Author Archives: garylongden

Run For Your Wife, Sutton Arts Theatre

Posted on February 8, 2014 by garylongden

“Run for your wife”, by Ray Cooney, is one of the most successful stage farces of modern times, guaranteed to have an audience, and so it proved at a packed Sutton Arts Theatre on Friday night. First performed in 1983, … Continue reading →

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February 2014, What’s On Midlands Spoken Word

Posted on January 25, 2014 by garylongden

Sun 2nd Poets with passion, Ort Cafe,500-504 Moseley Road, Balsall Heath, Birmingham, B12 9AH 3.30pm, free in open mic. Tues 4th Night Blue Fruit, Coventry,7.30pm start, free in, Tony Owen hosts-open mic sign up on the night. Tues 4th Word … Continue reading →

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Spire Writes, Chesterfield, January 2014

Posted on January 25, 2014 by garylongden

This was my third visit to Spire Writes but my first to the new venue, the White Swan PH. A deluge outside of biblical proportions was ignored by a burgeoning audience which spilled out of the main room into the … Continue reading →

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Poems 2014

Posted on January 25, 2014 by garylongden

A Cumbria peak has been declared a mountain after amateur surveyors found it was three quarters of an inch (2cm) higher than originally thought. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-22025371 – Growing Up Thack Moor rests still, No longer a hill, In a moment something … Continue reading →

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January 2014, What’s On Midlands Spoken Word

Posted on January 21, 2014 by garylongden

The new year opens with a plethora of fine regular events and the opening of a new one, The Poetry Lounge in Ludlow on Tues 21st.Severla events catch the eye, but Helen Mort’s Spire Writes in Chesterfield on we 8th … Continue reading →

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Roy Wood Band, The Robin 2, Bilston

Posted on December 14, 2013 by garylongden

I have been watching live music since the Seventies, from pub bands, to Led Zeppelin at Knebworth, and the Rolling Stones in stadiums. Yet The Robin has become one of my favourite venues to see a band play. First at … Continue reading →

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs- Sutton Arts Theatre Company, Sutton Coldfield

Posted on December 4, 2013 by garylongden

***** Snow White is one of the better pantomime stories. The versatile Sutton Arts Theatre company chose their production well for this year. Director Emily Armstrong has done a fabulous job in putting her own spin on the story, in … Continue reading →

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December 2013, What’s On Midlands Spoken Word

Posted on December 2, 2013 by garylongden

And so December draws 2013 to a close, although the Christmas period is generally fallow with the notable exception of Word Wizards in Buxton on Friday 27th, the first few weeks are suitably vibrant. Wordsmiths, on Monday 2nd , featuring … Continue reading →

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New Jersey Nights – Wolverhampton Grand Theatre

Posted on November 19, 2013 by garylongden

New Jersey Nights is an interesting new phenomena. The fifties, sixties and seventies spawned a slew of memorable popular music, the originators of which are now largely either dead, or in their dotage. First, tribute bands came along to keep … Continue reading →

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Spoken Worlds, 5th Anniversary, Burton upon Trent

Posted on November 17, 2013 by garylongden

The poetic community overwhelmingly features good people doing good things. Spoken Worlds celebrated its 5th birthday on 15th November, hosted and curated by Gary Carr. The Old Cottage Tavern is the third home for this event and has proved a … Continue reading →

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