Performing my set at Eroica Britannia

Finally on Saturday afternoon at the Eroica festival it was time to step up on stage and for half an hour, mess with the minds of my audience. I warned them that poetry was like prose on steroids and that they were about to take a journey into my own thinking and that they’d be happy, they’d be sad and they’d be made to think. They were up for it and we had a great big dipper ride and they left me on a high.

The full set list:

My set list on the table in our B&B near Bakewell

I like people riding bikes – just a happy celebration of people riding bikes
(see earlier blog post from 01/05/15 for the full poem)

I’m a bloody poet now – how I got started in poetry – maybe
(see earlier blog post from 15/10/10 for the full poem)

Standby – a look at modern life, on the go 24/7
(see earlier blog post from 17/11/10 for the full poem)

Seahorses – about one of my primary school teachers back then and getting old
(see earlier blog post from 19/2/12 for the full poem)

Maggie with one of the large event posters on site

Badger brushes and brass – a less than serious look at the fashion for retro – in a barber’s shop
(Not in my blog – yet)

A platform I don’t know – looking at the loss of bereavement through travelling and the train station
(Not in my blog – yet)

Domestique – the saddest side of doping in cycle racing
(see earlier blog post from 01/05/15 for the full poem)

A minute and a half – how it feels to tackle a cycling hillclimb race
(Not in my blog – yet)

The curse – the curse of dementia, a personal poem about my own granny
(see earlier blog post from 12/12/12 for the full poem)

Dead eyes – my short anti-war poem focused on child soldiers – one of my saddest!
(see earlier blog post from 18/11/10 for the full poem)

Stranger conversations – a look at how we relate to strangers told through a true story
(Not on my blog – yet)

Different Dad – a silly, non-biographical, poem about a dad with too much rhythm
(see earlier blog post from 07/11/10 for the full poem)

Something – a love poem for Maggie
(see earlier blog post from 23/02/12 for the full poem)



To read all about Eroica Britannia – the most handsome festival of cycling, held in the wonderful Peak District town of Bakewell, including the festival events, the entertainment and the rides – head over to my other blog at http://shaycycles.blogspot.co.uk