For anyone wishing to grab a copy of Frank’s fifth volume before the launch party, it’s here. Unless of course you stumble across this in the weeks, months and years that follow, in which case you missed a cracking party!
Click here to access a pdf copy, and enjoy Frank’s latest!
While some people grow facial hair during the month of November, DIY POETS find themselves with a growing diary. Dates are sprouting like sideburns chemically enhanced by steroids, some of them DIY POETS events, plus others attended regularly by the collective. I’m assembling this lot from the back of crumpled fag packets and faded biro scribble from the back of my hand, so it may be incomplete, but nonetheless it’s a neatly trimmed, well groomed web post:
– DIY POETS Quarterly Gig at the Maze, Nottingham – 12th Nov – doors open 7:45
– DIY POETS @ The Lofthouse as part of Nottingham Poetry Festival – 24th Nov – 8:00 till 10:30 – FREE! (Doors open @ 7:45)
– Speech Therapy @ The Guitar Bar as Part of Nottingham Poetry Festival, 26th Nov – 8:00
– Frank McMahon launches ‘I Wish I Could Sing Like Noddy Holder’ @ Nottingham Writers’ Studio – 4th Dec – 7:30
It’s remains to be seen whether Frank arrives on the night in a pair of chunky platform boots and clip on ginger sideburns, but he says he’d like to sing like Noddy Holder, and that’s understandable – that Black Country barrel house bellow is awe inspiring.
‘I Wish I Could Sing Like Noddy Holder’ is Frank’s 5th or 6th book. I’m losing count. I know some people are waiting for the box set, but when poetry of this quality is on offer that would be foolhardy.
Frank will be reading from the book at this event, and other members of DIY POETS will also perform. Music from Pegefo, and vinyl spins by John Humphries.
Unmissable.
When it comes to content, any selection by the members of DIY POETS is likely to contain material across a broad range of themes, and in that respect DIY POETS BEST OF does not disappoint. In no particular order, the collection includes observations about crucifixion, funerals, longing for yesterday, tooth fairies, chocolate bunnies, penne pasta and loads more. Nelson Mandela lands on the same page as Doctor Who, and the reader gets a lesson in punctuation from Stephen Hawking. Political and philosophical observations appear, and through all this the reader is in a position to get a better understanding of the state of the world, or at least allow themselves a small smile at the madness of it all.
DIY POETS BEST OF arrived and became available earlier this year and is often for sale at gigs whenever DIY POETS are appearing. Or contact us here for a copy.
The festival season never seems to end! Fresh from their well received appearance at the Splendour Festival in August, where the beer ran out early, DIY POETS have found the perfect solution – an appearance at a beer shop, and unless our drinking habits suddenly become massively prodigious, the beer will flow all afternoon, along with the words, combining to intoxicate visitors in a unique way.
The event is WORD DROP, the venue is the Hop Hideout on Abbeydale Road in Sheffield, as part of the Off The Shelf festival fringe, and DIY POETS will perform between 3 and 6. Let it flow!
More details here: WORD DROP Facebook Page
It’s part of a weekend of solidarity against government cuts that is taking place not only up and down the UK, but also in a total of 8 countries, across 3 continents. The latest figures show that on the weekend of October 2/3/4 there will be a total of 243 gigs in 121 towns.
DIY POETS will be there, and proud to be a part of so many performers coming together to show that yes, we do have a voice. It’s simply a glorious celebration of musical and lyrical talent that refuses to sit back and watch the government shrink the state.
It’s a free event, but there will be collections of food for Nottingham Food bank, and also donations collected for Framework, the homeless charity.
More details are available here: We Shall Overcome, Nottingham, Facebook page
It’s the biggest free festival ever, with stages all around the country, so let’s have a party!
You know you’ve been in the gimp suit too long when you need some verse to ease your chafing soul, so get yourself down to the Maze, Nottingham in November for the DIY POETS quarterly. We’ve got a new format to tantalise, with timekeepers flashing big lights, while poets sweat through every second of a precious seven minutes.
Doors will open at 7:45 pm. Entry £3, a bargain!
Chris Page (aka The Dark Lord) will be our headlining poet. Music from Stacey McMullen.
The latest mag will be available, in random locations, and copies of our ‘Best of’ anthology will also be available for £3.
On Saturday 18th July, DIY Poets shared the bill with James, The Specials and Bananarama, amongst others. We took to the stage at Splendour Festival, Wollaton Park. Okay, not the main stage, but we let Roots Manuva use that to warm our audience up.
Andy Szpuk introduced the set on the Fringe stage and we found the audience to be in fine voice through a bit of call and response audience participation. Next, Clare Stewart took everyone on an exhausting and squelchy walk through Scottish heather, heather, heather before leaving us to relax with a smooth whisky. Music was the theme of Frank McMahon’s trio of poems. It wasn’t all about the bass, ‘bout the bass, but also exploring the reactions to guardian angels in leather and denim as well as comments on Johnny Cash’s sartorial choices.
Next was Lytisha with her poems looking at relationships, both with people and food stuffs. John Humphreys embarked on an uncharacteristically short introduction, (he even kept within the allocated time slot and didn’t even need the ting of enlightenment!) to his poem celebrating all things Ska.
Trevor Wright took us into the home straight with cautionary tale of the migrating pink toed tarantula. Finally Captain Andy Szpuk was back and not only was Poetry Airlines literally launched containing poems from the Flight Attendants Richard C Bower, Hazel Warren, Chris Page and other DIY Poets, but the Best of DIY Poets book was launched too, and managed some chunky sales.
A great day all around and a fabulous audience.
DIY Poets would like to thank DHP for booking us and providing a super stage and sound man. Thanks too to Keith Turner for the photos and video.
If you missed it you can catch us and get your copies of Best of DIY Poets at The Maze on Thursday 13th August from 8pm.
Thanks to Lytisha’s application and subsequent bargaining, we have a crew lined up to perform at the Splendour Festival Fringe, Saturday 18th July, 4pm, somewhere near the main stage. Okay, we’ve only got half an hour to squeeze in as many poets as we can, but we’ll make the most of that and to be sharing the bill with The Specials, James and er Bananarama adds a certain spring to the whole thing.
We’ve got one or two surprises in store as part of our performance, some of them so secret that even the people performing them don’t know exactly how they’ll turn out. Yes, we’re gambling on use of heavy irony, props and possibly even some eccentric percussion performances. Could this be the moment when DIY Poets float towards a family fun form of technicolour psychedelia?
Be there.
