A slightly earlier review of the year since I have now done my last spoken word gig of the year (excluding maybe the odd one or two online spoken word open mic night) but year wise, yeah, it’s being a interesting and busy year that’s for sure.
Speak Easy the spoken word open mic night I co-run with Amanda and Steve has being doing great and as far as I can see is not showing signs of slowing down with numbers standing at anything from 40 to 60 people in total attending every month and always so it seems new people coming in every month wanting to read which is a sign of the night is going great – something we intend all being well carrying on in the new year.
Also pleasing to see lots of new spoken word nights cropping up in Manchester and beyond and it’s being a exicting year of doing lots of radio programmes / Podcasts – I won’t go into them all as there has being a lot off them but in total I’ve done over 60 recordings / readings / online appearances which can be seen here which surprisingly isn’t as tiring as it sounds http://onewriterandhispc.blogspot.com/p/gigs.html
Ocean in a Bottle has had a wonderful productive year with 11 appearances on compliations on Ambient Online, Silber Media, Camembertelectrique and Aural Films and a number of other fun releases including unreleased singles, EPs and some new bits and pieces also and I have more in mind for next year too.
I’ve branched out into a new studio band too, Polly Ocean – Ocean in a Bottle with my dear spoken word friend Polly Anna from which we have released our debut EP “Confluence at Le Val” on the Ocean in a Bottle bandcamp page and a redux version with lots of different tracks on Camembertelectrique also. (A second band Mandy in a Bottle will follow in 2023 with its debut album) also in preparation for our next EP to follow before the end of Winter next year.
Less known but just as important in a much low key way has being the archiving project on my Andy N productions page on bandcamp where I have being still uploading unreleased / forgotten projects from my very early work as DIH, M.A.N, W@ and loads of others. There has resulted in quite a few new improvisations happening there as Distance encouraged by the response to the long improvised, drone pieces there and I still have a few more archive / new pieces I want to put on there (https://andynproductions.bandcamp.com/) as well as carrying with my other low key project (https://pianoinabottle.bandcamp.com/)
Spoken Label – my spoken word Podcast is close to releasing it’s 400 episode which I find incredible releasing around 230 off them in close to 3 years showing how busy I have being with it since lockdown crept around us all at the start of 2020 and always makes me smile when I remember Amanda saying to not that long back she honestly thought I would have run out of people I wanted to chat after a year or two when in reality it has proved far from the case and currently has no signs of slowing down.
Sadly, Reading in Bed the book review Podcast I have ran for 5 years with Amanda sadly released it’s last regular episode in December after 5 years of monthly episodes (60) and literally dozens of side projects, spin off etcs. The side project within that, Storytime with Andy and Amanda is planned to carry onto in the new year with us both reading out a selection of work each month and when possible have a guest come on also. More details on Reading in Bed’s replacement ‘Cloaked in the Shadows’ will follow shortly.
My own written word lastly, well it’s being a curious one as although it did look like at one point I was going to pack in poetry altogether (and this is still on the cards sadly) making a decision to go back to several manscripts thathave being dangling around for some time has encouraged me to finish off two full length poetry books ‘Dock Leaves’ and ‘In the Midst of Winter’ (avaiable on amazon if you look for them) which have being dangling around for some time near completion, sort out two split poetry books with my friend Nick in our Europa series, Run away with me again in 8 words with Amanda and I was honoured to be asked to send some pieces for two of Alta Mabin’s curated themed books. More to follow in the new year with all three of these writers and hopefully with a new writer or two I haven’t worked and all being two more poetry books which have being dangling around for too long with before I move onto flash fictions / prose and maybe a novel more.
Yeah, big changes on the way.
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