Tuesday 4 October 2011

Gigs news and other bits and pieces of news - Week Commencing 03/10/2011

Dear all;

Not really had tons of time recently for news update as I have been running round with interviews, keeping up with other half and writing in general.

In bullet sized points anyhow as I enjoyed doing this last time..

1) My band 'A Means to an End' did a top notch set at Didsbury Arts Festival on Monday 26th September 2011 where we did a near two hour set to a fairly packed pub of say 60 or so people, and was pretty pleased with the way it came out all in all. (Photos on previous entry on blog - thanks to Amanda and Cathy for displaying such eagle eyeness on the cameras)

2) Straight after two nights later, last minute I ended up doing a near 15 minute set for the Open Mind Collective at TV 21 in the Northern Quarter in Manchester. Although I do generally prefer doing things with my band nowadays, I like to think I did okay with this and managed to plug Guitar and Verse (will talk about this in a minute) and also about my and Jeff's forthcoming book. Lots of good acts on there including Miscach, a young poet from WOL Stockport I know and Anna Percy, a regular on the Manchester Poetry Circuit did good too. Highlight of the night however was a urban / pop duo called The Serpahims who may not have been my usual cup of tea music wise did a really good set and rightly got offered a hour long set headlining in February next year which will worth watching I bet.

3) Last night (Monday 3rd October 2011) I did a support slot for Bury Poet Gemma Lees for her first book 'Method in my madness'. I'd known Gemma for a few years or so I guess, and had always liked her and her writing but was really pleased how much her performance had come on last night - she simply was brilliant last night and I certainly look forward to reading her book (Review to follow). Other poets that stuck in my mind last night that was really good too were Charlotte Henson who was only 17 but had such a natural gift in her writing that had my Cathy saying on the way back, she was almost as good as Gemma, Katie Haigh who read a really moving poem about her hometown (which made Cathy say it really reminded her of her hometown and she lives no where near there) and Val Cook an experienced writer who I hadn't seen in ages and ages from Bolton.

4) Next up aside from rehearsals with Jeffarama tonight for 'a Means to an End' is Guitar and Verse this thursday at The Crescent in Salford, featuring headline acts 'The Vanity Project' who kept reminding me of a classic English acoustic / folk group and Indigo from Open Mind Collective as a poet. I am not sure what I will be doing there yet, but I will probably be doing a few poems from the 'A Means to an End' book.

5) After that, it's over to Write Out Loud, Stockport this Monday coming (Monday 10th October) at Stockport Art Gallery where I should have ready by then around 4 or 5 brand new poems (Wrote a lot last month) for road testing etc.

6) Gemma Lees's Write Out Loud Middleton night is decamping to Bury on Friday 14th October for a one off, so that may end up getting a visit that night (Need to double check where) too which will be fun if I can go.

More gigs are in the pipeline too, which I'll announce in due course and other news are lots of things are under discussion and in the planning stage.

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