I'm a poet and performer, mostly. I live at the moment in the London borough of Newham, and very nice it is too. I've lived most of my life, though, on Tyneside in the north east of England, a kind of post-industrial limbo.
I've been writing and performing since 2000, though I trace the roots of the poetry further back, to my time studying the classics at the university. Days reading Plato Horace and Virgil, nights reading Ginsberg Ferlinghetti and Snyder (sometimes it was the other way round). It all went in, lying dormant a few years for just the proper occasion.
Which turned out to be the joyful and riotous night called Home Cooking, kicked off in April 2000 and still going in Newcastle today. I lived, somehow, two or three hectic years as impressario/poet-in-residence/conferencier (that's the proper word for a cabaret MC, apparently), before fleeing for refuge to a proper job, a house by the sea and a serious go at this poetry lark.
Falling in along the way with the gentlemen of The Morris Quinlan Experience, who I'm pleased to say were on the look out for a new poet to feature on their second album. A period of astonishingly fine and careful work later, the album Follow On is now released and making friends in the world, Radio 2's Bob Harris prominent among them.
Yeah? The weather is getting quite retarded here as well. This storm, Gustav, pretty crazy. You've got another tour coming up here shortly in November, no?
Hey ... I kinda represent that comment ... Baptist, Republican and Crazy Alcoholic! It is NOT any of the above that is absolutely unbearable ... it is the extremism within which some of us dwell. Love Ya, T.
You are VERY welcome. Thank you for the most wonderful comment, we totally appreciate it. What is your favorite genre of music? I'll try to add another song near that ASAP. Truly enjoyed your poems as well. Looking forward to keeping in touch. Have the happiest of holidays.
