Hello People,
Firstly, I went on the radio, which was a terrifying prospect to me. Steph Pike, however, helped me relax into it and the two hours went very fast, particularly as we had no technical assistance (and the listeners had to listen to us talking with no jingles or my chosen track to break up the chat). If you are interested my track was to be: Art Brut’s Sound of the Summer. Mainly because it is about the small details and the everyday. It is about mix-tapes and as someone who is often surprised that we are past the year 2000 this is comforting. I read “Not Simple” by Clare Shaw and “The Right Mask” by Brian Patten. I didn’t think choosing one of Clare’s poems to read would be so difficult. The issue was finding one that didn’t feel in some way very personal and as if it contained a lot of her. If I had read any of these pieces I would have felt I was somehow pretending to be her as I read the poem. Reading the Brain Patten poem aloud I felt as if I was wearing all the masks he suggested – totally took me over! Not knowing if anyone is listening is strange and I forgot about it after 20 minutes or so.
I am getting to know my new Android phone, which I am sure will be a huge improvement on the Blackberry. Some touch-screen issues at the moment. Have to get used to using predictive text as habit – difficult! Also I have discovered Candy Crush and am dreaming about playing Connect 4 as big as me with huge Gob-stoppers, pear drops and Everton mints! Need to ban that from bed-time as well as email and Facebook. I am making a concerted effort to work on Poetry admin only on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday day-times. Otherwise, my brain never slows, stops or concentrates on anything else. Last night Phil and I watched two episodes of The Bridge just before bed and I was so jumpy I could have been a 5 year old after seeing the Dalek’s for the first time!
In the next fortnight I intend to get hold of some Quiet Compere T-shirts, write a letter on proper old-style paper to my Auntie in Birmingham and enclose a flyer for the event there, memorise a poem or three for Manchester and plan running order and promote, promote, promote for Manchester, York and Birmingham.
That was your waffly bit, now for some pure planning.
Advances that have happened in the last fortnight with regards to The Quiet Compere Tour:
1. Posters and flyers arrived for Manchester, York and Birmingham. This was an exciting FedEx delivery from Fat Flyers. I am now planning where to put these up to have the most impact and consulting with poets in York and Birmingham about this. Hoping to meet up with some of the Birmingham Poets before the event when I get over there to flyer. I am going to Sheffield Poetry Business Writing Day on 25th January (weather permitting) and will take details of the tour there, as many poets travel from York, Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds to attend this event run by Peter and Ann Sansom. I have been posting flyers on Facebook and Twitter and updating The Quiet Compere FB page regularly. In event pages I am posting links to some of the work by poets appearing at Quiet Compere events.
2. New business cards and Mini cards have arrived from Moo with The Quiet Compere logo on them. I am intending on promoting the ten poets x ten minutes format in the hope some festivals will commission me to run these type of events next year.
3. T-Shirt designs are being costed at present and are likely to be around £10 with a small logo on the front and a list of Tour Dates and large logo on the back.
4. I am presently gathering together information (confirming names are correct and ticketing details for different venues) for the events in Kendal, Liverpool and Leeds with a view to having the posters and flyers designed for these and the event pages set up some time in February.
5. I now have train tickets to York and Birmingham and have booked the Kendal ones. Exciting. I am in process of checking that the accommodation I booked through Booking.com is not in the dodgiest areas of the places I am going to. I am relying on poets who know these areas to advise me there.
6. I am also booking poets for Post Box Poets in Chorlton as this is continuing to run monthly on the first Tuesday from March. The line-up is looking great for the first few months. I am anticipating that The Quiet Compere events will alert people to the fact Post Box Poets happens and we may get a few new performers and listeners expressing an interest.
Thanks for reading this far if you did. As you can tell, I don’t know when to stop! Sarah x