SO HOW DID THE SHOW GO?Hello again!
It's been a busy week, but I'm mainly going to talk about our Poetry Cafe show from this weekend. I've been busy editing - one of the films that is linked to the show, so I'll be revealing the links for that in just a minute. The other film is the first of my German duo, as part of A TALE OF 2 CITIES - 1 YETI. I'm making good headway with it and hope that it'll be available by next week - we shall see! Part 1 is set in Dusseldorf and contains the poems A NIGHT ON THE TOWN WITH A YETI and new piece, DRUNK ELK.
Anyway, before we get bogged down in the exact details from the night , I promised to give you some links to the first film that I've edited from our ROCK 'N' ROLLERCOASTER SHOW - there will be more live footage over the next month or so, but have a go with this one, first.
Shy Yeti presents... The first instalment of his ROCK 'N' ROLLERCOASTER SHOW, as performed at The Poetry Cafe in Covent Garden on Saturday 5th May 2012. This was a night to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Shy Yeti (otherwise known as Paul Chandler)'s 2nd collection, ROLLERCOASTER and also to raise money for charity - on this occasion MS TRUST. Poems include IF I CAN'T HAVE A BULLDOG, HE SANG, THE CAROL SINGERS, A FACE FOR RADIO and the title piece. His special guest on the night was the fantastic John Smallshaw - and three of John's poems also appear in this film: MONO-LOG and two others. There will more footage of the night released over the next couple of months and this film even includes a specially recorded yeti dance! Cameraman for the evening was Dominic McCauley, although the yeti recorded a few bits and edited it all together. Music is by Luca. This film and its contents are Copyright Paul Chandler/John Smallshaw, 2012.
Youtube: http://youtu.be/lmxM4nGIw3E
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/41756816
Enjoy!
Anyway... So, as far as preparations for the night were concerned, I spent a good deal of time the week before preparing the set - although I'd pretty much put it together when I originally thought that I was going to be performing it back in March. I'd even filmed some inserts and a yeti dance where the original date was mentioned, although I will find a way of using that - probably in the 2nd of the films from the night. One last minute change was to read a poem that I'd only completed the day before, a piece called EVIL IVY, but more about that later; needless to say it's always satisfying to be able to perform something so new! I expect I'll probably post it here in a week or two... On the day of the show Dominic and I came up to London mid-afternoon and recorded some of the links that you'll see in the film in one of our favourite London locations of the moment, Golden Square, just off Piccadilly Circus.
So what went on during actual show? Of course it wasn't just me - John Smallshaw was there too, but I'm afraid some of my details about his poems are a bit more sketchy as I don't know the titles of them all - although you'll see them in forthcoming videos. Apologies for this being far more heavily about what I read... So here we go!
FIRST HALF
DOMINIC AND THE YETI *
IF I CAN’T HAVE A BULL DOG * (v1)KEEP ON GETTING IT WRONG *
CACTUS HEART *
HE SANG * (v1)
IN TWO MINDS *
MY PAST IS CATCHING UP WITH ME *
CAROL SINGERS * (v1)
FACE FOR RADIO * (v1)
ROLLERCOASTER * (v1)
EIGHTEEN HUNDREDS EASY-RIDER *
WHY AGNES… *
I’M A JELLYFISH *
YOUR NEW BOYFRIEND’S A MINGER *
CELLULOID HEROES (Ray Davies) *
MARSHMALLOW HEART *
PITY HER! *
PICCADILLY CIRCUS * (some)
SHE NEVER HAD ANY LUCK
SWEET OLETA
SECOND HALF
A YETI IN A HAT *
EVIL IVY *
OTHERWISE ENGAGED *
LAST OF THE AUTUMN LEAVES *
SO MUCH LOVE – SO LITTLE TIME! *
THEM VAMPIRES – SUCH CHARMERS! *
JEALOUSY DID HIM NO GOOD *
WE DON’T DANCE TO LOVESONGS *
SOMETIMES I JUST WANNA... *
DRUNK ELK *
I’VE CLEANED OUT MY DIRTY MIND… *
PEACE TREATY... *
LONDON AND I HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING * (some)
INGRID BERGMAN’S NOSE
I WILL EAT PIES
Please Note: An asterisk by a poem indicates that they were filmed on the night. (v1) indicates that they appear in the first episode of my ROCK ‘N’ ROLLERCOASTER SHOW. At the end of the evening 29 out of 35 of the poems that I read had been recorded (including a couple halves of other ones...), not to mention the majority of John's two sets.
The first half of the show started slightly later than expected, due to the fact that the F.A. Cup was on and a number of the audience were later arriving. That said, initially we weren’t expecting that many people anyway, as it was the bank holiday weekend and a lot of those who usually come along were out of town or busy with other things. This particular show was rescheduled twice due to double-booking by the cafe, which is how I ended up getting the venue three times within five months. At our best, on the night, we had over a dozen audience members – most of whom knew John Smallshaw, who returned to make his third guest appearance. I had two camera-men on hand who have filmed with me many times, both in front of and behind the scenes; Calum Williamson and regular co-star Dominic McCauley, although Dominic ended up doing all the filming for both halves and tried some new and cool angles to record us from! It was not possible to record everything – but we did get the majority of all that was read on the night by both John and myself. The charity on the night for this show and also for our show on Friday 8th June was MS TRUST.
FIRST HALF
DOMINIC AND THE YETI
IF I CAN’T HAVE A BULL DOG
Beginning at approximately 7.45, the first two pieces read were
ones that I’ve not read live before. DOMINIC AND THE YETI appeared in THE
VAMPIRE COWS OF SCUNTHORPE (2011). The second piece is very new and will be
appearing in my NOT AS SHY AS I WAS collection later this year or early in
2013. This piece was also included in my first ROCK 'N' ROLLERCOASTER SHOW video a
couple of days after the show.
KEEP ON GETTING IT WRONG
CACTUS HEARTHE SANG
IN TWO MINDS
I didn’t occur to me at the time, as I only had copies of the re-issued ROLLERCOASTER and recently released SHY YETI GOES WILD compilation available to sell – but these next four poems do have a link of their own. Although all but CACTUS HEART were written some time again, they were recently collected together for a collection of “lost poems for lost loves”, using this particular poem as the title of the compilation. KEEP ON GETTING IT WRONG and IN TWO MINDS were recently recorded for the SHY YETI GOES BUSHY episode of SHY YETI ON LOCATION; the first was originally included in my MUGSHOTS collection from 2005 and the second from 2004s LOVESONGS FOR THE BITTER AND TWISTED. HE SANG is originally from 2003s GO 4TH AND DIVIDE and footage of this live performance appears in the first video posted from the night on Youtube and Vimeo (See links elsewhere.)
MY PAST IS CATCHING UP WITH ME
CAROL SINGERS
FACE FOR RADIO
ROLLERCOASTER
EIGHTEEN HUNDREDS EASY-RIDER
The next five pieces were all from ROLLERCOASTER. The first poem was read during an early SHY YETI ON LOCATION episode in 2010, whilst CAROL SINGERS was revived back in December for my TOO SLUSHY FOR SNOWMEN mini-compilation, getting an airing on Radio Wey the same month. ROLLERCOASTER I’ve performed quite a lot over the years – whilst FACE FOR RADIO and EIGHTEEN HUNDREDS EASY-RIDER I don’t think I’ve ever performed.
At this point it was time for John Smallshaw to come up and read; there are a number of his poems from the first half during the ROCK ‘N’ ROLLERCOASTER SHOW – 1 video.
After ten minutes I returned, reading a mixture of old and new…
WHY AGNES…
I’M A JELLYFISH
YOUR NEW BOYFRIEND’S A MINGER
CELLULOID HEROES (Ray Davies)
WHY AGNES… is from four or five years ago now, but is one that I
enjoyed performing when I revived it a year or so ago at one of my shows. I
decided to read it again simply because I enjoy it and will probably aim to
record a video for it over the summer at some stage. I’M A JELLYFISH and YOUR
NEW BOYFRIEND… are both new pieces, the former won’t appear until my NOT AS SHY
AS I WAS collection is published, late this year or early next – whilst
BOYFRIEND was the last poem to be included in my ARE WE THERE, YETI? book which
is due to be published in the Summer. CELLULOID HEROES was a poetic cover
version of a Kinks song from the early 70s and seemed to work very well read in
this format. This song is all about Hollywood and at this stage I had intended to read a prose piece called THE STARS ON HOLLYWOOD from YETI HUGS AND OTHER HORRORS (2011), but decided to move on to the next batch of poems of mine to conclude the
first half.
MARSHMALLOW HEART
PITY HER!
SHE NEVER HAD ANY LUCK
SWEET OLETA
The first four poems are all from ROLLERCOASTER and I’d performed
all but MARSHMALLOW HEART before, but not recently. SWEET OLETA is a silly
piece from 2007s RHYMES BEARS STEAL PIES FOR collection, which I rediscovered
whilst choosing poems for a recent compilation.
It was about 8.20, by this stage and so at this point we took a
break until around 8.45 before continuing. I was originally intending to begin
the second half with THE YETI OF MUSWELL HILL from my DO YETI WEAR PYJAMAS
collection from 2010. However I was rather keen to read another piece and so am
saving the Muswell Hill poem for the June show.
SECOND HALF
A YETI IN A HAT
EVIL IVY
…And so I began the second half with two new pieces. A YETI IN A
HAT I’ve been reading a lot lately and included it in my SHY YETI
WELCOMES SPRING video. EVIL IVY was by far the newest piece of the evening as
I’d only completed it the day before and decided to read it at the last minute;
I’m glad I did – it’s always satisfying when things come together so quickly.
Following these two pieces I returned to ROLLERCOASTER and read another three poems from this collection…
OTHERWISE ENGAGED
LAST OF THE AUTUMN LEAVES
SO MUCH LOVE – SO LITTLE TIME!
OTHERWISE ENGAGED and SO MUCH LOVE… I have read a number of times
over the years, whilst LAST OF THE AUTUMN LEAVES (I think!) received its debut.
In the recent 10th anniversary re-issue of this book I’ve stated
that I’d like to record a video for this one in the autumn and having got a pretty
good reaction on the night I’ve decided that I will definitely do so later in
the year. Originally I’d intended to read THE HALF YOU LEFT ME WITH, also from
this collection and another poem that I recently recorded for SHY YETI WELCOMES
SPRING; however there wasn’t time in the end, so it was dropped.
THEM VAMPIRES – SUCH CHARMERS!
JEALOUSY DID HIM NO GOOD
WE DON’T DANCE TO LOVESONGS
During the next section of the second half I decided to read a few pieces
that I’d not read before and ones that I’ve recently rediscovered whilst
working on compilations earlier this year. THEM VAMPIRES… comes from FUNERAL
FOR A SHOE (2011) and I recorded a video for it as part of the YETI HUNT USA
series late last year. JEALOUSY… is an old piece that I revived for the CACTUS
HEART compilation, as is WE DON’T DANCE… which appears in my forthcoming A TALE
OF 2 CITIES – 1 YETI filmed in Germany; this particular piece being recorded in
Cologne on Friday 13th April 2012. Another piece that I had
considered reading is a newer short story called CREEPY EXOTIC which comes from
my forthcoming ARE WE THERE, YETI? collection – however I was running out of
time by this stage and it was now time for John Smallshaw to return to the stage.
SOMETIMES I JUST WANNA...
DRUNK ELKI’VE CLEANED OUT MY DIRTY MIND…
PEACE TREATY
Once John had read some more of his work, it was time for me to
return for one last section. You can watch a number of John’s poems on the
usual youtube and vimeo sites in the various ROCK ‘N’ ROLLERCOASTER episodes
that I’ll be posting over the next month or so. I began with an old favourite
of mine, SOMETIMES I JUST WANNA... which comes from 2003s THE AUTUMNAL E.P. (and
was also included in 2009s SHY YETI RULES OK.) The original aim was to read
pieces from my forthcoming NOT AS SHY AS I WAS collection and this I did –
however I had to cut a couple of pieces for timing reasons. That said, by
this stage I’d got myself a bit confused and thought it was half ten and not
half nine – so I probably could have read more. Stoopid yeti. In the end I read
DRUNK ELK, which I’ve recently recorded for one of the A TALE OF 2 CITIES – 1
YETI… episodes. The other piece I read was the cheeky I’VE CLEANED OUT MY DIRTY
MIND… The two pieces I had intended to read at this stage which I had to cut
were PATIENCE IS THE KEY and A LITTLE COMPANY, which are prose pieces/short stories.
At this stage I had hoped to have time to read another four poems from ROLLERCOASTER, but decided that it was time to wind up the evening. I had planned to read WAVES, ON
INGRID BERGMAN’S NOSE
I WILL EAT PIES
To finish off the evening I read three further poems, discarding a fourth poem – CUPCAKE, which I will save for my June 2012 show. LONDON AND I HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING I came across again whilst working on the tenth anniversary re-issues of later collections and decided that I’d like to read it; the same goes for INGRID BERGMAN’S NOSE from my MUGSHOTS collection (2005).
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new film - that's about it for now... Next week, I intend to discuss the first of the two videos from Germany and will also be posting that new poem that I mentioned, EVIL IVY. Before I go one last big thank you to everyone who came along to support us and especially to John Smallshaw for performing alongside me and to Dominic McCauley for managing to film so much of the ensuing poetic insanity!
More soon - yeti hugs,
Paul xx
This post is Copyright Paul Chandler, 2012.
