20.15 Blog #7: Adapt To Survive

It’s been a while since I set my phone off spinning round and round until 20 mins and 15 seconds are up.  But it’s been a busy few weeks.  I’ve co-ordinated an event for Selby’s Little Fest of theatre, music and arts in the incredible Abbey featuring local groups.  I’ve been doing some R&D with my friend Maddy Shann on a piece we might develop in the future.  And I’ve been busy turning my acoustic side project, Pewter City Punk, into a full band!

But we must forge ahead with the project for the year.  Namely, to write a blog post in 20 mins and 15 seconds.  We’re off!

This blog is about adaptations.  Over the past year, I have adapted A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Harrogate Theatre to be used for a range of ages roughly 6-11 in Youth Theatre and school’s outreach projects.  I have also adapted the classic tale of The Circle of Chalk (as retold by Brecht) for York Youth Theatre’s 16+ group which was performed at the end of last year.  Now I’ve sent off my final draft to Harrogate Theatre, an adaptation of the classic Robin Hood tale.

Adaptations can be incredible retelling of stories.  I saw a stream of the NTs Treasure Island written by Bryony Lavery.  I thought it was a really gripping action adventure.  Maybe a tad gory for the target audience it intended, but still a visceral retelling that gripped me.  Some adaptations get the story to a wider audience, Tom Morris and Emma Rice’s Night’s At The Circus for Kneehigh was the first time I’ve experienced Angela Carter, now one of my fav writers.   Mike Kenny’s adaptations for York Theatre Royal, Tutti Frutti or Hiccup Theatre are always rich with a joyous insight into the original.

Adaptations have to be both faithful and fresh.  Just as film is not theatre, theatre is not a book.  Theatre is a live experience condensed into a relatively small pocket of time.  But it must also be faithful, else why not repackage the story as something entirely new?

From an artistic perspective, there’s the pull between the context of the original text, and trying to find the ‘hook’ for the modern day.  Shakespeare is often easy, as a humanist his plays often have recognisable characters falling in love, being ambitious or being trapped. 

Whenever I’m playing with an original idea, I like to jot down over a few days all my thoughts with purely the context I bring to the paper.  Circle of Chalk is swished around my memory of seeing it previously at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.  All my initial ideas of Brecht ideas.  A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I rifled through my memory for all those key moments that stand out without a re-reading of the play.

Then I take time to dive deeper, read around the story.  Read the liner notes, read up online, take out some books, try and really sink deep and see if there’s an interpretation I’ve missed.

By putting these two contrasting styles alongside each other, you start to find your own voice between the lines.  For Who Shot The Sherriff, my mind flashed Marian as being a tough fighter, not unlike the TV show from my childhood.  Of course, upon doing my research and reading other books I realised how she’s traditionally portrayed as being an aristocratic woman.  So my version had her being forced to learn the rules of civilised society despite her best interests.  I knew there needed to be a fight scene, but only after re-watching the classic Errol Fyn sword-fights did I realised how this can be scripted, and kinda parodied.

My version of Robin Hood and his Merry Men are more merry kids.  They are still teenagers, played by members of Harrogate Theatre Youth Theatre.  To that end, they have the energy and bravery of young people. They are told they are dirty, rude and intolerable.  They get told off, caught and are fought.

If my Robin Hood and his merry men were, in fact, merry men I think it would be tonally darker.  It wouldn’t be a cruel angst-driven piece, but more would be at stake.  Breaking laws would have more severe consequences.  Who Shot The Sherriff is a bit farcical, a bit slapstick, a bit manic.  There’s the threat of death hinted, but it’s more for a summer show of swords and swordplay.  I felt this came out from the characters being so young and vim-filled.

However, that’s not the say the play is a watered-down Panto.  From the 21^st century lens, why are these kids keen to become knights or outlaws?  Who are their role-models?  Why can the Sherriff bully them around?  These thoughts bounced around my skull like an arrow flying off the walls.

So I realised (partly though a spot of Prince of Thieves viewing) that the adults had gone off East to fight the crusades, not unlike our day and age where soldiers are sent abroad in government’s wars.  This left a power vacuum for men like the Sherriff to take power, and young boys and girls eager to fill their shoes.

I’m not saying it’s the most political piece I’ve written, certainly not compared to The Circle of Chalk which has a lot of my perceptions on nationality, nation and borders.  But I think they exploring various perceptions on an original text, while keeping the energy of a traditional action-adventure can take a different turn when not throwing it into the deep waters of 2015, but letting it paddle around in a few different ponds of possibility.

Or something.

Catch Who Shot The Sherriff at Harrogate’s main stage this summer, tickets here

20.15 Blog #6: Delayed Reaction to the election

A 20.15 blog (written in 20 mins 15 seconds)

Yeah. We get it.  The Tories won.  So put your anger back in the box for 2020, Henry.

Well, I feel like I never got a chance to vent.  Because over the last month you might have noticed a lack of blogging.  That’s because I’ve been mega busy.  Like, I’m always busy.  But the meganess makes it even more busy-ised.

What’s been occurring?  Well I bought a car so I can zip to gigs, festivals and workshops quicker.  That feels a big deal.

I finished my 2^nd draft of Who Shot The Sherriff, my play for Harrogate Theatre, a summer family show about Robin Hood as a kid.  It should be a good madcap comedy and I’m happy with the result, a few more tweaks and it’ll be ready for rehearsals.  I’m going to write a proper blog about it later, but for now.  It’s there, the arrow is notched up, the aim is true.

I’ve also been working on a community project for The On Our Turf Project.  I am the Community Artist and my role was to put together an evening of entertainment for the people of Selby, inspired by their stories, the town’s history and it’s character.  We had various groups come and perform, a nice sizeable audience and lots of smiling faces.  So that was a positive buzz.

But Thursday night wasn’t, and nether was Friday morning when, after 18 years, the Tories got a majority government.  I went through a whole series of emotions that night and morning, as I did think Miliband might have turned it around.  But he proved a damp dishcloth of a banner-bearer when it came to the crunch, and we’re stuck with a Tory cabinet unbound by Lib Dem liberalisms.

The Stage article by says it best, but I want to say I found myself falling into the trap of preaching to the converted.  Well, not quite.  In the past year I got into challenging the problem and problematic culture within punk, nerd and the left.  Trying to wrestle with my own privilege, my own preconceptions and attitudes.  My poems have been trying to remove or play with gender.  I have been putting on gigs as both Say Owt Slam with Stu Freestone and Who Killed Moose? with Nick Smith where we really take time to consider the acts we book.  I’ve also been playing my guitar.  WOT?

But certainly I have not been performing to an audience of Tories and trying to explain why their votes have doomed many to death.  I have not been gigging to Liberal Democrats who cling to the idea their party’s fence sitting  does more harm than good.  I have not been gigging to UKIP voters, who buy into the sickening lies of fascists in suits.

It I want to change that.  I want to use my platform as an artist to try and perform more to different crowds.  I’m not a theatre company, I’m a poet who just needs a voice and just needs to turn up to open mics and events.  I won’t water down my opinions, I don’t hide my politics and I won’t compromise my performance style.  But is there any point being the punk who plays to punk crowds saying the same old rhetoric everyone in the room agrees with?  I want to challenge those audiences, and hope I do, but time to challenge those who need to see.

This inevitably involves me being staunch in my views.  I do need to change views.  I do need lines in the sand.  I do need to acknowledge some people are wrong.  Not evil, but still their perceptions on the economy, on race, on business, on immigration, on arts, on homelessness…on all sorts of issues leads to regulation, law, control and cuts, torture, deportations, death.

That’s how I’m feeling at the moment.  An immense sense of duty, of certainty and, sure, call it righteousness.  But I want to channel that not just into demonstrations (but trust me, there’ll be plenty of that).  But also writing new work, accessible but sharp, dangerous and defiant but truth-telling.  And I will do my best to keep fighting.

Because another world is possible, so another way of thinking and fighting is always, and should always, be possible.

Titanic

Titanic

There’s a corpse in your moat.

You’ll have to call out the chap to drain it.

What a fucking palaver.

There’s a corpse in your pond.

It’s upsetting the ducks.

It’s not healthy for them.

There’s a corpse in the Jacuzzi.

You were looking forward to taking a dip in the Jacuzzi.

What a day!

There’s a corpse in your pool.

Sack the pool boy.

Fuck’s sake.

There’s a corpse in the sink.

You work bloody hard.

You don’t expect corpses everywhere.

They are brown and black

Young and old.

                                                                                       

Words & Whippets The III

WORDS & WHIPPETS The III (feat. Charlie Dupre)

9th May, 8pm, York Theatre Royal De Grey Rooms, £5

In 2013, Words & Whippets debuted with a sell-out showcase of some of Yorkshire’s finest spoken word artists.

In 2014, it returned with another line-up of spoken word artists, featuring Rob Auton and The Sky Show.

Now Words & Whippets is back with an evening offering poetry and spoken word from York, Hull, Sheffield, Huddersfield and even beyond Yorkshire’s borders!

2015’s W&W is part of the International Shakespeare Festival and takes place in the beautifully atmospheric De Grey Ballroom.

Compared by York’s nerd punk poet Henry Raby, prepare thinselves for

Paul Maxy (Ex-Prison Chaplin at HMP Hull, social commentator and wearer of Dc Martins)

Sarah Thomasin (Sharp satirical wit straight from Sheffield)

Rose Condo (Canadian prairies girl via Huddersfield. Word War One Slam Championship 2014, Jibba Jabba slam champion 2015)

Plus The Stories of Shakey P performed by Charlie Dupre. Classical playwriting and Hip-Hop meet in an electrifying lyrical brew, as the Bard is re-imagined as a playground battle rapper by slam-winning performer Charlie Dupre. Charlie has performed at Latitude, Secret garden Party and supported the likes of Scroobius Pip, Ghostpoet and Kate Tempest.

The Stories of Shakey P begins with a rap battle between the young Shakespeare and his playground rival, Kit Marlowe, then takes a look at Richard III's therapy sessions, Othello in the style of Eminem's 'Stan', the tale of Macbeth told from the mischievous perspective of the three weird sisters, and a psychotically rhythmic insight into Hamlet's inner turmoil.

Tickets available from York Theatre Royal Box Office, over the phone at 01904 623568 or via the website http://www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/event/word___whippets_.php#.VSP5m9zF-nA

20.15 blog #5: Patchwork People

Yesterday a friend remarked I wasn’t wearing any patches.  Just on my trousers, however.  My hoodie was still covered in patches related to Adventure Time/squatting, TMNT/Anarchy and punk/Roger from Doug.  But she’d never seen me without patches covering my slim (if a tad hairy) legs.

I started wearing patches back at Uni.  Before then, I resisted the call to cover my clothes in patches because I still liked to stream-lined simple approach of a band t-shirt.  I think that’s because I came from a scene where patches were the norm for the punk friendship circle, and at Uni I wanted to stand out more and carve my own identity.

I have three pairs of trousers with patches on.  My black & white patches only, usually an assortment of punk and ska bands.  My folk-punk trousers, consisting only of bands of that genre from across the world.  My anarchy trousers, with three simple yet effective anarchy-related images (Red A, spanner in the works and Sabcat).  My Seen-In-York trousers, a mixture of local and touring bands whom I have caught playing gigs in my hometown.  My hoodies are also themed, there’s the Devil’s Brigade hoodie with black & red patches, and the Against Me! Queer hoodie I can’t wear when I work with kids due to rudeness.

This may seem incredibly obsessive and compulsive to be so rigorous over patches.  They are, after all, simple bits of cloth.  But punk and ska (and metal but…yeah…whatever) are the only genres of music which really push this aspect for fandom.  Mod to an extent, maybe a Strokes or Libertines patch might find its way into a collection, but mainly punks promote themselves through patches.  Why?

Well, punk has always strived for a DIY attitude of self-promotion beyond the mainstream means of communication, and mark of that marketing strategy is to find alternative models of word-spreading.  Zines, hand-made posters and popping your band on a patch.  It also shows a belief.  Punks from across the spectrum of Oi/crust/anarcho/straightedge/boozey all believe in the concept of punk.

I’m currently reading Taqwacores, a fictional book about a fictional Muslim punk scene which actually inspired a real life Muslim punk scene.  The author presents the argument through his characters that the belief in the idea of Islam is similar to the idea of punk.  Now, I’m not comparing a 1400 year-old worldwide religion to three chords, but I think Taqwacores in general is about how one styles one’s identity.

I have always been incredibly aware of how I wanted to be seen and recognised.  As a teenager, I hated clothes with any logo on.  Later, as I got into Anarchistic principles, I realised it’s because to boast that logo is, to me, to place a faith and a belief in that logo.  You are emblazoning a FCUK image across your chest, you must be championing that product.  You’re allowing your body to be a marketing tool.  You become a product too.  What loyalty do you have to brand names?

So it is natural I sport band t-shirts and patches as a sign that this is what I want to promote.  This is what I want you to see.  This is what I want to be associated with.  I have loyalty to ONSIND, Operation Ivy, Rancid, Spook School, The Clash, Jonny Gill etc.

Mischief Brew are one of my favourite bands.  They have a song called Punx Win which includes the lines:

♪ Creep into town,
And it's not long
Before i start to roam.
Seek out the patches on the punx,
Maybe a band I know.
I bet you in five minutes time,
We find that we know all the same
People, places, and roads.
And its not long before I start to feel,
That somehow I can never leave home.  ♫

There have been a few times I’ve struck up a conversation based on someone else’s patches, or someone has chatted to me.  Someone asked if there was a Food Not Bombs chapter in York because of my FNB patch, which allowed them to find out about the FNB efforts locally.

So sometimes I do like to think of myself as a waking billboard, plastered with patches, logos and images.  But these are all images and logo and names which I have actively sought to attach to my clothes, to paint afresh in some cases.  I want to say:  “Hey world!  Check out this band!”

I think it is important to style yourself how you choose.  I think more people should wear patches.  It adds colour and variety, it redesigns and reimagines clothing and just looks fucking cool.

You can buy my patches from my Bandcamp in their various forms.  They look great on t-shirts, hoodies, bags, jackets and socks.

There’s nothing I like better than a good afternoon spent patch-hunting.  Remember kids, patches cost pennies. Pints cost pounds.  Here are some of my favourite Etsy shops for patch-hunting:

PatchTrash

Phoenix Compost

Black Lodge Press

The Church of Hot Coffee

Lucynycal

PeachMoonDIY

DIYNostalgia

Retirementfund

20.15 Blog #4: Riot Nrrrd Tour!

A 20 min, 15 second blog

Touring is never boring

I went on tour with good friend and superb poet Jenn Hart.  I met Jenn when she came to see Letter To The Man (from the boy) in Eastleigh a few years back, and since then we’ve done a few gigs here and there and she allowed me to interview her for my podcast about punk & poetry.

After a few dates in August 2014, we decided we’d go on tour at some point in 2015.  That was as much as we’d settled on.  I put together a tour with Travels By Telephone (whose new EP is super) last year, so drew upon that experience of emails and dates flying back and forth like duelling wands.

We named it the RIOT NRRRD tour because of our love for Riot Grrrl and nerd culture.

Our first date was Nerd Hutch in Newcastle, a wicked DIY space based in Travelling Man, which aims to promote queer, feminist and nerdy voices.  As a collective, they have a great sense of friendly attitudes.  I met up with Jenn from her mega Megabus ride and we performed pieces in the shop, and set the tone for the intimate, yet relaxed tour.

Leeds was different to this chilled vibe.  Leganski & Chris Singleton’s Verbal Remedies open mic proved Leeds’ strange bubbling diversity and general loudness which proves spoken word can be affecting and energetic.

Then we hit Durham, not really knowing what to expect. I’d been to Empty Shop a fair few times for various indie-pop gigs, and we did Practise Patience back at the end of 2013.  Carlo and Alice were super lovely, and despite only having three poets for the open mic, we had a full room which proves people are more than willing to come and check out poetry and enjoy as an audience.

Harrogate was a welcome pitstop, a lovely pub with whiskeys and warm open mic where new and old faces shared their stories and poems in Tim Ellis’ open setting.

Hull’s Away With Words was interesting as always, the regular open mics with an assortment of political poems. One fellow asserted he wasn’t a chauvinist before reading a poem about ‘Tits that took over the world’ which sad very strangely alongside someone’s experiences of being trans*.  Overall proving Hull is full of vibrant characters, none so much as head honcho Jim Higo.

Then off to Edinburgh to the Forest Café, chauffeured by Travels By Telephone who delightfully joined us for the Scottish dates.  They fed up, and we headlined their open mic.  It felt a tough crowd, maybe after we’d gigged with so many rewarding audiences, but afterwards we got plenty of good vibes off people and our host Raph Lehmann took us to a cool queer disco.

Glasgow was simply divine, a really nice gig in Tchai Ovi, a little tea house with smashing food.  Audiences came-and-went throughout this matinee show which meant the energy was always moving and we met some new friends, hung out with Hugh & Pippa of Dangle Manatee and had a lovely Saturday.

Finally (after 6 hours drive) we returned to York for my own night, Say Owt Slam which I co-compare with Stu Freestone.  As always, despite the travels, Jenn smashed it and it was another sold out affair of slam-stye spoken word.

What did I learn from tour?

People can be incredibly generous and willing hosts.  The best nights and venues are the ones who treat everyone like a friend, who adhere to a DIY philosophy and make safe and accessible spaces.

I continue to learn about feminism and queer identities and challenge myself and my privilege.  I can never truly capture the voice and experiences of other peoples, but I can give those voices a platform and combat the expectations and conventions we find at poetry and arts events.

What’s next?  Well we’ll be doing a Riot Nrrrd south tour, and maybe fitting in some midlands dates.  I recorded interviews with our promoters and people we met, and hope to make a podcast for next year.

I also hope I can replay some of my friends and put them on in York with that same love they did.

Up The Nerd Punks!

20.15 Blog #3: We Don't Do This To Win (but we still won)

The 20.15 Blogs are a series of blogs over 2015 that are written 20 mins and 15 seconds much to the chagrin of my fingertips.

In 2006 I was discovering the live music scene in York, which for me consisted of going to see my mate’s grungy/rock bands (RIP Tungsten Beanbags and Me-Me-Me and the Bicycle Pilots) and local punk bands (RIP The Mighty Booze).  Usually at Certificate 18 (RIP)

 This is not a eulogy to yet another band.

Now, we all rocked up to catch the Mighty Booze one April evening.  The local streetpunx band were supporting some random band called Random Hand, who turned out to be some weird metal-rap-ska-punk fusion.  I bought the EP.

Random Hand quickly became one of my favourite bands, I remember when their first album, Change of Plan, came out and I don’t think an album ever sat neater on my iTunes.  I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen them live, but that’s because they were such a committed force.  Like a ska-punk sped up glacier.  I saw them at the Cockpit in Leeds.  I went over the Huddersfield to see them at the Parish, I’d return home to York whenever they were in town, for my sins I saw them at Reel Big Fish shows and that awkward The King Blues Are Now A Big Band gig at Leeds Met.  Last time was the Packhorse.  That was fun.  I went to London to see them support Suicide Bid, I went over to Bradford and bought pretty much every t-shirt, even the rubbish one with blobs that wasn’t a very good design.

If you don’t know, RH are going on indefinite hiatus at the end of the summer.  A lovely tour across the country spiced with festival dates, then that’s it. 

RH are a local band.  A Yorkshire band.  By that I mean, their humour, their approach to punk, their politics and the atmosphere they encouraged always made me feel at home.  Their gigs were sweaty, packed with jokes, relevant statements, friendliness and I don’t doubt their constant energy towards gigging inspired hundreds of bands on the scene flying the chequered flag high.

But you know all this.  You’re reading this because you’re a Random Hand fan.  You were knocked out in their pits, you laughed at Robin’s quips onstage, you got the Alien reference at the end of British.  You bought the t-shirt.  You shouted DYNAMO DEATH PENIS BASTARD.  Every album had songs which nailed it live, every performance meant something, every circle pit was a circle pit to remember.

What RH did for me was three things:

• Get me into a modern punk scene.  I was into 70s/80s punk and ska.  It made we realise there was a whole scene which ‘adults’ dismissed. “There’s no good music these days”.  Random Hand always, and always will, prove that statement is ignorable in the same way that RH are not.
• Opened my eyes to the fusion that makes ska and punk so flexible.  ♫ You can pick and mix with your music fix, there’s a lot of stuff around ♪.  Robin’s vocals (as well as those of the Sonic Boom Sixers) were a gateway to picking up other hip-hop and hardcore styles.  That idea of reworking the structure of a genre stayed with me when I got into folk-punk.  The gigs I put on (5th March, Fulford Arms, Petrol Girls) always try and mix up genres and styles, to the extent of having poets alongside music.
• Scum gonna be triumphant.

This is not a eulogy.  Random Hand are still alive and skanking.  I’m playing them on my iPod right now.  Can’t you hear them?

♪ We're a band
are you in demand? 
well no not quite but the CD’s in our van
would you like to listen?
It’s just what society needs. ♫

This is not a eulogy.  It’s the moment at the end of the gig when you give the band a thumbs up and dash for the last bus.  See you at the next gig.

Top facts:

I quoted Robin in a blog years ago

Random Hand’s name comes from a joke combat move the lads invented and it stuck

I have one of Matt’s plectrums with an old RH logo I picked up at a gig at Cert 18

The figure on the first RH t-shirt I bought with the TV head is modelled by Tilston

Random Hand played their 77th gig on Mars.  Martians are well into ska-punk

Morally Blind was, and always will be, my favourite song by Random Hand.
At Uni, I used Eyeballs of War during my Practical Essay theatre piece.  We chucked toy soldiers around
I convinced a prospective student to come to Uni because I chatted about Random Hand instead of the course during a open day
In London at the Suicide Bid gig, someone asked if I was in RH because I was northern

Their rubbish bins are surprisingly easy to access.