Susie Wild's Blog: Wildlife, page 32

Do Not Go Gentle

Back to Swansea we went, for my third Better Houses tour gig in the city... this time at Do Not Go Gentle festival, which had made the move from the Uplands to the city centre.

I was reading with the excellent Emily Blewitt, and it always a pleasure to share the stage with her. We were upstairs at No Sign Wine Bar. I used to work as a waitress in a cocktail bar (Indigo, which was part of the building) when I was an undergraduate (my glamorous youth).

Thanks to Pierre for booking us and all who came along to see me perform my words in a slightly more nervous than usual manner (Mother was visiting).

Les, who stored my furniture for me during one of the many moving times of my life also came along and bought a book! (I've only been inviting him to my readings for 12 years! (It was lovely to see him)).

I didn't take any photos, but it did happen.

Berkeley Square Poetry Review

It was wonderful to return to Bristol, where I lived when finishing my first book The Art of Contraception quite a few years back now. I had been invited by Charles and Tim to be the guest feature at the Berkeley Square Poetry Revue at cocktail bar and arts and media hub The Square Club and had planned a tenuously-linked set of Halloween poems – at least I had the Jaws one, and one that mentioned spiders, another blood, and so on – but the audience seemed non-plussed by Halloween so I read the love poems and the house poems and the courgette crisis poems instead.


I was glad I'd only opted for witchy tights rather than a full costume, and for making it in time to also catch the Grayson Perry exhibition at the Arnolfini beforehand, and for the 1:30am train home as the gig finished too late for the 11pm which meant I had to call in to my favourite theatre bar on the way home, the shame.

Photo Blog: Dylan's Birthday

On 27 October, I celebrated both Dylan's Birthday and my Swansea book launch at the Dylan Thomas Birthplace in dear Swansea, reading poems from Better Houses to a lovely, receptive audience and then sleeping in Dylan's boyhood bed afterwards. It was a gorgeous gig – thanks for booking me, the accommodation and the wine Geoff Haden! – and I'm dead happy to have been there. Great to hear from Uplands' urban sketcher Bill Bytheway too!

Here are some snaps:


Action Shot: Crowd
Bill Bytheway









Dylan's Bed

Photo Blog: Penarth Acoustic Club / Jaws in Concert

Hello Lovelies,

I am just starting to feel more human after a break in the tour schedule (catching up with the day job, press and events and award ceremonies for the excellent authors I work with including Alys Conran who scored a hat trick at Wales Book of the Year yesterday, winning the People's Prize, the fiction category and the overall award for her debut novel Pigeon).

Today you find me at my desk, overlooking the dwindling foliage of the cherry tree, most carpeting the path and lawn. My cat, Hooper, sharing the desk space with me, hoping for more blackbird sightings. Since the last update I have four more gigs, so I'll tell you a little bit about the first of those now...

So, after a splendid friendly literary house party at the Diana Rooms on the Tuesday, I popped on a train to Penarth to read poems at a packed Penarth Acoustic Club on the Friday.

 Continuing her tour from Germany, Australian blues and folk singer songwriter and multi-instrumentalinst Chris O kicked off the evening with her toe-tapping covers of the songs of a bygone era and her own contemporary roots originals. Chris tours Europe annually, and in 2016 was New South Wales Solo Blues Artist of the Year representing Sydney Blues Society at the International Blues Challenge, and the National Women in Blues Showcase in Memphis, Tennessee. 


Then yours truly got up and read some poems from Better Houses to a lovely reception (I even got bought drinks) before the interval. 
I kicked off the second half with some more poems to a hushed and respectful audience before the act they'd all been waiting for, the wonderful Canadian singer Sarah-Jane Scouten and her 4-piece band took to the stage. She is, according to Folk Radio UK, "A sterling example of the top grade Americana coming out of Canada." With flavours of Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffiths and Iris Dement, and a wealth of early country music, the two-time Canadian Folk Music Award nominee and recent Western Canadian Music Award nominee's songs are faithful to a long-standing folk music tradition. 

Here are some phone snaps:



The day after we went off on a long-booked adventure to That London to take in some art and see Jaws in Concert in the Albert Hall with Quint and friends. If you read Better Houses you'll work out the Jaws connections a bit more, for now here are a couple of snaps:
Beth at the Saatchi
Quint. The Most Photographed Man in London.
Gilbert and George

Updated Tour Poster: All the New 2017 Dates Added!

Two Week Warning: Do Not Go Gentle festival Sat 4 November

Two weeks today doors open on #DoNotGoGentle2017 A packed program in 4 fab new venues across Swansea Unit Nineteen, The Last Resort, Cinema&Co. No Sign Wine Bar. Tickets available now from www.donotgogentlefestival.co.uk
Here's the details for my gig on 4 November

Gig Alert: 31 October Bristol

BOOKS & SPOKEN WORDBERKELEY SQUARE POETRY REVUE – SUSIE WILDDATE: TUESDAY OCT 31, 2017 TIME: 08:30 PM VENUE: THE SQUARE CLUB PRICE: £2 Artists Susie Wild
Regular evening of poetry and music in The Square’s cocktail bar. This month’s headline act is poet Susie Wild, author of two collections – Better Houses and The Art of Contraception. With music from Joel Gardner.‘The poems come from raw edges of the spaces between people, and a sense of how provisional the tender things can be.’ –Philip Gross

More info here...

Gig Alert: 27 October, Books at Dylan's Birthday, Swansea

Swansea, I'm reading in Uplands next Friday, come along! Friday 27th October Dylan's 103rd birthday is Book Night at the Birthplace with poet Susie Wild launching her first poetry collection Better Houses which is all about tramping across the UK with humour, love and loss seeking a place to call home. 

Tickets £5 (including refreshments).

Joining Susie will be the Uplands urban sketcher Bill Bytheway, launching and exhibition of hs illustrations of the book Ugly Lovely - an hilarious book about Swansea by the late Ken Blakemore, and Away From The Welsh Speaking Sea a collection of poems wriiten by Hamish Wilson after a tour of the Birthplace 6.30 for 7.00pm 

Gig Alert: Penarth Acoustic Club, Fri 20 October

PENARTH, I'm looking forward to reading at Penarth Acoustic Club this Friday, sharing the stage with some great musicians, come along!

Photo Blog: Better Houses Literary House Party @madeinroath

A random selection of photos from the night by myself, Beth Greenhalgh and Christina Thatcher: