nice of her to give me a neat blurb as support act. Will be thinking very carefully about my set… Anyway, I’ve scrawled enough today already. Pleased to be home. 10.57 pm.