A Means to an End live at Didsbury Arts Festival 2011

Dear all;

after our successful gigs at Chorlton Arts Festival 2011, Brahmall Music Festival 2011, Tyldesley Music Festival 2011 and Not Part of Festival 2011, A Means to an End are proud to announce our next gig at Didsbury Arts Festival 2011 .

The gig itself is happening at the Sanctuary Bar in Didsbury and the gig itself should be starting around 9pm.

Admission is FREE.

My story about Alex Humphrey

Alex Humphrey is a poet friend of mine who has sadly been missing in Panoma

Since August 2009.

On the Find Alex Humphrey page on facebook, (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126108175597) his mother has recently asked people to provide memories of Alex.

This is mine

‘I have a lot of memories of Alex, most too personal or private to really share

But the one that always sticks in my head was a reading at Manchester Muscuem

In September 2008.

The reading was quite a quiet reading all in all, which suited the softer, gentler poems 

I chose to read. Alex followed me straight after reading and after started with

A soft piece then proclaimed he was now going to do a cover version of one 

of his favourite bands and then launched into a totally improvised (at least I think 

to this day it was improvised) version of Bros’s ‘I owe you nothing’ which involved 

him running all over the stage area screaming and jumping all over the floor.

I had seen Alex done this kind of work before, but what makes this stick in 

my head is the simple fact was a gentleman who wasn’t at the reading came 

in from the other side of the café, saw Alex running around the place and 

then froze before doing a sharp exit straight back out.

It was that unpredictability I miss the most about Alex. 

Latest news - week beginning 12th September 2011

Dear all;

After a reasonably quiet week last week.. This week - things are
starting to pick up again.

Tonight, first of all - I am over at Stockport Art Gallery see above
for the monthly Write Out Stockport night. I always enjoy this night
as it's a relaxed, easy going poetry reading where I always use the
opportunity to read out some brand new, unperformed poetry and
on this night - it should be a few poems from my new sequence '
The End of Summer' which is very adapt after the week-end just gone's
weather which was quite chilly I must admit.

Tuesday - I am having a meet up with my guitarist, Jeff for a lengthy
band rehearsal in the afternoon at mine where we will sort out exactly
what pieces we will be doing for Didsbury Arts Festival at the end
of September and hopefully finish off our book 'A Means to an End'
(which although is officially is out in November should be available
for the end of September).

Wednesday - I am over at my other halves, which I will try to do a bit
more writing on the End of Summer sequence which is now nearly done
and then on Thursday do some submitting to magazines etc, before
heading over there again on Friday before heading on out with some
pals on Saturday for a bite to meal, then popping over to the new
Write Out Loud event in Bolton at the Wellington Pub, on Bury
New Road on Sunday night. I don't really know where that is, but
am looking forward to it.. Start time for that is 7.30pm - should be
great fun.

Have a good week folks. Next week - I should have lots more news.

The End of Summer II (New Poem)

 









In hindsight,
it wasn’t just the soft,
cold perfume
of the breeze.

Wasn’t just
the change in weather
nor Swallows
which had gone East
instead of South.

Autumn hadn’t
built itself up
as it normally did
but fell unexpected
from the skies
choking summer
until it fizzled away.

Autumn burst through
without reason
like a hurricane
instead of an
more intimate moment
on the other side
of an conversation,

and blew out the candles
like the 4th of July
on a dream ticket to nowhere.

Latest news - 8th September 2011

 

 

 

 

Dear all;

the timing of these updates has been off and on for which I am sorry,
but there is a lot going in work at the moment.

Some more bullet point updates on news anyhow..

1) A Means to an End should be recording a demo now at
the beginning of October once our Didsbury Arts Festival gig
is complete.

2) I've recieved a rough draft book in the post from lulu.com
for which I am delighted with the end results. However, it will
need some slight amends and then by the end of September, we
should have the final copies done.

3) Don't forget A Means to an End are due to play Didsbury
Arts Festival on Monday 26th September - (more details here
at Sanctuary Bar in Didsbury. The event is due to
start at 9pm and will run for maybe a hour and a half.
Admission is free.

4) The week before, Jeff my partner in a Means to an End
will be running his new bi-monthly event at Write Out Loud
in Bolton a new location, The Wellington on 51, Bury New Road,
Bolton with a special slot from Anna Mcrory to do a special
guest slot. Doors open at 7pm, for the show to start an earlier time
of 7.30pm. More details here

5) After that, Guitar and Verse, the event I co-help Jeff run
is moving sticks for the next few months to Salford's legendary
pub 'The Crescent' which although I am sorry to leave
Butterflies Bar in Bolton, it'll be nice to move for a few months
at least. Next event is October 7th and will feature an excellent
band called The Vanity project headlining with a featured poet
Indigo from the Open Mind Collective doing a support slot.
I will pop down to read out a few poems here.

6) Just after that, I believe we are doing a set at Paradox,
a monthly night in Withington on 8th October 2011 (I will
confirm this shortly).

7) As can be seen here, I've also recently helped Rob Goodier,
a poet on the Bolton Circuit (UK) publish his second book 'Open
Door Closed' which is his follow up book to a collection which
I currently forget it's name from some years back. It's a good
collection and one which I will be doing a full in depth review
on shortly.

8) I've just taken onboard the publishing of another collection,
'The Hour of the Wolf' by Gary Morris. Gary was a dear friend
of mine who I first met at a writing group I used to go to '24
hour arty people' many years ago, and from which me, him
and his partner, Amanda formed 'Trio Writers' which ran until
his untimely passing in 2010. With permission of his partner,
Amanda - I am going to take onboard the publication of his
book - selected from an large archive. More details to follow
as and when etc.

Linkedin

Dear all;

As some of you may know, my day job is in the process
of finishing so I have now set up a Linkedin profile for
work purposes.

The link can be found here..

http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/andrew-nicholson/3a/468/65

Add me if you wish

Andy N