2005
April 2005
The 12th Alien May Day Bardic address - this year I was dressed as an FBI alien investigator
I was being chased by a cyberman from Doctor Who!
April 2005 - Stand-up comedy competition for Teacher's TV.
Phoned an Ad in the Guardian that was looking for funny teachers and ended up volunteering to
enter a stand-up comedy TV show. Well I went to a film shoot in Hackney and did a 20 minute
slot. 80 teachers entered and I got into the last 16. They made four brief TV shows with Rob
Deering at the Comedy Store presenting them. Unfortunately, Teacher's TV decided that the
content of the show was too strong for daytime TV. The stand-up script I wrote included two
of the poems in my Funny section of 'Unite in Fire' - 'Buffy' and 'Rachel Weisz'.
Autumn 2005 - Poem in London Art exhibition. A poem called 'Atlas and the Subterranean
Waterways of the Psyche' was written for David Shillinglaw's art exhibition 'Atlas' in London.
The poem is unfinished but received positive feedback from some of those attending.
A second poem called 'Lost in Babylon' was written for another of David's art shows in London
this year.
May 2005 - The 12th Annual May Day Bardic address in Malvern, Worcs. This year's address was
subtitled 'The Aliens are coming'. With a cyberman on stage and two Star Wars aliens, the
performance was a big hit with the crowd. The local paper gave a good write up on the whole
May Day festival too.
2006
February 2006 - Poetry Tree
I set up a project getting ESOL students to write poems to express themselves and their lives
in the UK. This was done at my college in Birmingham. The marketing department made the poems
into leaves on a tree and produced some first class posters. We were supposed to meet Tony Blair
at the official opening of our college and show him our project, but he cancelled because of
the loans for peerage crisis. Shame! I was really gutted, because I wanted to shake hands
with him and have a little chat.
March 2006 - The International Student Festival in Birmingham. I was asked to compose and
perform a poem by my new manager at the college. The poem was called 'Equality and Diversity'
and was all about uniting people of different races. One lady took a copy and asked if she
could read it out at woman's workshop. Another lady asked if she could try and turn it into a
song! The reading went well.
April 29th, 2006 - The 13th Annual May Day Bardic Address in Malvern.
This year's theme was recycling. It went quite well and the feedback was good. One schoolgirl
from John Masefield's, Ledbury wrote to the local paper describing it as a song and that it
had had quite an impact on her, especially the chorus: "Recycle it, you know it makes sense!
Recycle it, don't sit on the fence! Recycle it, every last bit! Recycle it! Go on, it'll only
take a tick!'.
2007
May Day 2007 - The 14th May Day Bardic address - A Rumble in the Jungle!
2008
May Day 2008 - The 15th May Day Bardic Address 'The Green Man Cometh'. This year I appeared as
compere for the Malvern Fringe Caberet and performed for the Fringe Poetry evening - see
video on You tube 'Concrete Babylon' by the Bard of Malvern.
2009
May Day 2009 - The 16th May Day Bardic Address 'Medieval Mayhem - The Knights of Malvern'
As well as delivering the Annual Bardic address, I was compere for all the bands on the
bandstand. The role of compere is something I have evolved into. Malvern May Day is at the
heart of my public service as a poet - for the people, of the people. |
