Just a quick update as I’m laid up with an excruciatingly painful back (tour injury!), amongst other ailments that all seem to have arrived at once. The back is so bad The Domestics had to pull out of playing Manchester Punk Fest this Friday, which is bad news. You might catch me briefly tomorrow at The Brewery Tap, Sudbury for the Easter Soul Party that Lu and I bring there every Easter, but in all honesty, she’s going to be doing the – metaphorical and actual – heavy lifting, as I’m just too bashed up to do it. Bless her!
Anyway, TOUR DATES! I’ve got a bunch of new spoken word dates in the diary – check here for the full list – including a couple with world class comedy writer, Andy Riley (Black Books, Big Train, Smack The Pony, Spitting Image, Veep…I’ll stop there as it’s an insanely long list of amazing stuff he’s written for). The Andy Riley gigs are at Colchester Arts Centre in June and Hot Box in Chelmsford in July. There are VERY limited tickets for the Chelmsford date, and I believe they’re going pretty damn quickly already.
My poetical mate, the interesting and hilarious Leon The Poet is on at both dates, and the opener switches between Dawn Vincent and Laura Bradley (both brilliant!)
Aside from that, I have a headline “book launch” set at Patch for the Essex Poetry Collective on 24th April (if my back’s not better Lu will have to wheel me in on a sack barrow!), am the feature headliner at Good Shout in Peterborough on 1st May, and am doing several poetry/compering slots at a PET NEEDS gig for Love Music Hate Racism in my old hometown of Clacton-on-Sea. The night after that I’m once again supporting the legendary Luke Wright at Sudbury Arts Centre on the 9th. The rest of May looks like this: Festival of Suffolk Poetry at The John Peel Centre in Stowmarket on the 17th. Word Habit at The Brewery Tap in Sudbury on the 18th, Two Sisters Arts Centre in Trimley-St-Mary (near Felixstowe) with the outstanding Virginia Betts on the 23rd, the brilliant Boho Banter in Clacton (again!) on the 27th, and at The Hunter Club in Bury St Edmunds on the 29th I’m headlining the inaugural Gob night, which promises to be a lot of fun (though it's not on their website yet!).
Like I say, there’s plenty more here, but that’ll do for now.
Please do support venues by buying tickets if/when you can. Venues are under a lot of pressure at the moment (I know; we all are), and when a venue closes it often isn’t replaced, leaving that town with no hub for music and the arts, which you don’t need me to tell you is a very bad thing.
OK, see you out there. I’m off for more codeine and stretches.
Laters
J.