Monday, May 12, 2008

Gigging Weekend

Apologies for not posting for a few days; it's been utterly mad here this week. I've been finishing one review for Poetry Review and starting another for Tower Poetry; making more notes on my long essay for PNR; trying to crack on with my next Tutor Marked Assignment for my Open University course; plus reading a brand-new Brendan Cleary pamphlet entitled 'Trees on Bear Road'.

And then there's been the gigging. First, I read at ye olde Lord Leycester Hospital in Warwick on Friday 9th, where I received a very fine fish and chip supper, and then down at Essex University on Saturday 10th, alongside former XTC-star Martin Newell, who was tremendously funny and eccentric; he kept grabbing the mic stand to give us a Mick Jagger impersonation, or leaping across the stage to bang out a few chords on the piano.

On Sunday, I took myself over to PencilFest at Warwick University where many excellent student-organised events were going on all weekend, and heard a number of poets read their work at the Trespass magazine launch, including Annie Freud, Martyn Crucefix, Tim Wells, Agnes Meadows, and some short story writers too, such as Anthony Howcroft. For those wondering, Trespass is on about its fourth issue and is a sister publication to London Magazine.

I had been planning to take a spot in the open mic session but it was so hot by the time the Trespass readings were over, I just wanted to go home and lie down in the garden. Which is what I did. Roll on, heatwave!

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