WE had a big turn-out and a top night at the Bards of New Brighton poetry group last night.
I was heartened to see more women poets than usual performing - and four singers joined us too.
The great baritone Dave Gilbey and Ed Doherty - who I know from the old days at Hell's Waiting Room - both sang very moving Irish ballads.
One of those songs told of "tender-hearted maids" of great "constancy".
Another mentioned "the queen of hearts, still making tarts".
I commented to the meeting that "tender-hearted maids" of great "constancy" were in short supply these days - though thin-lipped, cold-hearted harridans abound.
And it's especially in the Government that we find horrible harpies who are a disgrace to womanhood. The militantly pro-abortion and hardline feminist Harriet Harperson, especially, is the stuff of nightmares.
My friend from the Telling Pole pub, Brian Acapello, did his rather rude song about being the greatest lover in the world - marvellous.
Plus there was such brilliant poetry, touching on humour, love, places on the Wirral, and matters hep-cat, philosophical and metaphysical.
I'd say it was the best Bards' session since we started up more than a year ago.
How great it is to be spending summer nights in such a lovely pub as the Magazine, overlooking the Mersey, while listening to poems with the beautiful Posh Boots sat by my side.
It sure beats staying at home and watching the increasingly crap and moronic telly.
Bards meetings are all open mic and admission is free. They take place on the second Monday of each month at the Magazine (the "Mags"), 7 Magazine Brow, New Brighton. Our next meeting is on Monday 11 August, starting at 8pm. Please come along to read, sing or simply to listen and enjoy the craic.
Now, earlier in this piece I mentioned the Telling Pole, and it's a pub that Posh Boots and I increasingly favour with our custom, being well run, having friendly staff and charging only £2.55 for a 250ml glass of red wine.
It was in this pub that I recently had a strange encounter of the magic realism variety so typical of New Brighton life.
I was in the pub's smoking shelter with friends Rocky and Melony when I heard a guy doing very good monster voices from Doctor Who.
We were surprised to see that the noises appeared to be coming from Doctor Who in person - or rather the actor David Tennant who's been such a big hit in the show.
On closer examination, however, I saw it wasn't the Doctor but someone who bears an uncanny resemblance to him. Our man in the pub wasn't a timelord; he was a baker from Bromborough.
Now, very few people get mentioned by their real name in this blog, so let's call him Doctor How.
Anyhow, I got chatting to him and discovered he was a long-term fan of the larky sci-fi series. We agreed that the programme's unique selling point is its Britishness - in a creative world that seems to want everything else Americanised.
Doctor How has a hobby making video films, so I'm going to try to persuade him to film me doing my Wearons routine (a comedy monologue about extraterrestrials who've been living in Liverpool for the past 40 years).
And, incidentally, I will be performing that caper again publicly at the Little Theatre, Grange Road West, Birkenhead this coming Friday 18 July. The show starts at 8pm.
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Ieuan wrote...
Steve - it was a great night - I think "bardic" in the true sense of the word as the bards always did a mixture of spoken word and song and some of that singing was soulful and inspired indeed (as with the poetry)...
Ancient Eboracum (Caer Efrog in Welsh)where the great Constantine was crowned; Constantine the founder on Constantinople and the Agia Sophia church that bears such a close resemblance to St Peter and Paul's church, New Brighton - who will take up that cross and fight at the Milvian (Penny) Bridges?
Posted by: Ieuan | July 15, 2008 3:46 PM