THERE WILL BE A BURNS NIGHT SPECIAL WITH POETRY AND MUSIC ON TUESDAY 23RD JANUARY 2018 7PM ONWARDS (START TIME 7.30 PM, ENDS 9.30 PM) IN THE RED HOUSE, QUAYSIDE, NEWCASTLE. ADMISSION FREE.
PERFORMERS ARE NORTHUMBRIAN PIPER CHRIS ORMSTON (WHO DOES A SET WITH POET KEITH ARMSTRONG FEATURING EIGHTEENTH CENTURY INSPIRED TYNESIDE POEMS AND TUNES) AND POETS KATRINA PORTEOUS, CATHERINE GRAHAM, HARRY GALLAGHER AND ROB WALTON - AND THERE'S MORE MUSIC FROM THE SAWDUST JACKS (FEATURING THEIR NEW SONG ON NEWCASTLE WRITER JACK COMMON) AND DURHAM'S GARY MILLER. GUESTS FROM TEESSIDE ARE POETS ROBERT LONSDALE AND TREV TEASDEL.
A SPECIAL FEATURE WILL BE TO COMMEMORATE THE ANNIVERSARIES OF LOCAL WRITERS AND ARTISTS JACK COMMON (1903-1968), THOMAS BEWICK (1753-1828), JOHN CUNNINGHAM (1729-1773) AND JOSEPH SKIPSEY (1832-1903).
BRING ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY!
MORE INFORMATION FROM:
DOCTOR KEITH ARMSTRONG,
NORTHERN VOICES COMMUNITY PROJECTS.
TEL 0191 2529531.
MY FRIEND JACK COMMON (1903-1968)
Ever since the sixth form,
when I found you,
a kindred Novocastrian
in a library book,
I seem to have followed in your steps,
stumbled after you
in rain soaked lanes,
knocked on doors
in search of your stories.
For over forty years,
I have tracked
the movement of your pen
in streets you walked
and on cross country trains
from your own Newcastle
to Warrington
Malvern,
Newport Pagnell,
Letchworth,
Yetminster,
Wallington
and back again.
I have given talks about you,
supped in your pubs,
strode along your paragraphs
and river paths
to try to find
that urge in you
to write
out of your veins
what you thought of things,
what made you tick
and your loved ones
laugh and cry.
I tried to reach you in a thesis,
to see you as a lad in Heaton,
but I could never catch your breath
because I didn’t get to meet you
face to face,
could only guess
that you were like me:
a kind of kindly
socialist writer
in a world
too cruel for words.
KEITH ARMSTRONG
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