24.9.09
archive
SHARING THE PAIN AND THE PASSION
From the Northern Echo, first published Saturday 2nd Dec 2000.
HANDS fly skywards, faces eager, the group of eight-year-olds visiting The Northern Echo offices fight to answer questions. On the editor's wall are some of the paper's front pages, famous images framed for posterity, and the children are challenged to identify the news story.
"Princess Diana's death," they chorus, recognising the picture of the funeral cortege.
"Eclipse of the sun," says another child, moving along the row. Then: "First man on the moon."
But the next one has them stumped. October 14, 1992, the year many of them were born, and the headline reads: "The sun sets on 400 years." Blank faces. The picture is a clue, but they don't recognise the black and white image of a pit head. In fact, they don't seem to know what a pit wheel is - ironic since the paper they are visiting was once known as the "Miners' Bible". How quickly the world forgets.
To the youth of today, coal is a fossil fuel they are told the world should no longer be using. Burning it depletes a natural resource, filling the atmosphere with greenhouse gases which destroy the ozone layer. The connotations are all negative, environmentally unfriendly.
It's a far cry from last century when coal was the mainstay of the economy. On coal the region was built. It fuelled our fires, it forged our industry, it sustained lives, but took plenty too.
Yet the memories of the industry itself, and the men, boys and animals who sacrificed their lives, are fading fast.
No better time then to launch a book to remind the North-East of its heritage.
Our Village is edited by Keith Armstrong, edited, not written, because the freelance writer from Whitley Bay allows real people to tell their story, through earthy accounts, poetry and song.
It's a powerful collection, provoking strong images of working class life, of tragedy and black humour.
For Keith the book, published by The People's History, represents 20 years of working in former mining communities.
"This book documents the changing face of County Durham and provides a vivid portrayal of pit closures," says the Newcastle-born writer, whose father was a shipyard worker.
"But it also highlights a kind of resilience in the people, the ability to bounce back from disaster. We have tried to bring out a lot of the humour."
No better example than the recollections of John Iddon, of Trimdon. He recalls: "The Lowe family were another laugh with some queer tales. The father was called Matt and was nicknamed Crock. He worked at Deaf Hill Colliery. One night Matt had gone out for a drink and must have gone over the eight. He collapsed in the yard and it was teeming with rain. Someone passing the yard went and knocked on his door and when Mrs Lowe answered she was told: 'Mrs Lowe, your Matt is lying in the yard'. She replied: 'Just put it over the wall and it will dry out in the morning'."
Publisher Andrew Clark says the strength of the book is the wealth of material recounted by real people.
"Personal memories of people who had lived through hard times; the General Strike, the Depression, the Second World War, down the mines," he says. "Keith has allowed them to tell their own story, we just put their stories into a logical format. The book provides a real sense of what it is like to live in a pit village.
"People didn't like going down coal mines but they didn't want them to close the way they did. There's a great sense of loss. They went down at 14, as boys, and now they just want to talk about it. They have seen the whole community change and they don't want people to forget.
"The book is helping to preserve their memories. People sacrificed their lives down the pit and this shouldn't be forgotten."
Launched in the Dun Cow, Old Elvet, Durham, yesterday, the book inspired miner's son Ian Horn to recall some of the memories his father Billy had of their home village of Shotton Colliery.
"It was the Rock of Gibraltar made of coal dust and slag," he says. "A miner's volcano with vapour of sulphur fumes rising from it. The volcano is now pasture, a grassy hill surrounded by call centres." He says the pit wheel has become a monument and nostalgia is a powerful emotion but there is a danger the pit disasters and hardship can be forgotten.
The tone of the book is captured in the preface in the lyrics of a song by rock folk band Whisky Priests:
This village draws me,
I hear it calling me back through the years.
It's people are its life blood,
I am its joys, I am its tears.
A sacred bond exists here
Between the land and the people it owns.
It grants no escape from the realm of its fate,
It reaps the crops we have sown,
This village has made me all that I am,
This village is calling me home.
The band is headed by twins Gary and Glen Miller, 34. Now living in York, they grew up in the mining community of Sherburn, near Durham, and their material is heavily influenced by North-East culture.
"Our grandparents and uncles were miners but our dad, Allan, was a school teacher," says Gary. "Dad was the youngest son and his father was determined that he should not go down the mines. They scrimped and saved to send him to college and because of that he didn't dare fail. He didn't go down the mines, for which he is eternally grateful.
"Our dad was a singer with a brass band and tried to get us interested in music. Now we run our own record company, have our own website and are popular across Europe."
Glen adds: "We are a rock band but don't just sing about love and baby, baby. We are serious about our lyrics and the content, they have much more depth."
Through this book, and possibly a second volume, mining communities will live on long past the closure of the pits, its stories, pictures, poetry and songs a lasting testament for future generations.
**Our Village (The People's History)
From the Northern Echo, first published Saturday 2nd Dec 2000.
HANDS fly skywards, faces eager, the group of eight-year-olds visiting The Northern Echo offices fight to answer questions. On the editor's wall are some of the paper's front pages, famous images framed for posterity, and the children are challenged to identify the news story.
"Princess Diana's death," they chorus, recognising the picture of the funeral cortege.
"Eclipse of the sun," says another child, moving along the row. Then: "First man on the moon."
But the next one has them stumped. October 14, 1992, the year many of them were born, and the headline reads: "The sun sets on 400 years." Blank faces. The picture is a clue, but they don't recognise the black and white image of a pit head. In fact, they don't seem to know what a pit wheel is - ironic since the paper they are visiting was once known as the "Miners' Bible". How quickly the world forgets.
To the youth of today, coal is a fossil fuel they are told the world should no longer be using. Burning it depletes a natural resource, filling the atmosphere with greenhouse gases which destroy the ozone layer. The connotations are all negative, environmentally unfriendly.
It's a far cry from last century when coal was the mainstay of the economy. On coal the region was built. It fuelled our fires, it forged our industry, it sustained lives, but took plenty too.
Yet the memories of the industry itself, and the men, boys and animals who sacrificed their lives, are fading fast.
No better time then to launch a book to remind the North-East of its heritage.
Our Village is edited by Keith Armstrong, edited, not written, because the freelance writer from Whitley Bay allows real people to tell their story, through earthy accounts, poetry and song.
It's a powerful collection, provoking strong images of working class life, of tragedy and black humour.
For Keith the book, published by The People's History, represents 20 years of working in former mining communities.
"This book documents the changing face of County Durham and provides a vivid portrayal of pit closures," says the Newcastle-born writer, whose father was a shipyard worker.
"But it also highlights a kind of resilience in the people, the ability to bounce back from disaster. We have tried to bring out a lot of the humour."
No better example than the recollections of John Iddon, of Trimdon. He recalls: "The Lowe family were another laugh with some queer tales. The father was called Matt and was nicknamed Crock. He worked at Deaf Hill Colliery. One night Matt had gone out for a drink and must have gone over the eight. He collapsed in the yard and it was teeming with rain. Someone passing the yard went and knocked on his door and when Mrs Lowe answered she was told: 'Mrs Lowe, your Matt is lying in the yard'. She replied: 'Just put it over the wall and it will dry out in the morning'."
Publisher Andrew Clark says the strength of the book is the wealth of material recounted by real people.
"Personal memories of people who had lived through hard times; the General Strike, the Depression, the Second World War, down the mines," he says. "Keith has allowed them to tell their own story, we just put their stories into a logical format. The book provides a real sense of what it is like to live in a pit village.
"People didn't like going down coal mines but they didn't want them to close the way they did. There's a great sense of loss. They went down at 14, as boys, and now they just want to talk about it. They have seen the whole community change and they don't want people to forget.
"The book is helping to preserve their memories. People sacrificed their lives down the pit and this shouldn't be forgotten."
Launched in the Dun Cow, Old Elvet, Durham, yesterday, the book inspired miner's son Ian Horn to recall some of the memories his father Billy had of their home village of Shotton Colliery.
"It was the Rock of Gibraltar made of coal dust and slag," he says. "A miner's volcano with vapour of sulphur fumes rising from it. The volcano is now pasture, a grassy hill surrounded by call centres." He says the pit wheel has become a monument and nostalgia is a powerful emotion but there is a danger the pit disasters and hardship can be forgotten.
The tone of the book is captured in the preface in the lyrics of a song by rock folk band Whisky Priests:
This village draws me,
I hear it calling me back through the years.
It's people are its life blood,
I am its joys, I am its tears.
A sacred bond exists here
Between the land and the people it owns.
It grants no escape from the realm of its fate,
It reaps the crops we have sown,
This village has made me all that I am,
This village is calling me home.
The band is headed by twins Gary and Glen Miller, 34. Now living in York, they grew up in the mining community of Sherburn, near Durham, and their material is heavily influenced by North-East culture.
"Our grandparents and uncles were miners but our dad, Allan, was a school teacher," says Gary. "Dad was the youngest son and his father was determined that he should not go down the mines. They scrimped and saved to send him to college and because of that he didn't dare fail. He didn't go down the mines, for which he is eternally grateful.
"Our dad was a singer with a brass band and tried to get us interested in music. Now we run our own record company, have our own website and are popular across Europe."
Glen adds: "We are a rock band but don't just sing about love and baby, baby. We are serious about our lyrics and the content, they have much more depth."
Through this book, and possibly a second volume, mining communities will live on long past the closure of the pits, its stories, pictures, poetry and songs a lasting testament for future generations.
**Our Village (The People's History)
21.9.09
jack common
NORTH EAST LABOUR HISTORY SOCIETY presents:
A Jack Common Celebration
The Bridge Hotel, Castle Garth, Newcastle upon Tyne
Keith Armstrong introduces his recent book about Jack Common, followed by talk by Peter Common, commissioned poetry by Catherine Graham and music from Kiddar's Luck folk group.
7pm Tuesday 1st December 2009
"I think you have produced a very interesting and unusual book, an amalgamation between biography of Jack, a lot of interesting detail about his various writings, his socialism and intellectual discussions in the 30s, and then the theme of your own work encouraged by his example as a working-class writer, and leading on to helping other writers in the North East.
I applaud your persistence in publicising your hero and your loyalty to Jack over all these years." (Sally Magill, Jack’s daughter)
"You must be feeling very proud that your book is at long last out on the bookshelves and ready to race to the top of the charts." (Peter Common, Jack's son)
A Jack Common Celebration
The Bridge Hotel, Castle Garth, Newcastle upon Tyne
Keith Armstrong introduces his recent book about Jack Common, followed by talk by Peter Common, commissioned poetry by Catherine Graham and music from Kiddar's Luck folk group.
7pm Tuesday 1st December 2009
"Thanks for the book which I think is splendid. THE definitive work. I liked, in particular, your emphasis on the essays which I only discovered through your Strong Words publication all those years ago." (John Mapplebeck, Bewick Films)
"I think you have produced a very interesting and unusual book, an amalgamation between biography of Jack, a lot of interesting detail about his various writings, his socialism and intellectual discussions in the 30s, and then the theme of your own work encouraged by his example as a working-class writer, and leading on to helping other writers in the North East.
I applaud your persistence in publicising your hero and your loyalty to Jack over all these years." (Sally Magill, Jack’s daughter)
"You must be feeling very proud that your book is at long last out on the bookshelves and ready to race to the top of the charts." (Peter Common, Jack's son)
20.9.09
armstrong in douglas, isle of man
To the wonderful, amusing, spot-on Keith!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for coming to the Isle of Man and sharing your ace sense of humour and brilliantly crafted words. Please come back again. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shelley D
KERRY FROM THE ISLE OF MAN
(inspired by Patrick Kavanagh)
I met a kind of woman on the Isle of Man,
she touched me where a railway was.
She took me to Port Soderick
to lay all her dreams on the line.
She was a sexed-up girl from Ballasalla,
with a compartment for each of my moods.
By the time she had me in Ronaldsway,
I was starting to fill up with her joy.
In Ballabeg, she jumped on my train
to make me explode with a steamy desire.
Now, I’m missing her beauty again,
with her island warmth and hospitable eyes.
And, If I ever go back in Port Erin rain,
I’ll be sure to surrender my poems to her lips.
KEITH ARMSTRONG
15.9.09
5.9.09
BLUES FOR HENK
The day opens its doors to set a poem loose,
the sun beats hard on the skin of the sluice.
A passing bridge blinks to let a boat break through,
it’s time to leave English and sing something new.
From Lauwersee to Dollard
and from Drenthe to the Wad,
I follow a passing seagull’s cry
and teach my father’s voice to sigh:
Vivace la flambardo
Fugere le mansardo
Parforce la Camargo
a doso kwatrupardo
Monete penicardo
Pericula san pardo
Finate par retardo
Etcetera ce fardo*
Another night sleepless in Hotel Simplon,
the creaking bedhead and the simpletons.
Shot bolt awake by the drill of the dawn,
who cares what these unswept streets will spawn?
We’re walking the lanes that Hendrik Werkman dredged,
chipping the gems from the pavement’s edge.
Past a man fishing, heron stood by his side,
to the dark Huis de Beurs where all hope has died.
This Groningen wind belts poems in my face,
I’d trade in old guilders to buy out of this place;
my brain’s pickled with Duvals,
and there’s blood on the walls.
Oh to die in the trash of this town,
ode-money tumbling from pockets of time.
Think I’ll whistle a tune straight from home,
and slash the pale wrist of my very last poem.
Last night I put a piper to bed,
music dripped from his heart and his worn fingers bled.
And I couldn’t get that woman out of my dreams,
and I couldn’t hear my dreams for her screams.
So the day leaps to life and a hymn springs to mind,
I’m just a poor down-and-out hoarding words that I find.
Drunk conversations swim round in the bowl,
I’m drowning with language this lonely old soul:
Vivace la flambardo
Fugere le mansardo
Parforce le Camargo
a doso kwatrupardo
the sun beats hard on the skin of the sluice.
A passing bridge blinks to let a boat break through,
it’s time to leave English and sing something new.
From Lauwersee to Dollard
and from Drenthe to the Wad,
I follow a passing seagull’s cry
and teach my father’s voice to sigh:
Vivace la flambardo
Fugere le mansardo
Parforce la Camargo
a doso kwatrupardo
Monete penicardo
Pericula san pardo
Finate par retardo
Etcetera ce fardo*
Another night sleepless in Hotel Simplon,
the creaking bedhead and the simpletons.
Shot bolt awake by the drill of the dawn,
who cares what these unswept streets will spawn?
We’re walking the lanes that Hendrik Werkman dredged,
chipping the gems from the pavement’s edge.
Past a man fishing, heron stood by his side,
to the dark Huis de Beurs where all hope has died.
This Groningen wind belts poems in my face,
I’d trade in old guilders to buy out of this place;
my brain’s pickled with Duvals,
and there’s blood on the walls.
Oh to die in the trash of this town,
ode-money tumbling from pockets of time.
Think I’ll whistle a tune straight from home,
and slash the pale wrist of my very last poem.
Last night I put a piper to bed,
music dripped from his heart and his worn fingers bled.
And I couldn’t get that woman out of my dreams,
and I couldn’t hear my dreams for her screams.
So the day leaps to life and a hymn springs to mind,
I’m just a poor down-and-out hoarding words that I find.
Drunk conversations swim round in the bowl,
I’m drowning with language this lonely old soul:
Vivace la flambardo
Fugere le mansardo
Parforce le Camargo
a doso kwatrupardo
Monete penicardo
Pericula san pardo
Finate par retardo
Etcetera ce fardo
Keith Armstrong,
Groningen, The Netherlands
*Improvised verse by poet and graphic artist Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman (1882-1945)
Pericula san pardo
Finate par retardo
Etcetera ce fardo
Keith Armstrong,
Groningen, The Netherlands
*Improvised verse by poet and graphic artist Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman (1882-1945)
31.8.09
jack common events reminder
NEWCASTLE CITY LIBRARIES & THE WORKERS' EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION
PRESENT:
COMMON WORDS AND THE WANDERING STAR - BOOK LAUNCH
BEWICK HALL, NEWCASTLE CENTRAL LIBRARY
SATURDAY OCTOBER 17TH
BOOK LAUNCH 10.30am to 5pm
10.30am 'From Heaton to Newport Pagnell - in search of Jack' - talk by Heaton born Dr Keith Armstrong, author of 'Common Words and the Wandering Star'
11.15am Short tribute by Jack Common's son, Peter
11.30am Discussion
12.30pm Lunch
2pm Films - 'Tyneside Story' - film by Jack Common; 'Common's Luck' - B.B.C. TV biography of Jack Common, introduced by its Director, John Mapplebeck of Bewick Films
3pm Dr Keith Armstrong & Peter Common - short readings from the new book, including poetry
3.45 - 4.45pm Musical celebration with Jez Lowe, songwriter of 'Jack Common's Anthem', & Tyneside folk group 'Kiddar's Luck'
ADMISSION FREE
Contact: Kath Cassidy, Newcastle Libraries tel 0191 2774155
UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
PRESENTS:
COMMON WORDS AND THE WANDERING STAR - BOOK LAUNCH
WEDNESDAY 21ST OCTOBER 6-8PM
Room ED 134, School of Education, Leazes Road, Durham
Talk and reading by the author Dr Keith Armstrong
Introductions by Professor Bill Williamson and Professor Mike Fleming
Admisssion free Refreshments
Contact: Michelle Wilkinson, School of Education tel 0191 3348310
Jack Common was born in Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne in 1903. His father worked at the locomotive works close to the family house in Heaton. He attended Chillingham Road Council School, where he excelled at essay writing, but left at fourteen to attend commercial college and to work in a solicitor's office. Years of indifferent jobs and unemployment led him to move to London in 1928, partly to foster his political convictions and also to escape unemployment in the north. In 1930 he commenced work as a circulation promoter on The Adelphi, a socialist journal edited by John Middleton Murry, Richard Rees and Max Plowman. He was soon employed as assistant editor and took over editorship for a period in the 1930's. Common was a contributor to The Adelphi and other journals such as New Britain, The Aryan Path and The New Statesman and Nation, but it was The Adelphi which occupied most of his time during the thirties; writing political and social articles, book reviews, a column called "The Sweeper Up" and helping to shape policy and direction by working with the three editors. George Orwell was another contributor to the journal and it was through their working relationship on the journal that they formed a close friendship.
In 1939 The Adelphi was put out of print and Common sought work as a film script writer and editor for government documentary films and lived in Langham, Essex at the Adelphi Centre, a community set up in 1936. After the war he found more film work with Rank Studios as a script advisor and reporter on suitability of novels as film subjects. He also worked as a freelance for the Associated British Picture Corporation during the 1950s and 1960s, again writing and editing scripts. In terms of his published work there are two phases to his work, the political and socially conscious essays of the 1930s and the fictional work of the 1950s, which reflect the work he was undertaking at these times. In 1938 he published Seven Shifts, a collection of seven working men's tales of work which Common edited and introduced. In the same year he published a book of social and political essays The Freedom of the Streets. Kiddar's Luck, the fictionalised autobiography of Jack Common's life up to the age of fourteen, published in 1951, was written under conditions of great hardship. Whilst writing the book he worked as a labourer during the day and wrote and edited film scripts in the evening, using the weekends to write his novel. He was under similar financial pressure when writing The Ampersand, a further autobiographical novel, in 1953-4; despite the favourable reviews given to Kiddar's Luck, the publishers became bankrupt, leaving him without a publisher to market the books and ensuring that the book was not the financial success it should have been. He also produced many articles for contemporary journals and magazines.
He died in 1968 before he could complete his third novel.
PRESENT:
COMMON WORDS AND THE WANDERING STAR - BOOK LAUNCH
BEWICK HALL, NEWCASTLE CENTRAL LIBRARY
SATURDAY OCTOBER 17TH
BOOK LAUNCH 10.30am to 5pm
10.30am 'From Heaton to Newport Pagnell - in search of Jack' - talk by Heaton born Dr Keith Armstrong, author of 'Common Words and the Wandering Star'
11.15am Short tribute by Jack Common's son, Peter
11.30am Discussion
12.30pm Lunch
2pm Films - 'Tyneside Story' - film by Jack Common; 'Common's Luck' - B.B.C. TV biography of Jack Common, introduced by its Director, John Mapplebeck of Bewick Films
3pm Dr Keith Armstrong & Peter Common - short readings from the new book, including poetry
3.45 - 4.45pm Musical celebration with Jez Lowe, songwriter of 'Jack Common's Anthem', & Tyneside folk group 'Kiddar's Luck'
ADMISSION FREE
Contact: Kath Cassidy, Newcastle Libraries tel 0191 2774155
UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
PRESENTS:
COMMON WORDS AND THE WANDERING STAR - BOOK LAUNCH
WEDNESDAY 21ST OCTOBER 6-8PM
Room ED 134, School of Education, Leazes Road, Durham
Talk and reading by the author Dr Keith Armstrong
Introductions by Professor Bill Williamson and Professor Mike Fleming
Admisssion free Refreshments
Contact: Michelle Wilkinson, School of Education tel 0191 3348310
Jack Common was born in Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne in 1903. His father worked at the locomotive works close to the family house in Heaton. He attended Chillingham Road Council School, where he excelled at essay writing, but left at fourteen to attend commercial college and to work in a solicitor's office. Years of indifferent jobs and unemployment led him to move to London in 1928, partly to foster his political convictions and also to escape unemployment in the north. In 1930 he commenced work as a circulation promoter on The Adelphi, a socialist journal edited by John Middleton Murry, Richard Rees and Max Plowman. He was soon employed as assistant editor and took over editorship for a period in the 1930's. Common was a contributor to The Adelphi and other journals such as New Britain, The Aryan Path and The New Statesman and Nation, but it was The Adelphi which occupied most of his time during the thirties; writing political and social articles, book reviews, a column called "The Sweeper Up" and helping to shape policy and direction by working with the three editors. George Orwell was another contributor to the journal and it was through their working relationship on the journal that they formed a close friendship.
In 1939 The Adelphi was put out of print and Common sought work as a film script writer and editor for government documentary films and lived in Langham, Essex at the Adelphi Centre, a community set up in 1936. After the war he found more film work with Rank Studios as a script advisor and reporter on suitability of novels as film subjects. He also worked as a freelance for the Associated British Picture Corporation during the 1950s and 1960s, again writing and editing scripts. In terms of his published work there are two phases to his work, the political and socially conscious essays of the 1930s and the fictional work of the 1950s, which reflect the work he was undertaking at these times. In 1938 he published Seven Shifts, a collection of seven working men's tales of work which Common edited and introduced. In the same year he published a book of social and political essays The Freedom of the Streets. Kiddar's Luck, the fictionalised autobiography of Jack Common's life up to the age of fourteen, published in 1951, was written under conditions of great hardship. Whilst writing the book he worked as a labourer during the day and wrote and edited film scripts in the evening, using the weekends to write his novel. He was under similar financial pressure when writing The Ampersand, a further autobiographical novel, in 1953-4; despite the favourable reviews given to Kiddar's Luck, the publishers became bankrupt, leaving him without a publisher to market the books and ensuring that the book was not the financial success it should have been. He also produced many articles for contemporary journals and magazines.
He died in 1968 before he could complete his third novel.
30.8.09
The Bismarck Tower in Tübingen
Tuebingen students suggested, in January 1900, the construction of the Bismarck Tower. A memorial committee was formed, chaired by Professors Dr. Schleich and Dr. Frank. The committee chose the winning design "Gotterdammerung" by architect Wilhelm Kreis. The City of Tuebingen provided the building site (the highest point on the Schlossberg) free of charge.
The students had for some years had a special relationship to the Schlossberg and they had honoured the Empire in 1871 at 18.01 and annually organized a torchlight procession to the castle hill and lit a fire.
The work was carried out by government architect Franz Baertle from Tuebingen. The 16-metre high tower consists of tuff and coarse-grained sandstone. Inside, there was originally a wooden staircase leading to a platform. The wooden staircase was reopened in 1969, with the last 12 steps of the 63 steps made of steel. The Bismarck Tower remained, in spite of these remedial measures, at least until September 1971, not climbable for visitors.
On the top platform, a fire bowl was featured. Through vandalism and several fires, the tower remained closed until early November 1999.
In 1999, a Tuebingen couple donated the entire cost of the restoration of the tower in the amount of 64,000 DM to enable the Tower to be renovated and made accessible again. On 14.11.1999 it was officially reopened. The fire bowl was removed during the renovation. A sign on the left side of the entrance indicates that the tower was renovated by the Tubingen Cultural Foundation with the donation of the Tübingen couple.
Opening times:
In summer, the Tower is open all day on weekends, otherwise the key can be borrowed from the Tourist Office in Tuebingen.
27.8.09
a noble thought
NEWS RELEASE 27/8/2009
Wandering bard Keith Armstrong aka 'The Jingling Geordie' is keeping himself busy. Indeed, he has his hands full with a host of new projects.
Currently poet-in-residence for Newcastle United fanzine 'True Faith', he is planning to publish a selection of his footie verse in 2010.
A new selection of his poetry' Castle Stair Reel' is soon to be published in the States by Baltimore-based 'Hutman Productions'. The selection homes in again on his native North East England to reveal both its sunny and dark sides. As usual, this rootedness is tempered by his strong internationalism with poetry on places as diverse as Berlin, Limerick, Kenya, Tuebingen and Edinburgh. All in all, the new book is an album of songs inspired by Armstrong's strong sense of place, wherever he may be located.
And his biography of Newcastle writer Jack Common, new from the University of Sunderland Press, launches in October with events at Newcastle Central Library on October 17th and at the University of Durham on October 21st.
Also on the publishing front, he's currenty editing a book on the heritage of North Tyneside with the support of North Tyneside Council and Awards for All. Due out at Xmas this one.
When 'Jingling Geordie' is not writing and publishing, he's on reading tours. September sees him giving poetry readings in Ireland, with Groningen City Poet Rense Sinkgraven, and on the Isle of Man, where he delivers his verse on painter John Martin, born in Haydon Bridge but dying on the Isle of Man in 1854.
His links with Groningen, twinned with Newcastle, and Tuebingen, twinned with Durham, continue with visits by Armstrong in 2010 and exchange visits by his Dutch and German counterparts.
In November, Doctor Armstrong's back in Prague.
Finally, his dedicated work on socialist pioneer Thomas Spence comes to fruition in 2010, with the unveiling of a blue plaque on Newcastle's Quayside and related events on Spence's 260th birthday.
Enough to be going on with!
FURTHER INFO: NORTHERN VOICES TEL. 0191 2529531
Currently poet-in-residence for Newcastle United fanzine 'True Faith', he is planning to publish a selection of his footie verse in 2010.
A new selection of his poetry' Castle Stair Reel' is soon to be published in the States by Baltimore-based 'Hutman Productions'. The selection homes in again on his native North East England to reveal both its sunny and dark sides. As usual, this rootedness is tempered by his strong internationalism with poetry on places as diverse as Berlin, Limerick, Kenya, Tuebingen and Edinburgh. All in all, the new book is an album of songs inspired by Armstrong's strong sense of place, wherever he may be located.
And his biography of Newcastle writer Jack Common, new from the University of Sunderland Press, launches in October with events at Newcastle Central Library on October 17th and at the University of Durham on October 21st.
Also on the publishing front, he's currenty editing a book on the heritage of North Tyneside with the support of North Tyneside Council and Awards for All. Due out at Xmas this one.
When 'Jingling Geordie' is not writing and publishing, he's on reading tours. September sees him giving poetry readings in Ireland, with Groningen City Poet Rense Sinkgraven, and on the Isle of Man, where he delivers his verse on painter John Martin, born in Haydon Bridge but dying on the Isle of Man in 1854.
His links with Groningen, twinned with Newcastle, and Tuebingen, twinned with Durham, continue with visits by Armstrong in 2010 and exchange visits by his Dutch and German counterparts.
In November, Doctor Armstrong's back in Prague.
Finally, his dedicated work on socialist pioneer Thomas Spence comes to fruition in 2010, with the unveiling of a blue plaque on Newcastle's Quayside and related events on Spence's 260th birthday.
Enough to be going on with!
FURTHER INFO: NORTHERN VOICES TEL. 0191 2529531
25.8.09
EPITAPH TO A WORKING CLASS COUPLE
trying to make ends meet
but met their ends
before such ends could meet.
KEITH ARMSTRONG
EPITAPH FOR A FROSTY GIRL
I made a Snow Woman.
It felt just like you,
melted away
in the morning sun.
Keith Armstrong
24.8.09
football diary - from 1997
Verse too: while most Newcastle fans will no doubt go drinking after Wednesday's Champions League tie at PSV Eindhoven, Keith Armstrong, will go to a poetry reading.
The 51-year-old poet and Toon nut will be performing his own works in an all night cafe in Eindhoven, with topics ranging from Jackie Millburn to Hughie Gallacher. Goodness knows how they will go down if Newcastle win.
Keith was invited to perform by the Dutch poet Bart FM Droog, whom he met while visiting the Cuckoo Club in Groningen, Newcastle's twin town. So, when PSV play in Newcastle on November 5, Keith has invited Bart and three other performers, including a didgeridoo player, to do their stuff at a poetry reading in Newcastle.
Hopefully Bart will find a quiet place to stay. For when Keith and his fellow poet Ian Horn slept on the floor of Bart's squat, the avid Magpie got in a flap during the night. Recalls Keith: "We were woken up by three budgies mating in a cage in a corner."
(Martin Thorpe, The Guardian, (UK), 18-10-97)
The 51-year-old poet and Toon nut will be performing his own works in an all night cafe in Eindhoven, with topics ranging from Jackie Millburn to Hughie Gallacher. Goodness knows how they will go down if Newcastle win.
Keith was invited to perform by the Dutch poet Bart FM Droog, whom he met while visiting the Cuckoo Club in Groningen, Newcastle's twin town. So, when PSV play in Newcastle on November 5, Keith has invited Bart and three other performers, including a didgeridoo player, to do their stuff at a poetry reading in Newcastle.
Hopefully Bart will find a quiet place to stay. For when Keith and his fellow poet Ian Horn slept on the floor of Bart's squat, the avid Magpie got in a flap during the night. Recalls Keith: "We were woken up by three budgies mating in a cage in a corner."
(Martin Thorpe, The Guardian, (UK), 18-10-97)
in iceland again
SNOW, 3 a.m.
Heads filled
with whisky,
we sway along
the whispering streets;
folds of snow
tucked round us,
clean sheets
on a sharp night.
Flakes,
the words
we spill,
float from our mouths.
Traffic lights blink on
long afer the last ghostly car
has crashed
past us
and our families sinking,
sleeping in the deep
drifts of dreams
we carelessly trample underfoot.
This is a land of ice,
of soft light.
A friend guides me to his house,
unveils a bookshelf thick
with fallen thought,
proudly points out
a white and virgin son.
The snow dragged in
with us
melts
between the seconds
of the ticking clock.
We pour out
another whisky,
thaw out,
a slurred path
across paper.
KEITH ARMSTRONG,
Reykjavik.
23.8.09
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the jingling geordie
- keith armstrong
- whitley bay, tyne and wear, United Kingdom
- poet and raconteur
