What is Poetry? is the first of 40 Forty Minute Interviews
that Bill Drummond will be conducting with forty different individuals.
Each of
the Forty Minute Interviews will focus on one subject.
The
first subject is Poetry.
The
first interviewee is Kevin Williamson.
The first
question is contained within the title.
The
second question is ‘What is Poetry for?’
Kevin
Williamson is a poet from the far north of Scotland.
Kevin
Williamson was also the founder of Rebel Inc and…
Is one
half of Neu! Reekie!
This is a linkto his official blurb at the Scottish Poetry Library.
Throughout 2019, Kevin Williamson has been posting on Twitter one poem a day, each one by a different poet. This is the hash-tag: #365poems365poets
Bill Drummond and Kevin Williamson have worked together in various capacities over the past few years.
WARNING: This first Forty Minute Interview is
considerably longer than 40 minutes. The remaining 39 will not be.
The next
Forty Minute Interview will have the title ‘What is Bass?’
RAGWORT WEEK – 2019
November 4, 2019
Photograph taken under Spaghetti Junction by Tracey Moberly
Ragwort Week 2019 lies between Monday the 4th of November and Sunday the 11th of November.
Ragwort Week 2019 celebrates those late flowering Ragworts in your life – in all our lives.
Ragwort Week exists to celebrate those who are the unloved, the unwanted, the spat upon but… those who are still able to shove all that to one side and push their way up through the cracks and burst into blossom, even in the dankest of locations at this, the arse end of the year.
Ragwort
Week has existed for millennia.
But…
Ragwort
Week was first acknowledged by humans in the year 2011.
To mark this acknowledgement Bill Drummond wrote a book called RAGWORTS.
And
Penkiln Burn Books published it in an edition of 1,000 copies.
As
of 2012, and for a period of ten years, 100 copies of these books are being
made available for sale during Ragwort Week each year.
And
each year they sell for ten quid plus post and packaging.
These are some of the words that the book contains:
I loathe the
word ‘regeneration’. Anytime I hear an area is up for regeneration my heart
begins to sink. I like the opposite. I like things falling to bits, crumbling
and corroding. I want more degeneration, not regeneration.
Great bands, music and art in general, are never sanctioned from above, they are never born out of Arts Council Funding, or their equivalent. And they definitely never, ever blossom in the safety of designated cultural quarters. This is a sweeping statement on my part, a simple over generalisation, but nonetheless true. The only art ever worth having is art that has not been state subsidised. As soon as it is state subsidised it becomes state propaganda. However subtle that propaganda is, it is still doing the states bidding. I am also aware that this kind of reductionist talk, is bordering on the rhetoric of the American right. This is something I have yet to square…
The flowering of a great pop practitioner is all too brief. It is usually only months between their first public stirring and their greatest work. But that is the way it should be. Their later careers, spent trying to squeeze a living out of people’s hunger for anything that triggers nostalgia for their lost youth, should be ignored…
I would also argue, the survival instincts of any society only permit that, which will not bring it down. We in the free market loving, democratically governed west, allow for political art, because it not only bolsters but strengthens the system that controls our culture. By allowing for it the system we live under, can demonstrate to the rest of the world how inclusive and attractive a system we have. Looking back at what I’ve been involved with over the years, I’m probably as guilty as anyone…
THE TRAVELLING SALESMAN
October 17, 2019
Books in a box in the back of a van.
Bill Drummond is driving a van 415 miles from Sizewell B to Scotland.
In the back of the van will be boxes of the book After Curfew.
Bill Drummond will be selling copies of the book After Curfew at Leith Theatre on the evening of Friday the 18th of October 2019.
And…
At Portobello Bookshop in Edinburgh between 11:00am and 11:30am on Saturday the 19th of October 2019.
And…
Aye Aye Books in Glasgow, between 1:00pm and 1:30pm on Saturday the 19th of October 2019.
Then…
Bill Drummond will drive the van the 415 miles back to Sizewell B.
GALICIA
September 10, 2019
If you wait for the bus, the bus will come One of The 25 Paintings waiting at the bus shelter at Albion Parade. Hoping to catch the bus to Galicia.
The 25 Paintings world tour arrived in Ribadavia, Galicia during the early hours of Tuesday the 10th of September 2019.
Galicia is in the Iberian Peninsula.
Further information regarding the outcome of this leg of The 25 Paintings world tour, might be made available at a later date.
ÅNGERMANLAND
September 6, 2019
Poster made by Gary Fowles to promote the screening.
Pernilla Bergman Fowles & Gary Fowles performed the world premier of WHITE SAVIOUR COMPLEX (Version One).
The performance took place on Saturday the 31st of August 2019 in the Näsänget village school.
Included in the performance of this play was a screening of the film BEST BEFORE DEATH.
There was an audience of seven people.
Things were discussed.
Pernilla Bergman Fowles and Gary Fowles performing WHITE SAVIOUR COMPLEX (Version One).
THE POETRY ARMADA
August 1, 2019
Queen Mary’s Bridge over The Penkiln Burn – artist unknown
The Poetry Armada is to be launched onto the waters of the Penkiln Burn.
The Launch will be somewhere above Queen Mary’s Bridge in Minnigaff.
The Launch will take place early in the morning of Saturday the 3rd of August 2019.
The launch of the Poetry Armada will be held in private.
The Poetry Armada is to be made up of twelve paper boats.
Each paper boat is made from a page ripped from the book After Curfew. After Curfew contains words written by the Twelve Poets.
The Twelve Poets are:
Kevin Williamson Hollie McNish Claire Askew Salena Godden George Gunn Tam Dean Burn Kirsty Logan William Letford Skye McDade-Burn Emer Martin Victoria McNulty Michael Pedersen
Each poet wrote their poems while doing time in the Curfew Tower during the year of 2018.
The Curfew Tower is in Cushendall, County Antrim.
The Curfew Tower is a place where, each year, people stay and do things.
The Curfew Tower was curated in 2018 by Neu! Reekie!
Neu! Reekie! is an Edinburgh based ‘arts collective / events troupe / micro publishing house and beyond’.
Neu! Reekie! are Kevin Williamson and Michael Pedersen.
* * *
The Poetry Armada is a fleet culled from The Mothership.
The Mothership is the book called After Curfew. After Curfew is published as a hardback in an edition of one thousand.
After Curfew is edited by Neu! Reekie!, and contains many of the short lines and even shorter lines and some lines that are not short at all, by the Twelve Poets that did time in the Curfew Tower in 2018.
After Curfew has a preface by Bill Drummond.
After Curfew will be for sale for ten quid, from Bill Drummond in the kitchen of The Curfew Tower at the launch of The Mothership.
The launch of The Mothership will be a public affair.
You are invited.
The launch will happen at 8pm on Wednesday the 7th of August 2019.
The launch will happen around a bonfire in the back garden of The Curfew Tower.
The launch may be attended by Kevin Williamson, Hollie McNish, Tam Dean Burn, Skye McDade-Burn, Emer Martin and Michael Pedersen.
The launch will include them reading words from After Curfew around the bonfire.
The launch will include The Curfew Curry.
The Curfew Curry will be made by Tracey Moberly.
The Curfew Curry will be joined by a Vegetarian Dal.
The Vegetarian Dal will be made by Krishna Dutta.
Others will chop onions and pull corks from the Curfew Wine.
The Curfew Wine will be poured by Zippy. You will drink the wine.
* * *
The Poetry Armada will be left to find their own way in the world.
There are many ways in the world.
Yours is one.
ONE NIGHT STANDS
July 30, 2019
Photograph by Tracey Moberly
White Saviour Complex is still a play by Tenzing Scott Brown.
White Saviour Complex is to go on tour of one night stands across England and Ireland.
White Saviour Complex will star Tam Dean Burn and Bill Drummond, as per the short tour of Scotland held in June 2019.
White Saviour Complex is a three act play. The middle act comprises of the film BEST BEFORE DEATH.
White Saviour Complex will take place in cinemas at each of the one night stands on this tour.
White Saviour Complex appears at the following one night stands:
Monday 23rd September 6:30pm London– Picturehouse Central
Wednesday 25th September 6:30pm Liverpool– Picturehouse at FACT
Thursday 26th September Leeds – Hyde Park Picturehouse
Friday 27th September Dublin – The Irish Film Institute
Saturday 28th September Belfast – Queen’s Film Theatre
Monday 30th September 6:00pm Brighton– Duke of York’s Picturehouse
Tuesday 1st October 8:30pm London– Hackney Picturehouse
Wednesday 2nd October 6:00pm Cambridge– Arts Picturehouse
Thursday 3rd October 6:15pm Norwich– Cinema City Picturehouse
Friday 4th October 6:00pm York– City Screen Picturehouse
This is a LINKthat will take you to blurb about the film and its trailer.
WHITE SAVIOUR COMPLEX is also a book about the play of the same name.
This book is hard back.
This book has been printed in an edition of one thousand.
This book will cost a tenner a go – cash.
This book will only be available directly from the hands of Bill Drummond who will be selling this book directly after each of the performance of the play.
This book will be sold on the steps of the cinema or from a convenient bus shelter.
There will be no second edition of this book.
AULUS-LES-BAINS
July 6, 2019
Photograph taken under Spaghetti Junction in 2014 by Tracey Moberly
Bill Drummond will be working in Aulus-Les-Bains between the 10th and the 14th of July 2019.
AULUS-LES-BAINS is a village in the French Pyrenees.
The work will be with other folk.
The work will include:
making beds, baking cakes, sweeping streets, cleaning windows, writing plays, climbing trees, building walls, serving soup, composing compositions, watching films
and…
predicting the past.
Who the other folk are is up to two of you.
WARNING: This is not the next leg of The 25 Paintings world tour.
WARNING: This is not the beginning of the revolution.
WARNING: This might be bourgeois activities for the bourgeois elite
You make your choices, you throw the dice, you pull the trigger and The Ferryman can always pull the plug out.
For nigh on forty years… Mick Houghton and Bill Drummond have been entangled… From Toxteth to Brixton and back again… Via Canary Warf and up the Liverpool Road… Only three stones were left unturned.
Bill Drummond will have those three stones with him… On the night Bill Drummond will use them in whatever way he sees fit.
The first question that Bill Drummond will be asking Mick Houghton is:
“If you were instructed by a higher power to murder one of your former clients, which one would it be?”
CLICK HERE
June 14, 2019
One of The 25 Paintings arriving at the Bluecoat Chambers. Liverpool on the 7th of June 2019
CLICK HERE to read the full manuscript for the play GO PLACES – DO THINGS.
