The Ballad of Barlow Burton
Posted on | February 5, 2010 | No Comments
Hey gang, I’ve done another of those videos with Zara Hayes. This is a poem that will be in my new show Cynical Ballads. I like it.
Nasty Little Press strikes again
Posted on | February 4, 2010 | No Comments
You may or may not know that I publish books too. I am the proud owner of Nasty Little Press, which I run with my wife and editor-par-excellence Sally Roe. We’re here in case you’re wondering: www.nastylittlepress.org.
This week we published our second book, What If Men Burst In Wearing Balaclavas? by John Osborne. Last night we had our Norwich launch at the delightful Book Hive. It was a great event and John read very well indeed. Not sure people were that keen on the actual balaclava I wore as I handed out Nasty Little Press badges at the door, but all in all I think everyone had fun.
It’s been great publishing John. His work is so refreshing. It’s honest, funny and I don’t think I’ve ever seen poetry like it. When I was sending out review copies today I opened the book at the first poem and re-read it. It was exciting to think,”yeah, if I picked this up in a book shop I’d want to read more.” So much poetry tries to challenge its reader, and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but John’s work, and I hope mine too, is direct, it is what it is and delights, amuses and gives pause for thought in turn.
Nasty Little Press is dedicated to publishing poetry like that - direct, entertaining poetry. I’m loving the job so far. Next up is Byron Vincent’s debut collection in May. From what I’ve seen of it so far we’re in for a real treat.
Our books are only a fiver and they look very pretty too. Why not treat yourself and support a fledging press at the same time?
Tags: john osborne > nasty little press > what if men burst in wearing balaclavas?
Over And Out
Posted on | January 31, 2010 | 1 Comment
My London run of The Petty Concerns of Luke Wright has come to an end. I’ve really enjoyed traveling up to London everyday. I’ve enjoyed the discipline its imposed on my life, and I’ve enjoyed the intensely private experience of performing. That might sound weird, but despite being surrounded by people I think performing can be a very private experience. The only person that has come close to sharing this run with me was my technician Andy Tandy. It’s been great spending time with him, but as he’s not directly involved with the creative side of the show, the show and I have existed together alone for the last three weeks.
The show has become a living thing again and I’ve fallen in love with it. Perhaps for the first time. Edinburgh is always such a fraught experience. The weather is shit, the nights are late, the reviews are intense and show is green and often awkward. Performing it again has given it a chance to shine, with all of that gawky adolescence gone. It’s grown into a fine adult.
I now get to take it around the country on tour. I have close to 20 dates before the festival season and then I hope to add about 10-15 for October and November. Having had these 15 dates to let the show mature I feel really excited about the tour, far more confident in the material than in previous years.
So, please indulge me as I show off, like a proud parent, about all the nice things the press have said about my baby:
“Luke Wright’s poems hit their mark with pinpoint precision.” TIME OUT - CRITICS’ CHOICE (27 Jan - 02 Feb 2010)
“Beautifully constructed turns of phrase.” The Londonist
“These performances are slippery things, blending anecdotal stand-up with ferociously paced, fervent poetry.” THE INDEPENDENT
“The poetry is woven into the stories in such a way that it borders on stand up comedy and he leaps from topic to topic with such confidence that the one hour show seems much, much shorter.” BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE
“There’s a lot of humour in these stories but it’s the sense of him coming to terms with the man he’s become, a new father, a Mondeo driver, that makes the greatest impact, that makes this show really compelling.” MUSICOMH
“And this is no mumbled abashed poetry reading: Wright is a consummate performer, there’s a rhythm and a pulse that’s almost musical in his delivery, which gives it a breathless, zingy energy. The poetry/stand up combo, which might not sound entirely promising, turns out to be a winning formula, and ensures Wright’s concerns don’t feel too petty at all.” SPOONFED
Ah, ego massage over.
This weekend has been very exciting. On Friday I went on The Verb of Radio 3 with top fellow and poet Ian McMillan. I love The Verb, and this live recording was no disappointment. You can hear it on iPlayer.
Last night was the book launch of John Osborne’s What If Men Burst In Wearing Balaclavas? which is the second book to be published by my press - Nasty Little Press. The book is marvelous and John gave a great reading. I did some stuff in support and debuted a new poem which will form a pretty important part of my new show Cynical Ballads. I’ll be taking the show to London next year and then on tour. There will be a few previews this summer. Anyway, the poem went really well so I’m hopeful.
February sees me spending a bit of time at home with the fam and working on poems for Cynical Ballads. On 16 we launch our new Norwich Poetry Club. We have the fabulous Martin Newell as our first guest, with 30 mins from me too.
Another nice review
Posted on | January 29, 2010 | No Comments
This time from The British Theatre Guide.
Apps
Posted on | January 27, 2010 | 1 Comment
Apps
Need new ways to mess around?
A novel way to waste a pound?
Keen to make a farting sound?
There’s probably an app for that
Do you forget to do your bins?
Or set the DVD for Skins?
Up the duff? Expecting twins?
There’s probably an app for that
Bad with faces? Crap at sex?
Like Shakespeare plays in tiny text?
Has father lost his reading specs?
There’s probably an app for that
There’s definitely an app for that
You can get that app for free
And there’s one that finds his fishing hat
But that one’s sixty pee
Want to use the latest gear
To drain a pixellated beer?
Then watch the pixels reappear
There’s probably an app for that
Want a button - not to press?
A total waste of time? Well, yes
of course it is, but nevertheless
There’s probably an app for that
Dodgy motor? Leaky tap?
Want to pop some bubble wrap?
Want an app to find an app?
There’s probably an app for that
There’s definitely an app for that
Says boorish bloke with bony wife
Who spits his jargon like it’s scat
until you’re reaching for a knife
do you have scant regard for life
and boast about your phone all night
and pray your host is too polite?
To say you’re talking crap.
Because if you’re a techno drone
who reaches for his mobile phone
when the conversation’s not his own
you’ll need more than an app.
Time Out Critics’ Choice!!
Posted on | January 27, 2010 | No Comments
The Petty Concerns of Luke Wright is Time Out Critics’ Choice this week. This is a good thing.
They say: “Luke Wright’s poems hit their mark with pinpoint precision.”
Audiences are picking up, we’ve even had a few sell outs.
This is your last chance to see the show - only four more left. Click the link on the right hand side of this post.
In other news, my collection got this nice review from Hand+Star:
“Wright is similar to Larkin: dealing with the banality of the world and the confusion of its changing; the inevitability of loss, of aging and decay; reappraising one’s identity as a result; and occasionally coming up with some really great, funny lines.”
Read the full thing here.
In The Indy
Posted on | January 18, 2010 | 3 Comments
Really nice piece about performance poetry and mine and Ross’ shows here by Holly Williams. Holly wrote the nice review about my show for Spoonfed, she’s been very kind about our work and very supportive of the genre getting us major exposure like this. So thanks Holly.
In fact The Independent have been really supportive to me over the years. It’s a great newspaper. Let’s hope Rod Liddle doesn’t get his palsied hands on it.
MusicOMH Review
Posted on | January 16, 2010 | No Comments
MusicOMH have come through with a nice double review for Ross and I. They give us four stars and say nice things. Read it here
More reviews
Posted on | January 15, 2010 | 1 Comment
There’s loads I want to say but I have to go and do a gig at a school.
In short the show is going well. I’m enjoying performing and I’m getting a goo response. I had a really nice review in Metro yesterday, which you Londoners might have seen. I also got this one from The Londonist. Numbers are picking up and I think we’re going to have a relatively busy weekend.
In other news it was my birthday yesterday, I’m now 28. I feel older. I still look much younger. My wife says I’ll look better when i get a bit older, a bit gnarled, grizzly, but I think I’ll still look like a child. Just, a rotting child. Nice.
First Review of the Run and it’s a Cracker
Posted on | January 13, 2010 | 2 Comments
I’m chuffed to bits with this review from Spoonfed. Thanks guys.
London Run Starts On Tuesday
Posted on | January 10, 2010 | No Comments
This is it. In two days the curtain will be going up on my first London run. I’m doing 15 shows over three weeks. It’s ten shows shy of the run in Edinburgh; the theatre is the same size; I know the show back to front; but I have never been more nervous. I’m not scared of the critical response, I’m proud of the work, and I know it’s good. I’m not scared of the audience response, I did it in Edinburgh to good responses and Edinburgh crowds, due to fatigue, poor weather and risk-taking, are often the toughest to please. I am scared about getting an audience.
I did two London runs in 2005 with Aisle16, one for our show Powerpoint, and one for Poetry Boyband. Both shows did well but a lot was down to getting a good time out review early on. Plus, back then I was still living in London and going out a lot, I had loads of London friends and acquaintances to call on, as did all the other Aisle16 guys. Living in Norwich I feel cut off from London. Despite lisings, mail outs (so many mail outs), Facebook invites and the fact that I am so much better known than in 2005 I feel like this is only still really happening in my head; that when I step out on stage on Tuesday evening it’ll be just me. And I’ll forget my words. And I’ll be naked.
Ok, so none of that will happen (might still consider doing the show naked). I’m being pathetic and needy. Well, that’s the way it works. That’s how the ego gets its own back from constantly being stretched to breaking point. Ironically, this egotistical boom and bust cycle is what the show is about in many ways. The thrust of the material would seem disingenuous if I were performing it to a sold out west end theatre. So I should count myself lucky that the world’s indifference to me allows me to maintain the artistic integrity of the show ;-)
If you fancy coming along you can say on Facebook here. You can buy tickets here. You can read more about the show here.
New Poems
Posted on | January 9, 2010 | 1 Comment
Wotcha gang. Really enjoyed Saturday Live this morning. Chris Addison is a lovely bloke and Katie Derham did sterling work filling in for Fi. These are my poems:
SALT!
Some Salt! Give us salt! Our poor kingdom for salt!
Our once mighty nation has ground to a halt!
A ton for our roads and a pinch for the press,
a truckload for Whitehall at Gordon’s behest
Yes! The PM is planning a whole afternoon
of rubbing it into the wounds of Geoff Hoon.
Gold
Some people say this country holds no gold:
they sit at desks and curse their pewter lives
they pierce the Clingfilm, moan about the cold
they stay at home and sharpen up their knives.
And true, the British ingot’s hard to find
well buried in the grit on riverbeds
loitering at the back of modern minds
or hiding in the words a stranger said.
But those content to stand on banks and sift
or fight the dragon, have so much to gain
the drudgery of life is swirled and swished
while crouching by a river in the rain.
For what cost sniffles, what cost frozen hands
for those who see the glitter in their pans?
The Verb
Posted on | January 7, 2010 | No Comments
Not long ago I was a gen-u-ine confirmed bleeding-edge, wonky fringed, Hoxtonite plonker carving ‘only joking’ into my forearm wearing a visor and listening to Duran Duran. Now I wear suits, change nappies and listen primarily to Radio 3. The change in four short years would be phenomenal if it were not such a lung-caving-in cliche.
So naturally the thought of going on BBC Radio 3 fills me with much excitement. Not only Radio 3, but on The Verb - the excellent show about language and literature hosted by that stalwart of the live poetry scene Ian McMillan. Hurrah. Better yet, the show I’m doing (on 29th January) is in front of a live audience, which is make it all more exciting. If you fancy coming down, the tickets are free from the BBC.
Better yet, why not come and see my show at The Old Red Lion first and leap straight into a taxi afterwards. Maybe we could share a ride?
The Company of Men on video
Posted on | December 26, 2009 | No Comments
Greetings and a very Merry Chrimbo to you lot out there in blogland.
Late last year I hooked up with Zara Hayes to record a couple of videos of my poems. Here’s the first one for you to take a look at. The Company of Men is one of my most reliable live poems. It’s the one I pull out if I feel I need to win a crowd round quickly. Zara and I tried a more ambitious ’story video’ first, but I think this simple front-on take works best for me. We also did one for The Ballad of Barlow Burton, I’ll post that soon.
The Company of Men from Luke Wright on Vimeo.
Listen to this!
Posted on | December 18, 2009 | No Comments
So, remember I wrote those poems from Radio 1? Well, they’ve both been on the air now so I figured I could post them up here for those who missed them. The subjects were Skins Vs Grange Hill and soaps. Not exactly my usual fare, but I attacked my task manfully. Here’s the Soaps one:
And here’s the Skins piece. I had never watched Skins before, but I’m a bit of an addict now:
Aisle16 in London
Posted on | December 15, 2009 | No Comments
Most of you know that I am a founding member of poetry collective Aisle16. We have just celebrated our ninth birthday and what better way to mark it than with a gig in London. Aisle16 is now seven strong and we’ve never all performed on the same bill. Until now. This Thursday we’re all going to be at my club Purple Ronnie’s. It’ll be a really special event and the perfect way to round off a long year of top notch poetic happenings.
The details are right there to the right of this blog post, click on the link under upcoming gigs for details. You can get tickets on lime from here, which I recommend doing as the last Purple Ronnie’s sold out.
Byron in the Boardroom?
Posted on | December 14, 2009 | 1 Comment
I love Start The Week on Radio 4. Essentially eavesdropping on four renowned brainboxes discuss four fairly related topics is a pretty good way to start the week in my opinion. Today they had a writer called Amanda Goodall (who incidentally looks a bit like the missing link between Marylin Monroe and Cruella De Ville) on talking about her book Socrates in the Boardroom. Her argument, essentially, and I am paraphrasing and simplifying here, is that institutions and companies need to return to a time when experts ran them. For example universities should be run by scholars, not managers, and she highlighted that all the top research universities, such as Rockerfella and MIT have this arrangements. She went on to say that if the CEOs of the failing banks had been financial experts, and not ‘managers’ often recruited from other parts of the business world, perhaps the recent problems wouldn’t have been so bad.
What really struck me was her assertion that there is a myth in the business world that experts and scholars don’t make good leaders/managers, whilst it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, she argued that many infact do, even in the creative industries. This got me thinking about our humble world of live literature.
In recent years live literature has become a buzz phrase for the Arts Council. There has been a lot more money pumped into the industry, with initiatives like Lit up, Shot from the Lip and the live literature programme that I ran at Writers’ Centre Norwich. It’s a small, relatively new and specialised industry, for years it’s been run by enthusiastic part-timers, and the rare few talented individuals (such as Melanie Abrahams) who were able to make a full time living from being a producer. Now there’s more money about (though not for long with the recession looming) the powers that be have had two main options on how to grow the industry: a) use the exisiting artists and producers who know the scene and have creative vision; b) bring in proven arts managers from other industries to apply their knowledge of fund raising and management to live literature.
At Writers’ Centre Norwich I job shared with Laura Stimson, she brought experienced arts administration to the table and I brought sector knowledge, a team we felt it worked well. I found that at Writers’ Centre Norwich I learned a lot, especially from the dynamic leadership of Chris Gribble. But it was learnable and achievable in the office environment. The knowledge I had of the sector, and essentially an evolved sense of taste for live poetry, was something that took a lot longer to hone.
For that reason I have always approved of Apples & Snakes, the largest live literature organisation, appointing artists as their regional co-ordinators. These artists were able to use their extensive contacts and sector knowledge to programme club nights and offer support for emerging talent. Obviously some artists are utterly unsuited to such a post, but many are excellent organisers and administrators as well, their talents developed over years of organising their own gigs, club nights and tours.
Apples & Snakes have recently appointed a new CEO and it seems they have chosen not to go with the ‘Socrates in the Boardroom’ approach. In this case I don’t think an artist (or ex-artist as this more than full time post) would have been appropriate, but there were excellent candidates of a producing background within the sector that were passed over. The new CEO Lucy Compton-Reid used to head up Public Engagement at The House of Lords and perviously she was at Creative Partnerships. In the Apples & Snakes press release, she flags this up: “Whilst at Creative Partnerships, performance poetry became a major feature of the programme. I had the pleasure of working with Joseph Coelho, Charlie Dark, Stella Duffy, Kat Francois, Paul Lyalls, Nick Makoha and Roger Robinson.” Obviously this statement was designed to head off the expected criticism that she wasn’t in anyway experienced in the field of live literature, or “performance poetry” as Apples & Snakes defines itself as being an agency of (though many of their self-produced live shows are closer to spoken word or monologue than performance poetry).
I find the Creative Partnerships thing a bit weak. I have done loads of work with other disciplines for Creative Partnerships but it in no way qualifies me to work in their sectors. It doesn’t matter anyway, Compton-Reid’s appointment would not have hinged on that at all. She’s not Socrates in the the Boardroom (Byron in the Boardroom?); she’s not been brought in for her expertise in the field of performance poetry. The move, rather seems to be a very defensive one by the Apples & Snakes board in times of financial crisis. They obviously felt they needed someone who could be fund raiser, someone who had experience of the arts as an industry and not someone who was an expert in their field (ie the rarified field of performance poetry). Their reasons for doing this are perfectly rational and you can see why they did it. Apples & Snakes gets a lot of money and the board have a duty to keep it that way.
I don’t want to criticise Compton-Reid before has even started her job, her creative vision and her understanding of performance poetry may well be excellent, but I thought it an interesting enough point to bring up on the blog, the recession does not just mean less money if means a different way of doing things. In this case business, or management has triumphed over experts in the field.
Tags: amanda Goodall > apples & snakes > live literature > performance poetry > radio 4
London Run
Posted on | December 9, 2009 | Comments Off
I’ll be doing my latest stage show in London for three weeks in January.
The Petty Concerns of Luke Wright will play the Old Red Lion Theatre 12 - 30 January 2010 (not Sun/Mon). The show starts at 7.30pm every night.
Tickets are £10 and you can order yours today by calling 020 7837 7816.
More info on the show can be found here.
My good friend and long time collaborator Ross Sutherland will be doing his show - The Three Stigmata of Pac Man - in the same space after me, at 9pm. If you want to see both shows on the same night you can do so for the phenomenally cheap price of £16. Make sure you ask for the £16 deal when you book on the phone.
Weird Day
Posted on | December 1, 2009 | No Comments
Watched a three hour disaster movie. Found Pizza Express. Drank wine. Hmm.
Buddies
Posted on | December 1, 2009 | No Comments
Annoyingly the school made a mess up with the dates so I find myself back in Brighton. I walked to the seafront and stumbled into Buddies, Brighton’s only 24 hour restaurant.
I’ve been here before. When I was 18, the summer before k started university. I was going out with a girl called Eliane. We ditched our other friends and spent the summer driving around Lovejoy country in the little red car I called Clint. Toward the end of August I booked us a weekend away in Brighton.
Well, Rottingdean to be precise. It was all I could afford. But I was a dizzy boy filed with images of mods and rockers twatting eachother on the beach and it was Brighton that we were going to be spending our time in.
Taking my girlfriend away for the weekend was the most grown up thing i’d ever done but I approached it with the zeal of kid at Christmas. I had never driven further than Norwich before so worried about getting the most of our time away I made Elly get up at six and I drove down the a12 at 100 miles all the way. It was a Saturday and there were no cars on the road. It felt brilliant going past those two weird pillars on the a23 and seeing that was so close.
We arrived on the seafront at the ludicrous time of half seven. Nowhere was open except Buddies, so we sat looking out to sea eating bacon sandwiches. That night we got pissed, told eachother things we had never told anyone, went to Zap until I couldn’t stand.
Elly was great. We both knew it wouldn’t last and neither of us really wanted it to. That September she went travelling and fell in love with a Swiss scientist (I think, something like that) and I came to Norwich and met the love of my life and starting doing poetry gigs every week.
I love my life. I have worked very hard for ten years to make it what it is. I love my family and work and friends. Ten years ago in Brighton I had none of that and I wouldn’t want to go back there but this morning I had enjoyed the memory of Buddies at seven thirty on a Saturday morning i have enjoyed the naivity. I have enjoyed the limitlessness.
keep looking »MAILING LIST
- I uploaded a YouTube video -- The Company of Men by Luke Wright http://youtu.be/lkrRiOKeayc?a 17 hrs ago
- More updates...
Upcoming Gigs
- Feb 16: The Norwich Poetry Club - Norwich
- Feb 24: The Petty Concerns of Luke Wright - Aberystwyth, Wales
- Feb 25: Poetry Wivenhoe - Wivenhoe, Essex
- Mar 2: The Petty Concerns of Luke Wright - Cranbrook, Kent
- Mar 4: The Petty Concerns of Luke Wright - Bath
- Mar 6: Saturday Live - Radio 4
- Mar 7: The Petty Concerns of Luke Wright - Brighton
- Mar 10: The Petty Concerns of Luke Wright - Leeds
- Mar 11: The Petty Concerns of Luke Wright - York
- Mar 17: The Petty Concerns of Luke Wright - Godalming, Surrey
Recent Blogs
Older Blogs
Luke's New Club in Norwich
Buy Luke's New Book
Find Luke
WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck requires Flash Player 9 or better.