Author Archives: garylongden

The 40th Anniversary of David Bowie’s “Low”

Posted on January 15, 2017 by garylongden

  Today is the 40th anniversary of the release of an album now regarded as being seminal in the popular music cannon, but which was divided opinion on its release. I thought it deserved a reflection.  I remember well purchasing … Continue reading →

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Poems 2017

Posted on January 8, 2017 by garylongden

  Skinhead   Ben Sherman’s, buttoned down Levi’s turned up, braces locked tight Doc Martins laced high Harrington’s for fight, or flight.   Heads bristling Legs loping Fists clenching   Richard Allen Pulp fiction Barely 200 pages   Finished in … Continue reading →

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Planet Earth

Posted on November 8, 2016 by garylongden

Run Iguana run, Dance the tango with devils Over hot sand, Sprint with lightning Bolt speed, Swerve and sway like Ronaldo, Keep ballerina balance As death slithers and slides In awful choreographed symmetry, Wrestle and writhe, Strive against  mortal foes … Continue reading →

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Holding Baby – Birmingham University

Posted on October 17, 2016 by garylongden

This production, on the afternoon of 15th October, was part of the University of Birmingham’s, “Book to the future” festival. Its milieu, the swathe of middle aged, and pensionable aged, folk, increasingly responsible for raising children cross-generationally. Ostensibly, that  might … Continue reading →

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A Poem for Aberfan

Posted on October 9, 2016 by garylongden

The Ballad of the Aberfan Disaster   A junior school called Pantglas Where miners’ children went to class Learning sums, and history, and English lit Then you headed on down to the pit   Where all the men toiled underground … Continue reading →

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Books

Posted on October 9, 2016 by garylongden

I love books. I also have far too many. School books, student books, novels, poetry, travel, biographies, histories, historical fiction, sports and sundry unclassified, or unclassifiable. Far too many lie unread. Some are on display for effect, some have been … Continue reading →

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Simon Scarrow

Posted on October 7, 2016 by garylongden

As a schoolboy I was very fortunate to study Latin to O level. Even then, in the 1970’s, as a subject it was on the edge of the curriculum, with a reputation for being arcane, and dry. The caricature of … Continue reading →

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Smelling a Rat – Grange Players, Walsall

Posted on September 19, 2016 by garylongden

  Playwright  Mike Leigh is best known for the television production of his play “ Abigail’s Party” and the film “Secrets and Lies”. His oeuvre is of making an art form out of the ordinary, ordinary conversations from ordinary people, … Continue reading →

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BBC Bowie at the Proms

Posted on August 14, 2016 by garylongden

I was, and am, a huge David Bowie fan. I caught the sound of  Mick Ronson ’s guitar solo on “Moonage Daydream” drifting from my friend’s bedroom window in the summer of 73, had to find out who it was, … Continue reading →

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Top Twenty Symphonies

Posted on August 14, 2016 by garylongden

My relationship with classical music has been erratic. As a young child I was aware of the textural glories of the sound, but the burgeoning, accessible, immediate pop sounds all around me resulted in my abandoning any interest. As adulthood … Continue reading →

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