Thursday, October 31, 2019

Friday 31st October 1969:

John came up in the afternoon. Sent letter to Radio 255, asking if we could send DX-news for broadcast each month.

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Thursday 30th October 1969:

Number One: The Archies: Sugar, Sugar.

John came up. In afternoon, John played Je T’aime Moi Non Plus. (B.B.C. banned it.)

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Wednesday 29th October 1969:

Carried on with tape. Got a teenager who knew about a station, and might have run one. Scotty came.

Monday, October 28, 2019

Tuesday 28th October 1969:

Started interviews for Sun Radio, about pirate radio. Did 3. One was with a couple of girls. We did it and then found it did not record, so we asked again if we could do it again. They refused.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Bill Griffiths; Six Ghost Stories for the darker nights

I have done this before, provided all the links to the 'ghost stories' of Bill Griffiths on this blog.

In 2005 I read a marvellous ghost story in Neon Highway written by Bill. I told him what I thought of it and he said he had more, both published in book form (Seaham Tales) and unpublished. I offered to publish six new ones - and did so, on Pages, one per month.

Enjoy this English municipal Gothic, Griffiths-style. Now the nights are drawing in, it's a good time to pick up on these. I hope you don't mind these raw links. They are numbered (excerpt number 5, oddly)


http://robertsheppard.blogspot.co.uk/2005/10/bill-griffiths-ghost-stories-1-tommy.html


And my reading of Bill's The Book of the Boat may be accessed here

Links to videos celebrating the launch of the third volume of Bill's Collected Poems may be accessed here. His stories await their collector. 

Monday 27th October 1969:

Today I rejoined the Southwick library (see 10th July 1965)

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Sunday 26th October 1969:

Reading: Leslie Charteris; The Saint Goes West.

John and I heard a jazz programme on Radio 260, then a new pirate Radio 255. I taped 255.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Saturday 25th October 1969:



Went down John’s. Got Duke Ellington L.P. (5 shillings). Auntie Marjorie and family came.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Friday 24th October 1969:

At night, Mum and Dad went to the cricket social. (They used my amplifier, and many of my records.) Scotty came round we did the same as we do usually. Heh!! Heh!!

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Thursday 23rd October 1969



Thursday, 23rd October 1969:

Number One: The Archies: Sugar, Sugar.

The Connaught Theatre came and did a play by Stradgrinsky (with music) and the staff had a meeting while we were at play.

[Note: That’s a strike meeting.]

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Wednesday 22nd October 1969:

Had the student Mr. Capell (History and R.K.) and Mr. Humphries (Maths) for last time. Went out walking at night.

Monday, October 21, 2019

Tuesday 21st October 1969:

Timid English teacher [student] started getting mad, almost to break-down point.

[Note: 3A were buggers to control.]

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Sunday 19th October 1969:

Reading: H.G. Wells: The Time Machine.

Taped Radio 260 in Morning with John. He went out in the afternoon, so I read my book The Time Machine.

Friday, October 18, 2019

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Thursday 16th October 1969:

Number One: Bobbie Gentry: I’ll Never Fall in Love Again.

Took Sun Radio sticker and politic [?] review (by me) and clippings to school for board. Went out at night for a walk with Scotty.

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Wednesday 15th October 1969:

After school Paul Plumb came to give a demo on stereo and mono record players. He threw out records, I got one.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Tuesday, 14th October 1969:

Chemistry test. At night, went out with Scotty. We discussed what we could so at the weekends.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Monday 13th October 1969:

Hales read Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence in class. Had it taken away by Mrs Reed (the Roman Catholic).

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Sunday 12th October 1969:



Reading: Lady Chatterley’s Lover, D.H. Lawrence

Went over to Auntie Joyces. Before I left, I taped Radio 260, I got an article about Blues music from an old mag. I also found The Times on the train.

[Note: That would be an article about Paul Oliver’s The Story of the Blues.]

Friday, October 11, 2019

Saturday 11th October 1969:

Went down John’s. A good load of records. His friend, Alan Shaw came over from Littlehampton.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Robert Sheppard: 5 sonnets from Bad Idea published in Shearsman 121 and 122



I am pleased that Tony Frazer has selected a group of five sonnets from Bad Idea for the latest Shearsman 121 and 122, the first of which is actually the 'address to the reader' at the beginning of the sequence. (The others were written between September and November 2018, and the trace both Michael Drayton’s sonnets, of which they are ‘overdubs’, and the Brexit news of the time.) So it’s a good place to start. There are, of course, lots of other goodies in this issue, though I’ve yet to read it. It arrived in the middle of me working on the first poem of the sequel, Idea’s Mirror. It also contains poetry by Clark Allison, Annemarie Austin, Benjamin Balint, Miranda Lynn Barnes, Alison Brackenbury, Rachael Clyne, Andrew Duncan, Chris Emery, Gerrie Fellows, Adam Flint, Mark Goodwin, Lucy Hamilton, Jeri Onitskansky, Alasdair Paterson, John Phillips, Paul Rossiter, Alexandra Sashe, Kate Schmitt, John Seed, Maria Stadnicka, Andrew Taylor, James Turner, Rimas Uzgiris, Rushika Wick, Tamar Yoseloff; and translations of Greta AmbrazaitÄ— and Toon Tellegen by Rimas Uzgiris and Judith Wilkinson respectively.


You can read more about Bad Idea as it has evolved here, with links to other print outings from the sequence, links to online sonnets, with links to earlier (related) sonnets in the project The English Strain, complete with photos and stuff:


The most recent instalment of The English Strain  to appear is Hap: Understudies of Thomas Wyatt’s Petrarch is available from Knives Forks and Spoons here:




 The cover of Shearsman is by Ghirlandaio; the cover of Hap is by Patricia Farrell

I’m delighted to announce that Bad Idea is available NOW from Alec Newman’s excellent press Knives Forks and Spoons, with a cover design by Patricia Farrell. You may get it HERE:  https://www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/product-page/bad-idea-by-robert-sheppard-102-pages

Friday 10th October 1969:



Did my usual work in Metal-work. I filed a small bit of steel in 2 hours.

Wednesday, October 09, 2019

Thursday 9th October 1969:

Number One: Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin: Je T’aime Moi Non Plus. * The B.B.C. banned record. 

Our class again got detention.

Tuesday, October 08, 2019

Idea's Mirror: poem 1 of my new Michael Drayton-Brexit transposition (temporary post)

I have run out of the sonnets of Michael Drayton in his 1619 Idea which I have been using to write the sonnet sequence Bad Idea, the latest part of The English Strain. I write about it extensively (with lots of explanation, the odd photo, and links) in the hub post HERE:


Despite the various schemes outlined there, I plan to continue this Brexit work with Idea’s Mirror, using extra Drayton sonnets jettisoned on his way to the definitive 1619 edition.


Idea’s Mirror

                        Amidst those shades wherein the Muses sit,
                                    Thus to Idea, my Idea sings…
                                                                                    Michael Drayton

I write abut the end of the sequence (poem 14) here. The last three were the first to be published. Read them here.


Access eight online poems from Bad Idea from this post:


I have selected these poems so that they move backwards through the various editions of Drayton’s poems. The originals are rare so I have posted them here .

Update 2021: I’m delighted to announce that Bad Idea is available NOW from Alec Newman’s excellent press Knives Forks and Spoons, with a cover design by Patricia Farrell. You may get it HERE:  https://www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/product-page/bad-idea-by-robert-sheppard-102-pages 


Book One of ‘The English Strain’ project, The English Strain, is available from Shearsman Books here:

https://www.shearsman.com/store/Sheppard-Robert-c28271934?offset=6


The poems are found in MINOR POEMS OF MICHAEL DRAYTON

 

CHOSEN AND EDITED BY CYRIL BRETT OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1907

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17873/17873-h/17873-h.htm#Page_1


You may read about the whole ‘English Strain’ project in a post that has links to some other accounts, and earlier parts, of this work: hereThat was 100 poems long. 
The most recent instalment of it to appear is Hap: Understudies of Thomas Wyatt’s Petrarch is available from Knives Forks and Spoons here:

https://www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/product-page/hap-understudies-of-thomas-wyatt-s-petrarch-by-robert-sheppard-26-pages


Access my website here
Here is a link that links to all the links to the good things on this blog: https://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2020/02/fifteen-years-of-blogging-hubpost-to.html

Wednesday 8th October 1969:

Dad took the tape recorder apart, to see why it played both tracks at once. Fixed it!!

Monday, October 07, 2019

Sunday, October 06, 2019

Monday 6th October 1969:



Today, I was told that I had won a prize at English last year. I choose [sic] a book on electronics as prize.


Saturday, October 05, 2019

Sunday 5th October 1969:

Reading: Star of Ill Omen, Dennis Wheatley

Radio 260 is a pirate in Southwick, they are not as good as Sun [Radio], but they are fair. The English of the D.J. isn’t …

[possible continuation:]

and we tried to track them down, but we ran into Philip Standen (See August 1968) and he said the D.J.s would cut up rough.

Friday, October 04, 2019

Saturday 4th October 1969:

Went down John’s. He’s heard Radio 260 on Sunday (28th). Person with unbroken voice. Sun Radio in Southwick. 

Thursday, October 03, 2019

Friday 3rd October 1969:

Sealand (See September 1969). I wrote to them. I wish to become Sealandic.

Had a go on Scotty’s mother’s moped. Also recorded more.

Wednesday, October 02, 2019

Thursday 2nd October 1969:

Number One: Bad Moon Risin’, Credence Clearwater Revival.

Scotty came round at night. We recorded some songs. Got new record head for gramophone.

Tuesday, October 01, 2019