a blogzine of investigative, exploratory, avant-garde, innovative poetry and poetics edited by Robert Sheppard
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 I told him what I thought of it and he said he had more, both published in book form (Seaham Tales) and unpublished.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.
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 I told him what I thought of it and he said he had more, both published in book form (Seaham Tales) and unpublished.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.
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 buy the issue here: https://www.shearsman.com/store/Shearsman-121-and-122-p145544623
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
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:
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:
https://www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/product-page/hap-understudies-of-thomas-wyatt-s-petrarch-by-robert-sheppard-26-pages
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: here. That 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:
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
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