Write Out Loud Stockport write up

A few of you know I regularly attend Write Out Loud Stockport at Stockport Art Gallery which usually meets up on the second Monday of each month.

While there at this very enjoyable group, John Keane who runs the group writes up always a detailed and engaging report of what was read out and also conducts a collage poem wrote by all of the group to reflects the themes of the night.

However, last Monday just (Long story for this month) John had some train trouble running the group, so I took over running the group and ran the group writing the report below.

It has been shared on a private group for the Stockport crowd, but as I wrote it, I wanted to share it all for you too here.

Enjoy

A

****

ROUND 1
As John was running late, I, Andy N took over the running of Stockport on Monday 17 June 2019 and the general note taking.

Nigel was first up as nearly always with ‘History is only a time clock going backwards’ which was inspired by Caroline’s (sadly not there) piece from last time which was a format neither me or Nigel could remember, where each poem had 6 words and was then repeated in a different order over the poem. It’s a difficult format that was for sure, but Nigel did a great job with it and I liked the inventive way he used Clock (I think) as the 1^st and last word of his piece.

Andy C was next with Rhosneigr, a beautifully wrote piece filled with long silent strolls across a long cold sleepy island on a Saturday afternoon. I have covered quite a few sleepy parts of Wales on the coastline in particular during peak season on a Saturday afternoon, and this was a perfect memory of similar adventures I’ve had myself over the years in a place that he clearly knew from at least one visit.

Meschech, our charity fighter winner (So pleased for him here) after winning his fight on Friday was next, and produced quite a longer piece, the first I could recall him reading since he returned to Stockport, called ‘Back in time’. Either way, this was a lovely piece about the story of a life told in reverse from a couple meeting up in a treehouse right up to the end when the coffin was lifted back at the start of the piece. Somebody (Nicola, I think) compared to Benjamin Button, which I haven’t seen personally but there was no hiding this was a beautifully strung together piece which I really enjoyed.
Martin followed next with a piece simply called stepping back which was another beautifully deep (seemed to be a theme here with this night certainly) about memory with a great ending of ‘Where will we end up next?’ which concluded it perfectly. This would go well I thought at any other night I’ve seen Martin read at previously (Also good to see back to normal after been ill recently).

Nicola followed this up with a piece she originally wrote back in April (National Poetry Writing Month – NaPoWriMo for those interested) and I think she said she rewrote somewhat since. Either way, another great piece (Great roll tonight guys) again used a lot of the smaller details in life to carry forward a lovely narrative with another great ending. Censored fairy tale and as John correctly said talked Social Mobility which went down really well in the group. Deserved too.

Valerie was next with the first of two pieces (second in second half) with an excellent be it very sad poem ‘From 10p short’ which was a kind of tribute I guess to a dear friend who died fairly recently after a struggle with cancer over the past two years. As it’s such a personal topic, it’s difficult to really offer comments, but it was a piece that brought a proper lump to my throat and like everybody else in the group was grateful she shared it.

Dave K then afterwards read a poem called ‘The Countdown Clock’ which followed on from Ed’s piece the previous month which he discovered as meanderings around London. Like with Nicola’s poem and also quite a few other poets too on Monday, this poem was also littered with slight details, like a magician outside the National Museum and a visit to Keats House too which told an excellent story too letting the sights tell a story in a very subtle way indeed.

Maggie’s first piece was an old friend from our ‘It happened 50 years ago’ readings from 2016 and like an old friend revisiting and worth a visit again called ‘1960’s in the days when’. I remember really enjoying the references then like I did first time even though it was before my time (just) to Tony Sheridan and the Beatles among others here and the literal use of fading into lost memories here which I find looking back at my childhood in the mid to late 70s.

Ed took things in a very different direction after into the political field with a grim but very well wrote poem called ‘Tiananmen King, 1989’. I remember being shocked by some of the shocking sights that happened in that demonstration with people standing in front of tanks unarmed and alone and been left there thinking, is that really it for them? Ed’s poem was a stark reminder of those days with a saying that stuck in my head for a few hours afterwards ‘Fascism will not past’.

Chris who came next 1^st piece I have a feeling she may well have read also at ‘It happened 50 years ago event’ or if not had read out before at the same time which talked about the twisted wheel in Blackpool a time in people’s lives which Maggie remembered really well also when Miniskirts, red velvet boots, acid trips and love is all you need really were the rage then. I loved it like with Maggie’s piece as both really touched on what I like to think life was like in the 60s like a mirror image.

Amanda who followed next wrote about a quite different kind of mirror image (which is the 1^st poem is from a top-secret book under a secret name she wouldn’t reveal) called ‘I see myself in the distance’. I had heard this piece of course before, but it’s an excellent piece which looks at life as almost a sliding doors kind of scene and understated with an element of sadness here which is a strong element of Amanda’s writing when she isn’t writing more comedy or surreal pieces.

I was after that and followed with the latest in my imaginary couple’s poems ‘Stalked in Southport’. Unlike some of the others poems this couple have been in, I don’t really know Southport at all and wrote this after checking out the geography of the area with a friend who lived there who said it was spot on and then decided to place the couple in a interaction with two other people who are a mirror image of them in a different way.

John finished the first half himself with two pieces, firstly passing a poem by Linda for Nicola called ‘It did not happen’ which was a very dark piece with a last line that showed it was about the murder of John Lennon and John himself then read his first piece called ‘The Black Pill’. With John’s permission I’ve included it just below here at the end of Part 1 as I thought it was in some ways quite a different style for John as the piece itself John wrote it after somebody asked him to write it about themselves. It’s an interesting idea to try that (which I think John has done an excellent job here) and I am glad John has given permission for me to share it as it can help produce poetry slightly different or perhaps out of your normal comfort zone and can produce some interesting stuff.

The Black Pill

A youth spent skiving off at dinner time
And strolling past the working men’s redoubt
And longing to be blokes with fags and pints
And hearing union reps tell us young lads
A hundred years of coal awaited us
And watching men from Fletcher, Sutch and Wild
Retiring to the pub to slake their day
While merchant navies offered us the world
And fitting firms flashed bulging order books.
This clamour in my head, I could not wait:
Now all the pubs are shut these thirty years,
The mines are dead, the Moors are gentrified.
The world I longed for vanished as I dreamed;
But then, perhaps it never truly was.


ROUND 2

Nigel of course started off again with Dreaming in Freedom, a very subtle piece I felt from him about looking at things from the viewpoint of a bird in a cage who was given the chance to escape and didn’t. This made me think of a similarity with a human too in the sense of sometimes in the sense it is easy to get yourself trapped without realising and even harder to then break out off it. Excellent stuff.

Andy C’s second piece following on from that ‘Rain in June’ title wise was very adapt certainly from the fun I had had with the weather when I had left work that day to head over to Stockport (meeting Amanda on route of course) and got drenched completely but the poem was deeper than that of course. I particularly loved the reference to ‘baptized by nature’ and ‘tear of aging burnt face ‘brought a lot of emotions in only a way he can. Lovely.

Mescach followed on that with an old piece ‘Footprints in the sand’ which he advised he originally read out 9 years ago but was an excellent piece almost stood at a crossroads between choices in life. I didn’t ask Mescach this on the night, but it was the kind of piece when you wrote it as young as I think he was at the time, would carry a different meaning to what it did at the time, as life does change when you are at that age.

John provided a remix of a piece he also read out a bit back (which I remembered actually) called Charity Shop which discussed how a whole life can be on sale in charity shop sometimes, say 30, 40 or 50 years of memories almost like they are awaiting now to be rehoused. One of my favourites of John’s and a pleasure to hear it again.

There was a journey in Martin’s second piece ‘On the way to the bus’ like Mescach’s piece beforehand but a much more outward journey on the way to an un-named journey in contrast to Mescach’s more inward journey but as lovely as Mescach with a similar yearning, almost innocence despite the quite different topics.

I loved Nicola’s ‘Firehouse hours’ with its almost painting like quality with references like pencil sizes on covers and bell chime interpreting riddles, this was a piece which had character faults in people within but a layer of tenderness which I loved.

Valerie’s ‘Toilet roll crisis’ followed on from her first piece but had quite a different tone which was a little more gentle, almost humorous which is a good skill I feel in writing pieces like she has, as losing somebody does make you look back at the funny times as well as the sad times. It’s a good skill to do when you are writing tribute pieces like this to show more than one side to things, which I really enjoyed.

Dave caught me out with his second piece ‘Orpheus on the edge of the town’ (perks of Dyspraxia) but as always with Dave, this was a clever multi layered piece  with it’s retelling of life in myths (following on from ‘Orpheus in the underworld) into a modern setting which was a great example of how great stories can be adapted into different settings and still retain their flavour.

Maggie’s next poem was an incredibly short piece called Bird and egg and was originally written in 2012. I loved the briskness of this piece, and thought for a short piece contained a lovely hidden theme which had me thinking about over and over again afterwards. Excellent.

Getting to the end of the night, Ed’s last poem ‘Paddle Steamer’ was quite different to the political leanings of his first piece but just as lyrical be it in a very different way with its journey across rivers of steam which bought back memories of journeys, I’ve had in boats too.

Chris’s ‘Home and away’ was a perfect way to follow on from Ed with it’s almost story like structure of the way her life was like when she was in India as a Nurse. I particularly loved the references of how they stared at her or even touched her hair if they got close enough to her which added layers of detail about India which I certainly didn’t know before.

Amanda’s second piece ‘Pigeonholed’ which I know will be the first piece in her other poetry book she has nearly completed, which will be released under her actual name and called ‘Pieces of me’ was a clever multi layered piece which examines how as writers we can get pigeonholed in our lives and how to break away from it.

I finished off with a short piece from a sequence I am working on currently, which doesn’t have a title yet and likely will appear next year which are all been wrote on post it notes just as a challenge to see if I can write a poem on one of them called ‘Filled with Ghosts’ which drew quite a few comparisons in relation to Nigel’s work here. Oops – lol.

Anyway, here is the collage poem that John has edited together for you to read.

Hope you all enjoy or if you don’t get it, just think it’s all Greek to me too (which oddly enough is also the theme for next month)

Cheers

Andy N

GOING BACK IN TIME

Overhanging your tiredness
Coming home

Ah 60’s! Too young, let’s do it again.
60’s women, short skirts, knickers

Don’t look now in Blackpool
The man selling sand is here again

What comes before?
Silent silver surfing by the sea

Falling into the past
Looking back, we see clearly.

Footprints in the sand of disbelief
Nowhere to fly across the skyline

Discarded memories rearranged to
Tell another story going back

Walking in the footsteps of another time,
60’s music playing, freedom dancing, and intoxicated mind.

Bending down pink mini
Showing my bum… never!
Never in a month of Sundays!

Waving to myself
It’s all Greek to me

In Lindisfarne the sky is darkening
We will cross the causeway one more time

Bold, black ink
Still waiting to know the future.

A few hints of writing projects to come Part 2

I first met Nick Armbrister all the way back at the summer of 2009 or so at the Abbey Inn in Oldham during a band rehearsal for my then band ‘Words and Music’. We had been offered a good gig at a pub called the Gardners Arms a few miles up the road from there and we were going to do with a guitarist friend of mine, Rick (which it had to be said didn’t work out at the Gardners for reasons I’ll talk in my book ‘Losing the thread’ another day) where I first met Nick Armbrister who came along also to the Gardners also as well as the Abbey where I first got chatting to him.

Where the idea for our joint poetry series ‘Europa’ in 2013 or so I can’t actually remember upon reflection, perhaps Nick would have more of an idea than me but it certainly got delayed when I contracted Diabetes in the late summer of 2011 and early versions of The End of Summer (it went through three or four printed versions before I got it right) contained some anti war poems which became a stable of our books, two anti war poets protesting anyway we could in that summer of 2014. A second book followed two years later simply Europa II where I wrote excluding my NaPoWriMo themed work, my first major themed work on Prisoners of War and then at the start of 2019, our third book of this which from my side contained well over 20 pieces of Soldiers retreating from a massacre of their men across the ocean.

As I said before following my newly developed mini poetry form, I have now nearly my section of our fourth poetry writing currently somewhere round 34 or 35 pieces looking at people’s lives just before and just after it gets bombed by a enemy’s planes in the middle of a war. Following on from both Europa2 and Europa3, Europa 4 from my side will look at the effects of people’s lives this time in just a few lines.

The poems that may appear in the book I suspect are going to change by the time my side of the collection will be ready some point in the Spring or summer of 2020 but a example of this could well be:

Kissing in the shelling

Basked in silence

the young couple couldn’t move

from the shadows

once the shelling started

their kissing being the only thing

that could keep them alive.

Europa 1 to 3 can be all be found on my Amazon page in the meantime

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Andy-N/e/B076B21BVP

A few hints of writing projects to come Part 1

As I’ll talk about in more depth later on, a few of you will know I have released three full length poetry books and four split poetry books (and a little chapbook) since I started really publishing books all the way back in 2010.

All of these with one exception have been self published (although one came out briefly on a publisher which I will talk about in a future post and another available as a free download somewhere else), and I have learnt a lot about myself doing things this way perhaps more than if I had gone straight down the route of a major or indeed semi major publisher.

Going forward it has to be said as it stands I don’t know what I am going to do publishing wise, some of my future projects I know for a fact will be self published, others perhaps deserve a different path.

One such project which will follow next will be my first joint book with my always lovely Amanda Steel. Currently untitled (but in my own folders as ‘Thoughts’ which will certainly not be the final title) is perhaps without doubt the most toughest and difficult poetry book I have ever worked to date, This isn’t because of the content of the piece or even the fact it is a jointly wrote piece (which I have done on several projects before some with Amanda) but rather the fact each piece me and Amanda are writing here are 7 words each. Nothing more, nothing less. Amanda started this with a few lines here quite simply and I wrote a response as a half gag really something like a hour later at lunchtime. It wasn’t designed to be developed into a full sequence but it has and we are currently close to halfway writing it with a picture backing each other allowing us both to share it on instragram, facebook, twitter, linkedin etc. All been good, this should be released in July or August time of this year.

We may well write a full length poetry book together in the future of duet poetry (I think we have wrote maybe 12 or 13 pieces together) but after that, a few of you know I have been writing tons of mini mini poems (and when I say mini I mean anything up to 6 to 9 lines) since somewhere late Autumn of last year. 

Although I have wrote little poems before or mini ones, but certainly over the past six months I have wrote I guess several hundred of these often on little postal notes or even on the back of train tickets or bus tickets just scribbling a short, sharp little reaction that may have popped into my head in a real burst of energy. 

Some of them it had to be said were not so good and disappeared into my archive never to be seen but there are loads of which are really, really good in my mind. A good selection of these (Around 45 or so) I have gathered into a little book and that’ll be out in the Autumn called ‘The streets were all we could see’. Stark, fragile and shocking this little collection are different from anything people will have seen of me before.

Amanda is currently thumbing through the several other hundred of these poems and a second selection of said work which may well be called Postal Note Poetry with the aim for a second collection of said poetry to follow over Winter and into the start of 2020 as a companion book. There are other little books in mind one called Dock Leaves (which is about comical court stories fictional of course) which I am hoping back for a few years for reasons obivious if you know where I am working (it is very good of course still) and more work with my dear friend Nick Armbrister on Europa 4 which I’ll talk about next.

Ocean in a Bottle - what's next?

As I said before in my previous post, Ocean in a Bottle does have a number of releases forthcoming.

Most of these have been recorded and mostly mixed and are:

1) A simple case: I'm sorry.. looking at the Moon (Out June Silber Media Records, June 2019)

The next single for Ocean will be viva Silber Media Records in June 2019. Following on from a one off single in January 'Dawn Chorus', this single will cover 5 short tracks covering the total of around 5 minutes or so telling five parts of a short story or so from beginning to end using drones, piano and rain to tell a emotional story (some elements cropping up in the same song) while focusing on the moon.

2) Stargazing in silence from the North Pole 

A three track single with an extended mix of the third track and a reprise of the first track as bonuses, this single has a very icy feel to the synths stood alone looking at the stars from the North Pole (July / August 2019)

3) 2 Orbits of Pluto

A two track single (maybe three track single) with bonus remix from HICC's Distance, this long single is a kind of companion piece to the released Approaching Mars except the drones are longer, stretched out almost like somebody tiring at the end of a journey
(August / September 2019)

4) On Saturns Wings

Although I do like all of the releases I am talking about that are upcoming, this one is a personal fav with two epic tracks both over 14 minutes imagining how it would feel bouncing up and down Saturns Wings.
(?)

5) Exploring Jupiters Moons (Single)
    Exploring Jupiters Moons (Album) Volume 1 

Somewhere further along the line is a recorded album with additional single studying each of Jupiters Moons separate track by track. As there are reportingly over 70 moons orbiting Jupiter, you can expect this to be a multi album project.
(?)

6) At the edge of the Milky Way

A one off track which on its current mix is over 21 minutes long and unless the mix changes has ten minutes of sonic white noise drifting off into darkness. This will be a challenging, haunting piece and I suspect not one to listen to with the lights off (unless that floats your boat - lol)
(2020 at least)

7) Re-exaiming the Solar System

The first one recorded for my Space themed projects after the initial Inner and Outer Space themed recordings and has been released as it could be getting released on another label with 8 short pieces, one for each planet from Mars to Nepture.
(Hopefully 2019 or if not start of 2020)

Ocean in a bottle - notes on projects from the past

Before I move onto what’s coming next from Ocean in a Bottle, I thought I would share some notes about past projects for Ocean in a Bottle (Not revealed before):

Alex Humphrey EP was wrote in memory of my dear friend Alex Humphrey who sadly went missing in 2009 and his body was never found with a large rumour appearing years later he met a terrible accident after falling off a truck and breaking his neck. Alex was a dear friend of mine who despite been very troubled was a incredibly talented writer and artist who did everything in a very unusual way and this single was designed as a tribute to him years later to highlight this.

The End of Summer project: This began off as just a two part project (which ended up eventually been 4 parts to date) wrote hand in hand as I was writing my second full length poetry book ‘The End of Summerhouse I wanted it to be a companion piece telling similar stories to the words except in music. Over time, this changed and became it’s own beast really with different strokes creating different shadows.

Hurricane in a bottle. This actually was the first EP I recorded and one I nearly didn’t release

as it was worried it was a little as I played the keyboard / Piano fairly normal as I did at the time and then throughout the rest of EP kept building up the rest of the tracks so it went faster and faster and faster and more and more distorted to make it feel like you are in the middle of a hurricane which I

think it worked on that level (On a side note Hurricane in a bottle was the original name for Ocean in a Bottle and it’s a name I still may go back to in the future).

Monument (A Christmas walk to Tandle Hill) was wrote for somebody I was seeing at the time who took me on a walk at Christmas across Tandle Hill that Christmas.

Flight of the Phoenix I and II – Flight of the Phoenix was a series of simple Piano pieces (II was more echoey and distant to symbolise the further the journey was along) of an imaginary Phoenix getting to the end of its journey and also touched on the emotional journey a friend called Phoenix was then going through.

Moving Houses – was quite simply wrote over two nights in-between trying to move everything to my new address and testing out the acoustics in the apartment (which were lovely)

Piano in the rain,

Piano on the train

Piano in the sea

– This was a series of Piano pieces again recorded in different places letting the background ambience carry it along done as much live as possible.

Homage to Brian Eno

Warped kind of ambient silence (Homage to the Aphex Twin)

These were two homage Eps to two major influences on the sound of Ocean in a Bottle.

Conversations with the Dead.. This came from a really bad dream which played it out across my head for several nights until I worked out the sound I wanted to develop.

Circling Winter,

In the Midst of Winter,

Embracing Winter,

Understanding Winter

This 4 part series was a really well received series of movements across Winter – each one exploring the emotional subtext and feelings that Winter drags us through (One was wrote during a snowstorm).

From Winter to Spring – this was wrote as a finale to the previous sequence and designed to lead

into a new sequence (Alas it didn’t happen but I will write a spring sequence).

Movements for Piano Day (2016) – wrote for Nils for Piano day 2016.

Dream Logic Part 1, 2, 3

Three more Eps wrote for Brian Eno.

Changing Seasons – is a companion piece from Winter to Spring except doing it from the end of Summer to the Birth of Autumn which should have then followed with a series of Autumn based pieces (that followed some time later)

Abandoned Cities it has to be said wasn’t originally planned to be an Ocean in a Bottle project rather than the name for a new band with a vocalist (who I won’t name) who let me down big style

after completing 4 fragmented ambient pieces for you, and after placing them back to myself it became apparent that there was 4 quite lovely tracks which deserved to be heard.

Forgotten tracks and EPS – Volume 1 and 2. Both of these albums was a product of a cleansing at the end of 2016 of demos and out-takes and discovering I really liked the tracks outstanding and decided while I decided on my next stage forward I would let people hear some alternative tracks and demos etc, as a way of looking behind the curtain.

Dream Frontier – this was designed to be the first in a new series of ambient pieces following on from the Dream Logic, alas real life got in the way not long after this piece and the series got abandoned which then resulted in the next single.

Finale – was what was it was meant to be, the finale to Ocean in a Bottle as I wanted to go onto other projects but as I hinted above, real life got in the way and it got delayed quite a bit and by the time I released it, I was already halfway through from From Choirs to Dischoirs.

From Choirs to Dischoirs Part 1 – again wasn’t originally meant to be an Ocean in a Bottle single as the sound is more higher and floaty, but my partner I remember saying it is Ocean in a Bottle perhaps just count it as a Stage 2 as you are going higher and deeper than before and after the Autumn series which followed next which is what I did. A Part 2 has been recorded and also some ideas for Part 3… In time, when I want a break from my current series I will record to this series.

Tuning into Autumn,

Birth of Autumn,

Dancing across Autumn,

Breeze across Country Meadows in Autumn

Touching the wind while sat on fences

This is a 5 part series exploring Autumn in a similar way to my Winter sequence did, except a bit less nosier and intense than what followed through the Winter series. It also wasn’t intended to be a 5 part series as originally the first 3 releases were all meant to be just one release but I enjoyed the three sessions that much, it made sense to leave it separate even though by the time I got to the finale, we were heading out of Autumn already.

Mailboxes in late Winter – was a live EP wrote in late March 2018 simply watching the snow come down one night all over a Post Box and wondering how I would get to work the next day (which was very difficult shall we say).

Awakening I and II – A spiritual re-awakening

Waiting for the bath to run – a challenge to write and record and mix a track while waiting for the bath to run… I made it somehow.

Stepping into the sea – is a synth like response to John Masefield’s ‘Sea Fever’.

Movement in the wind - A response to part to the Stephen King quote on the write up to the single but an emotional response on Piano to listening to a gentle breeze over three nights over a hot night.

Synth Dreams – nice became Stepping into the sea II I seem to recall but it became apparent over repeated listening became to feel I was drowning rather stepping into the sea in a ton of information and therefore it became an almost Science Fiction EP.

Dawn Chorus – is my first single for Disintermediate, a simple 5 mine drone track mixed with a field recording near Amanda’s interlaced with a lovely (at least to me) droney synth piano to build into a feeling close to Dawn. It is worth this was recorded before Into Space and Outer space.

Into Space

Outer Space

Searching for Planet 9

Searching for Planet 9 (Remixes)

Floating from the Earth to the Moon and back

First approach of Mars

The first six parts of a major series (which has at least another six parts to go, maybe even more) of emotional journeys passing planets and stars trying to imagine through noise and synths and tapes and ambient and piano how the emotion will be be on each place we pass.

https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/