Robert Sheppard: The Broken Spine reading, Southport (set list)

I'm pleased to say that Patricia and I read at the launch of The Broken Spine, a new magazine of poetry and photography, edited by Paul Mullen (a former MA Creative Writing Student at Edge Hill) and Alan Parry, who I met for the first time. Both editors read, as did David Hanlon, David Welshe, Rob Edge (also ex-Edge Hill), Elisabeth Horan, Mary Earnshaw. There was music to end, from Paul, Micayl, Leonic Jakobi, and possibly others. I'm reconstructing the names from Twitter, where videos of most performances are posted (see @BrokenSpineArts on Twitter). Website: here.  

I have just realized the whole of my reading is on the Twitter feed, but here is the set list. Knowing there was going to be some music and knowing that Paul was interested in music (I saw his duo Little Wing about 10 years ago) I put together a little set about music. I'm unlikely to repeat this particular order. 

1.     ‘Round Midnight’, the first poem in History or Sleep, my selected poems, see here: https://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2013/12/stan-tracey-im.html

2.     ‘Prison Camp Violin, Riga’, from History or Sleep and Berlin Bursts and anthologized in the Carcanet anthology Smart Devices. The right analogy was to call it my 'hit single'. See here: https://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2018/07/robert-sheppard-my-prison-camp-violin.html and here: https://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2020/01/prison-camp-violin-riga-anthologised-in.html

3.     ‘The Hippest Man to Walk the Planet’, a poem about Ray Charles, from Liverpool (Hugs and) Kisses (with Robert Hampson). See here: https://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2015/01/robert-hampson-and-robert-sheppard.html

4.     ‘Beefore or Never’, the piece commissioned for the Captain Beefheart Weekend at the Bluecoat in 2017. See here: https://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2017/11/robert-sheppard-reading-at-doped-in.html

5.     I then read two galleries from the Charms and Glitter project, music poems which accompany the poems of Trev Eales. See here: Pages: Whatever happened to the book Charms and Glitter? (robertsheppard.blogspot.com)

6.     I finished with one of the ‘Poems of National Independence’, part of British Standards, which was addressed to Trev Eales (and recalls our trip to see the Who in 1976) -https://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2020/02/real-beginning-of-new-series-of.html

Patricia Farrell read from her Logic for Little Girls, which is also forthcoming from Knives Forks and Spoons.

[And now, 2022, the Broken Spine editors have asked for videos of the contributions to Issue One. I must have read this one. And here it is. It can also be found on the BS TikTok site, my debut on the platform!]