Readers of this blog will know that a fair proportion of my life’s work is devoted to promoting the creative output of the writer John Osborne. He has just done a new youtube video, for a poem I like called ‘I Think Pat Sharp Is Lonely’. Here it is: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwYtDhvDVJQ] Today is MAR10 Day, apparently. … Read more

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmNb3xJFzkc] I wonder how this chap would feel if he knew that, within the latest versions of Pokémon, they have their own church you can visit, laid out like a conventional Christian church, where people worship the Earth and Pokémon. No joke. Plus there are Ghost Pokémon who are literally the resurrected ghosts of dead … Read more

So yeah, those of you who came to the Local Boys Done Good edition of HOMEWORK will remember we did a show all about our hometowns. Well, guess what? If you missed it or just forgot it or loved it so much that you want to be locked in a cell with it projected onto … Read more

(via the ever-giving wellspring of EPIC WIN that is Metafilter) So yeah today I watched these performances from an 80s Japanese kids’ TV show, three Techno-Pop bands, P-Model, Hikashu and Plastics. The sound quality is mildly anus, but you get the idea: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM9qs8KCkDg] Everything I know about J-Pop and all its bizarro corollaries could be … Read more

Look, my question to you is simply this: have you watched Paul Robertson’s Kings Of Power 4 Billion %? No? THEN DON’T COMPLAIN YOUR LIFE ISN’T EVERYTHING IT COULD BE! It is special. You could watch it on Youtube: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSdoDjcI5VE] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYKe3lg8KfM] But actually the quality of the compressed vids is pretty shitty. My advice? Be … Read more

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_pIbiZtKoE] Someone suggested I watch this video from back in 1998, of ‘poetry’s first pop group’, Atomic Lip. In the aftermath, I find myself uncharacteristically lost for words. Wow. Just wow. Actually spectacular. Anyone starting out in performance poetry could learn a huge amount from this video. Just study the choreography, their various delivery techniques, … Read more

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRhPeJ3uzOc] I know this is a day late, but hey. If you’re not au fait with Jonathan Coulton, check out his stuff. He does mostly ‘comic’ songs, but that’s a bit reductive. The fact is, he’s got a beautiful voice, and he’s a fantastic melody writer. And then he puts a bunch of cool, silly … Read more

Last week, I talked to Polarbear, the week before it was Dockers MC. Today, it’s the turn of Nathan Filer. http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2458754&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1GOTH vs EMO from nathan filer on Vimeo. How did you get into performance poetry? Ten years ago I was living in Greece and working as an hotel entertainer. I was utterly useless. One holidaymaker … Read more

The story you’re about to read involves scandal, creative genius, and a 15 year conspiracy of silence. Oh – and Sonic the Hedgehog. So, after a long, long hiatus, I started playing Sonic 3 again. When I reached the Carnival Night Zone, a few bars of the awesome soundtrack were all it took to propel … Read more

Over the coming weeks, I’m going to be running a series of interviews with the great and good of the UK performance poetry scene. The nice thing about doing stuff online is that I can embed videos alongside the Q & As, and turn appropriate sections of their replies into hyperlinks so that, for example, … Read more

A couple of people have asked me where this blog got its name. Well, the answer certainly isn’t this: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP2WvMJQqSI] For me, this video dances on the event horizon where ‘utterly shit’ and ‘strangely intriguing’ seem to blend into one. I find lots of small elements weirdly compelling – the fact you can hear the … Read more

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs](youtube vid via Metafilter) At 11, I broke my collar bone playing football at school. At the hospital, they tried injecting me with anaesthetic, but I was so fat it didn’t have much impact, so they switched me onto the nitrous oxide. I can still picture the high mullioned window going blotchy and indistinct as … Read more