Saturday, December 02, 2006 Electric Comrades Comrades Well what an exiting time last night was. The gig at Homo eletric was just that full of electric homos. I had a ball. It was a short but sweet set with all the tiwsts and turns of a caberet shaped yoyo. Its great being me Comrades and I mean that with tremendous humility. My audience lives in such interesting places. One minute I could be all highbrow in some library being personel in some theatre or getting jiggy with it in some club. It just goes to show that poetry is the most mallieble of art forms...I dont think theres a place it doesnt fit. Eigteen months ago I performed a tribute poem at my friends Terry{Treza}Woozeys funeral and it was perfect just the right thing to do. Last night I'm in one of Manchesters most famous clubs declaring the joys of consensual pornography and why I think scallies arses are a work of art. Theres so much more for poetry to do and so many more places for it to visit but it seems to me to be the most welcome visitor,especially if the poems reflect thier respective inviroments. Why not try writing a poem or two yourselves Comrades you never know you could start mapping and documenting your own kit and kaboodles. I love it. Do Love. Comrade Poems X 4:13 PM - 0 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment Friday, December 01, 2006 Mary Fags Comrades Hurry Up And listen to Mary Cigarettes song Three Minute Requiem its not gonna be there for long. Its honest and heartbreaking yet deceptivley uplifting. Do it before it goes. Comrade Poems X PS Thanks Mary 6:20 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment Tuesday, November 28, 2006 Brian King Comrades Gays As we aproach world AIDS Day our thoughts will turn to our Comrades in memory. AIDS I think is the biggest and most human thing that happened to our community. I mean we changed,we changed irrevocably the gay community suddenly wasnt so gay any more. In many ways I think we were the best prepared for it. Gay people are no stranger to pain and isolation we have been moulded from the worst aspects of society. As outsiders we know what it is to feel rejection on a monumental scale. We also know how to form our world from that rejection. We are powerful Comrades society didnt get rid of us. We are still here possibly more queer than we were before. The plauge from God didnt do its worst we are still here hoofucin'ray for us. My best freind Brian died in1995 the worst day of my life. Im no stranger to death and have felt it's repercussions and upheavals since I was seven. Losing Brian had and still has me reeling. I have never stopped missing him and allthough the grief is manageble I still have the horror that we wont grow old together it still seems impossible. We met at The Everyman Youth Theatre In 1979 I was sixteen Brian fourteen. I never thought it possible I'd meet anyone more effeminate than myself...Brian was. We didnt initially hit it off we personality crashed and collided. It wasn't long though Comrades maybe a week untill we became close friends. He was a revelation to me. At last someone who got me totally, who understood how my head worked. He was hugely popular in the youth theatre and totally loved. Suddenly I found myself in the upper echelon of youth theatre hierarchy with Brian as my main man if you could call us men,no one else did. We were supreme. We grew together became actors together came out together left home together we simply kept being together. I don't want to make us sound all rosy and buttercups,our personalities kept crashing. We were heated and competitive and could row like twenty old married couples. We would terrify people who didnt know us with our temper outbursts clear a party with just one row. It's funny thats one of the many things I miss about him, I love a good row and Comrades we were the best. Brian was as effervescent as Champagne,his personality was a delight. Everyone who met him seemed to trust him instantly and he could make anyone dance. Brian was the finest dancer I ever knew and would often have people applauding him when he left the dancfloor. We fomed Sex And Violence a theatre company responsible for the best queer theatre Liverpool had ever seen. We were The Biege Experience an anarchic caberet act who were often too drunk to get it right. We played two crabs on Princs Edwards balls and sang and danced our way to oblivion. The Biege Experience was hugely popular and the only people who couldnt undersand why were me and Brian. If Brian hadnt said I'll Be Odette Du' Poetress I wouldnt be typing this now,I hope your fine ceramic dinosaur is still in one piece my darling Odette. We had a fame and noteriety in Liverpool that made us tremendously popular. Our dance routine to Nathan Jones by Banarama got us more free drinks than our youth and beuty ever could. If it sounds like Im bigging us up then I am. Im totally proud of what we were and what we achieved. Party animals unafraid to roar and bare our teeth. We were cute young queens and knew how to shimmy our tushes to there utmost. I could go on forever about who and what we were but I just want to really say I loved him. A great big unimanigable love that defined who we where and the times we lived in. I know Im not alone in this because I feel the love you must feel for your best friends and Comrades lost in the war. I call it a war because it was a war. We suffered casualties that were on a war like scale losing many people we knew and loved in short spaces of time. I want us to be proud of our humanity and humour our bravery and our sadness. What happened was huge and we were on the front line in a no mans land not of our own making. We are fucking incredible Comrades in loss and grief we achieved so much. We went on we kept going. When I see gays dancing I fancy I can see thier friends and lovers dancing with them. I think its why we dance. I give you all the gingham energy and anal love i can muster because it's grief that unites us. We are capable of enormous love and laughter Comrades and a humanity we must never forget. I love you Brian King. This is not the end, you were beautiful my friend. Comrade Poems X 3:25 PM - 10 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment Saturday, November 25, 2006 Galway and Forever X Comrades Travellers Hope alls hanging well and sturdy and your gromits look like Fannys. Iv had a wonderful week a week of performance and wonder,what a wonderful week should be I shouldnt wonder. Monday night at Leeds Stick and Stones was almost a punk gig the energy was so volatile and welcoming. It was a raucous succsess I was half expecting chairs to be flying salloon like and tumbling. adam and Andy have one of the best poetry nights in the country dispelling any notion that poetry is Bagpuss in drag. It has a speakeasy vitality and intellectual thrust making it essential for any poet to play at,if you can get a gig here then damn well do so a gem in a sea of coal. I really should be working on my new book How To Be A Better Gay but I cant seem to get my groove together with it yet but I will do, thats the thing about grooves as accsessible as a drunken bee such stuborn muses. I did do the commentry of my DVD though a tremendous amount of fun and a very eyeopening thing to do. Watching yourself performing is an odd experience because you never actually watch yourself perform Im always on stage when Im on and therfore never get to catch me...Im very good it seems well I entertained me. I really enyoyed the narscicistic thrill of it and adding comments made it all the more wierd...a wizard wheeze{cough cough.} On Wedneday I flew to Galway for a gig at one of its famous poetry slams I was the special guest dontchaknow. I stayed with my poetry pal Trish Casey a fine poet and conversationlist. We had a great time debating and deconstructing poetry. Its not very often you can do this so I relished our time together we took poetry and spun it into the stratosphere and beyond. Galway itself is just divine if I wasnt such a blathering atheist I'd say its been kissed by God. It has a harmony in it's very air and seems to chill you out inviting you to manna. Its a love at first sight city where bohoemia flows like wine essential and intoxicating I cant wait to tread its blessed shores again. The gig was a revelation. the Irish seem to have an emotional attatchment to poetry that they wear on thier faces you can see how deeply involved they are with its rythm and flow...almost as if they are part of the poem. Every time I gig in Ireland I get that sense of companionship from the audience which is both supportive and safe,like a psychic hug. I really feel as if this gig was one of those special ones which will be remembered by me and the audience for quite some time. My old Mancester poetry pal Connor A was there which was both fun and jolly I think we red wined ourselves into a frenzy. I wish you all the things you wish for the people you love. Health happiness and healing Comrade Poems X 3:02 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment Monday, November 20, 2006 Busy Bastard Bee Comrades Commuters Hope alls jolly and your pies have all the apple and steak they need. God Im bastard busy. Im not complaining but its so wierd this poetry thing you can be zonging out to Trisha one week then all round the country the next. Iv just come back from the wonderfully picturesque Bristol such a pretty place. I was asked by my pal and poet Rosemary Dunne to take a masterclass in the character of the poem,one of many succesfull courses she runs. It was a joy , I love teaching and to have a group of people so enthused and ready to go makes the whole job easier. We certainly had a great time and everyone conributed to a groovy workshop. It s great courses like this are finally being recognised and funded as I believe performance poetry will one day be something most people in this country will wake up to and attend and the more good performance poets trained and ready the better. My goodness it sounds like Im creating an army of poets...an army of poets what a lovely thought,how lovely if when our nations disagreed instead of fierce killing machines we sent an army of poets to sort it out. Mmmmm I think theres something in that. I then went on to gig later in a jolly little bar called Prauge. The gig was set up by my poetry pal Poetry Jack who also performed,a great set which seemed more humerous somehow. Thats what I like about poetry it allways changes each time its performed. Also on the bill was Mark Walton a great new poet who will blow you away. A gay man who is superbly honest about himself in his world. Hes moving to london soon so my queer cockney chums get out there and support him he is a brave new talent. I went out with Mark and some of his pals on the joyous Bristol gay scene and a wild drunken time was had by all. I staggered to The Cottage Bristols gentle breezy gay sauna. I was bagged ragged and defrocked superb, I advise you visit. Its as it so often is Monday and Im preparing to do the commentry for my DVD for How To Be A Better Gay. Iv never done a commentry before Im a tad nervous about it but Im sure Ill be fine,dont want to find myself lost for words or anything. Then later back on the train to Leeds performing at one of my favourite nights Sticks and Stones. Very vibrant and vital all the Vs in fact hopefully not vanerial but youve got to take the roughs with the smooth. Im off to Gallway on Wednesday,really looking forward to that. I adore Island and its boozers. So Im here there and everywhere at the mo,bastard busy and fine. Have all the fun you want to Comrades and see you soon. Comrade Poems X 12:01 PM - 9 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment Wednesday, November 15, 2006 The Queeny Speech. Comrades Subjects Im at this moment gliding down Canal Street in my flowing vermin robes and Black Rod up me jacksie about to turn a corner to find my favourite bus shelter {it is raining, Manchester after all} and bestow upon the nation my queeny speech. Not to be mistaken for the other Queen draped in her finery lies and obsiquiesse flattery...................... Ooooh it's cold not a great day to deliver your country changing diatribe. Brrrrrrr here goes. My Goverment are a bunch of dirty liars. They will continue to lie and wont stop lying until they are lying dead in thier graves and even then I wouldn't be to sure. My Goverment arent worth the used toilet paper fom a serial shitter. My goverment have completly betrayed the working class and have presided over the biggest gap between the rich and poor in decades,My Goverment doesn't give a flying fuck about this. My Goverment is proud to be the natural hiers to Thatcherism and to continue her unholy crusade of privatisation and war,my Goverment want to fuck Dennis Thatchers corpse so they can be nearer her and Jimmy Savilles hearts. My Goverment prefer celebrities to people,therebye cannonising multi millionaires like that awful Jamie Oliver, who made a tonne out of a Charnell Four programme about school dinners ,making a hero out of somebody Im quite sure doesnt give a fuck. My goverment are not only souless but stink of poo runnny poo at that. My Goverment will still relenlessly kill thousands of innocent civillians in a country that quite clearly wasnt hiding weapons of mass destruction. My goverment will still quibble with my accusation that they are child serial killers,My Goverment is desperately dim. My Goverment doesnt like Europeons invading our country while it wants more say in Eruope,My goverment have completely lost the plot. My Goverment deserve to fry in the raging fires of Hell but my athieism doesnt allow me that joy,so just roasting in raging fires any raging fires will do.My Goverment are a slimy teflon coated smug bunch of bastards who have no grip on the real world they are happy for its people to nosedive into debt and drown in the the negative pull of capatalism. My Goverment know that capatlism is a dictatership flourishing under the veneer of democracy. That capatalism is the real Nanny State offering the illusion of choice,for choice see debt. A Nanny State demanding you change your prfectly working gadgets and gizmos simply because theres a new gadget or gizmo on the market. My Goverment are cunts. a Nanny state demanding not only your money but soul. My Goverment have left so many of its people angry and bereft,not only the homless and poor but the people who first brought them into power to make this country brighter and better for the people. My goverment hasnt heared the last of this. Hope you liked that subjects. Black Rod get out of there havnt you got to do something intellectual and walk backwards or something. See you soon Queeny Chloe X 5:41 PM - 5 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment Tuesday, November 14, 2006 Bono Is Satan Comrades Outraged Hes off again the so called righter of wrongs the so called singer of so so songs. I hate Bono I make no secret of it. I believe he and his right wing left field singing cronies are hugely responsible for the dumbing down of polotics. Never trust a catholic multi millionaire because they're gulit will always mutate into a slavering do godding Christs. He sees no wrong in Mathatcher adpting an african baby and wishes every one would stop critisising her for taking a child out of poverty. Who is critisising Bono not just us but the nose to the ground workers and volunteers who completely know what there talking about. People on no or low wages trying to put some concience back into the human psyce not a group of indolent decadent rock and rollers whos bourgeois mentality is disintigating the real reasons we should be interested in Africa,this is not just my sentiment but some of the grass roots workers who names you wont know who truly know there stuff. As far as I'm concerned charity is an anagram of bourgeois guilt. Bono is always there to protect the celebrity mafia he was on Channel Four news desperately trying to convince us that the mass murderer George Bush was truly on the side of Africa. This is George Bush three of the four horses of apocolypse with his My Little pony of the apocolypse Tory B-liar who have put paid to nearly a million innocents in Iraq. This is the George Bush who lay in indolent luxury while New Orleans drownd not only in toxic water but in the end of the American dream finally turning nightmare. George Bush who is responsible for far more tragedy than Im willing to blog. Bono will always be there Comrades protecting his close and dear friends the richest bastards on the planet. He makes my blood boil and my typing finger a machine gun. Mathatcher is probably rubbing her talons with glee at such a celebrity endorsment who knows she might at last finally cast a reflection. When there in danger they will gather together like lemmings on crack to save there miserable snake shedding skins. The reason its wrong Bono is it highligts so vividly the gap between the rich and poor. I say lets have a diamond amnesty from our celebrity friends and political chums, turn in your diamonds mined by the tortured low or no paid African poor and truly feed the world. It's good to rant again Comrades. Oppose the celebritsation of our culture and eat the rich. Comrade poems X 4:52 PM - 14 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment Monday, November 13, 2006 It Worked Comrades Audience Miracle was recieved brilliantly. It was such a relief to finish the process its very nerve racking writing producing directing and acting in your own play. It was only a rehearsed reading and we had two days to make it work but the cast pulled it off fantstically. Thank you Sean and Jen who brought the characters Will hung and Sara so realistically to life. I love actors and thier input,people dont know how much they contribute to a show. A good actor can inform the direction of a piece of theatre making it not just the writers and the directors piece but thier own a good actor is invaluable. I was drawn to acting in it for financial reasons but it was a real thrill to tread the boards again in a play playing someone else not a trace of gingham Comrades just the character of Father Joseph Murray. It was such a sucsess that it will be properly comissioned next year. I cant wait that long so chuffed by the thrill of it I want to put it on as soon as possible so Im looking for a venue early in the new year. So if any of you have three thousand pounds to give me to producwe it you would make a middle aged gingham tranny very happy. A long shot I know but if you dont point your arrow theres no chance of hitting the bullseye. Perfomed at my old scouse mucker Jackie Hagans book launch. It was a delight to be part of it and seeing a very talented poet be published. Its a great book and should do really well and will put Jackie on the sucessfull path she so richly deserves to be on. Later that night was Club Brenda our anarchic rave and performance night it was as usual barnstorming. Something raw and improvisational always happens when we Brenda a cavalcade of freeness and drugs a joy. So iv been partying since Saturday untill four am Sunday morning Im wrecked. Its great still being able to dance the night away at 44 and Im not pretending to be a teenager Im an out and proud 44 year old raver. So im hung over and ravaged at the mo but it will pass. I hope to blog your way soon. Oh and by the way if you havnt tuned into Mary Cigarettes myspace page do so his music voice and lyrics are quite superb a mix of anarchic distance Billie Holliday and sheer bloody mindeness. see you very soon. Comrade Poems X 5:26 PM - 8 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment Monday, November 06, 2006 Miracle Comrades heartbreakers A joy to return to you full of the joys of Autumn fired up and raring to go. Hope your tuning into the turn of the year,I love it the fire in the trees and the golden haze of the year aging. It's been and continues to be a very exiting time lots of performances and new ventures in the offing. I have been working hard on Miracle revising and developing it for performance on thursday. I had forgotten just how exiting producing a play can be. Iv been focusing on the literature world for quite some time and have neglected that side of my career. If all goes well on Thursday I might well resurect the playwrite in me. Since the last time we jangled iv been involved in Citezen 32's magazine launch, there cencsorship issue something very close to my heart. My review for The Trails Of Lenny Bruce was published and it's rather a nice feeling being in however small a way a part of the Lenny Bruces tale I love that man. I was given the great hounor of writing the foreword to me old scouse mucker Jackie Hagens first book of poetry it was such a joy to do and I hope I did her proud. Had a terrific Hallowe'een. I thought I wasn't going to because of the horrific shits devloping but thank the Horned Beast for Imodium so I was fine. I actually cast a Hallowe'en spell wich worked it brought me great fortune in the shape of the above mentiond scouse mucker Jackie Hagen who probably saved me from a nervous meltdown. You see I'm the worlds worst typer and speller everything takes me at least a decade to do,I had to get the Miracle script ready and it was doing my brain in thinking I had to type the bastard thing out. So I asked the unerverse to send me help and whaddayaknow I bumps into jackie the next morning and she offers to transcribe the script for me . I can't tell you the joy it brought me,ta Jackie petal. Iv just cast the show and Im about to meet the actors involved always an exiting and scary moment. It's the first time they will have seen the script so one is nervous...hope they like it. Look after and befor youselves,I'll keep you posted as to how things are moving. A winter surviving tip, follow the light get as much oif it as you can it will ease the winter blues. With love,Comrade Poems X 3:55 PM - 0 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment Monday, October 23, 2006 Wonderful Comrades Everywhere The show was wonderful. I had a fantastic time one of THE times of my life in fact. It's an amazing thing being on stage a very freeing feeling not unlike the joy I feel from flying dreams. As you know I was very nervous and jittery always am but this time I was trying out very new things and a lot of new material so the old nerves were more acute. The book is a total exploration of both writing and my character so I felt I had to write about the whole host of me's that Iv been and the people involved in my lives thus far. I did a series of poems called Volcano looking at maternal love both positive and destructive. It was rather odd being and feeling so bald on stage and remember I wear a wig but it worked, for most of the audience I talked to it was there highlight so what a relief. It made me feel very exited and secure about the book. Not all the poems I performed will feature in the book but they are all integral to the ethos of it,thats why the D.V.D is so important it's not a vanity project but a map around the worlds and characters who inhabit it. You will hear the voices of Karl the rentboy of Audrey Pringle and the rasping squall of Fanny Du' Nile the vilest drag queen ever to disgrace the planet plus a whloe lot more. I'm very exited by it and the adventure it is to write it. Next project is Miracle which I have to re-write not totally but in part. The hope is to present it at Homotopia as a script in hand piece an then tour it nationally next year,hope it all works out but it's a ropey and dingy world showbuisness where promises fall as frequently as rain. So things are kinda good at the moment Comrades and I'm feeling just chipper. A big shout out to all the audience on saturday you were terrific, it without any hint of cliche is you who make it happen, theres no point me giving it all iv got to an empty stage so thank you for a great show. Look after youself and the world Comrade Poems X 11:57 AM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment