At London Bridge

Waiting for the bus to Camberwell, taking pictures of the workers, the passers-by on London Bridge.

Buying fish at Billingsgate Market for Christmas

Buying fish at Billingsgate Market for Christmas

Naomi Woddis - Nothing But

I asked my good friend Naomi Woddis if she would let me publish a poem or two on the blog and also a photograph as she is also a serious photographer and she kindly agreed. Naomi and I are working together on a radio show for National Poetry Day for Reels Rebel Radio, so I'm getting to spend some lovely meetings and chats at her beautiful place in Highbury and Islington. It's a magical place, with doors that open off the kitchen onto a brilliant garden. You could hardly believe you're in central London, I think it's one of the nicest places I've seen to live ever. I do love London so much.

Here's one of Naomi's poems. I don't want to publish them all at once as I want to write some more about Naomi later, and that will give me a great excuse to do so.


Nothing But
Plaster dust laces a light bulb. Beyond
this the smell of newly daubed emulsion
is an echo in the nostrils, a slouch
of damp, the stench of not moving.
The careless invitation of a three-seater,
its screech of red is the only real warmth
you'll find. Its fake fur covering, your last
lurch at tenderness. Lint gathers in its cracks.
I'm all the comfort you'll ever need it says.
But, sinking in to its hopeful upholstery
you find there is no way of getting up.

The Perseverance

I'm playing at The Perseverance in Shroton Street, Marylebone tomorrow evening with Kath Tait and Rosa Conrad. I'm looking forward to seeing old friends and making some new ones. It's a musical variety night organised by the intrepid and lovely Acton Bell as a fundraiser for Feminism in London.

There's a Perseverance in Bloomsbury, so definitely don't go there - this is the MARYLEBONE Perseverance.

I've been sent the running order, so I may as well share it with you, tis no secret, but I don't expect you want to know the sound check times.

8.00 Acton Bell

8.25 Portia Winters

8.50 Jude Cowan

9.15 Interval

9.30 Kath Tait & Rosa Conrad

9.55 Prize draw winners announced

10.05 Catherine Brogan and Sophia Blackwell

10.15 Elizabeth Carola

Tramcar 41

Ah, the final lyrical piece has arrived this morning and the secret of the song is suddenly revealed.


Where are they going,
where were they from,

passengers electrified
on tramcar 41?

How to punctuate these lines causes me a bit of a dilemma - the above version makes the most grammatical sense - but the below makes more song sense:-


Where are they going,
where were they from?

Passengers electrified
on tramcar 41.

Anyone got any thoughts on punctuation when writing out lyrics as opposed to poetry?

Tom Robinson, Introducing, Radio 6

So my track Doodlebug Alley will be played on Tom Robinson's BBC Introducing show Fresh on the Net on Radio 6 this weekend.

I suspect the show goes out late enough for the producer to feel unperturbed by my singing 'arse' and the light swearing that helps create the song's swinging wartime chic.

Here's my preamble: 'It's the Second World War, 1944, and there's a new beast in the air. They call it the V1, the flying bomb, the doodlebug. It's a strange bird and it makes a strange sound; a long, low, farting sound. If you can hear it, you're in danger. If it stops, you're in the blast range.'

It will be available on a podcast afterwards.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0089jhs/episodes/upcoming