Thursday, 29 October 2009
Monday, 20 July 2009
Cool Cat Blues at Morden Tower
Review copied from bepopspokenhere.blogspot.com
Morden Tower, secreted into the medieval West Walls of the old city of Newcastle upon Tyne, is a hidden gem. The intimate tower is approached via a cobbled back lane off China Town. On a dark winter's night one could well stumble upon a witches' coven but this was a mid-summer's evening and it was the spirit of poets past walking the walls as the cool cats listened, intently, then momentarily distracted, then focussing once more on the words and music of Frank Reeve and friends. Reeve, a tall, seemingly intense, yet genial American sat in front of the cats and read. 'The Blue Cat Walks the Earth' is Reeve's third volume of poems about a cat and things...the politics of being a cat, a knowing cat. Rhythm and meter, jazz rhythm and meter were to the fore. Our cat, at times, wasn't word perfect; it didn't matter, he was a jazz cat. 'The Apology' and 'May Day in Moscow' were but two of many 'jazz' poems - Brighton based John Lake and Phil Paton, multi-instrumentalists both, played cool cat blues - to be heard this night on West Walls. A diversion, a hoedown - 'The Blue Cat Calls a Country Dance' - was a delight; Reeve, Lake and Paton got it just right. An evening of jazz 'n' blues, of New Orleans, Steinbeck, the Dust Bowl, of the stevedore on New York's docks, of solidarity.
'The Blue Cat Walks the Earth' by FD Reeve is published by Smokestack Books www.smokestack-books.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-9560431-0-6. £8.95. (inc.CD). The CD features American musicians Don Davis (sax) & Joe Deleault (piano). Frank Reeve's website: www.fdreeve.org . Morden Tower's website: www.mordentower.org .
John Lake and Phil Paton should take a well-deserved bow. They met up with Reeve the day before the Morden Tower performance. Their contribution was as if they were long-time associates of Reeve. Cool, cats.
Saturday, 27 June 2009
45 Years of Poetry and Music
A great big thanks to everyone who helped organise and celebrate the Morden Tower's 45 Birthday. On June the 16 some of the northeast's finest came together to celebrate nearly half a century of poetry and music in the medieval walls of the city. With special thanks to Lee Etherington, Stevie Ronnie, Paul Summers, Nev Clay, Rosie, Christina La Provost, Chris Phillips and everyone who joined us.
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Saturday, 28 February 2009
A Strong Song Tows Us
A Strong Song Tows Us
Award-winning writer Lee Hall (Billy Elliot and The Pitman Painters) goes on a personal journey through a history of English poetry.
Award-winning writer Lee Hall (Billy Elliot and The Pitman Painters) goes on a personal journey through a history of English poetry.
In “A Strong Song Tows Us,” Lee examines an alternative tradition where poetry is the preserve of ordinary working people - and not just the formally educated. Exploring the themes of class, art, politics and culture, he uncovers the surprising history of the Northern contribution to English poetry. Stretching back to the Dark Ages, Lee reveals English poetry’s hidden history, where Sunderland cork-cutters save Walt Whitman; shipyard workers hang out with Allen Ginsberg; indigent pitmen poets dine with Pre-Raphaelite littérateurs; and errant Geordie schoolboys commune with Ezra Pound.
The programme focuses on the unlikely meeting between a 16-year-old schoolboy and one of the great Modernists of English Literature, Basil Bunting, which resulted in the flowering of Newcastle as an international destination for the whole Beatnik generation.
Tall Tales & Short Stories
Tall Tales & Short Stories will be at Morden Tower 20 March 09 on World Story Telling Day
more about Tall Tales & Short Stories here here
more about Tall Tales & Short Stories here here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)