Rocket FM Lewes: 'Talking Culture' 3rd November 2019

In this week's 'Talking Culture' show on Rocket FM Lewes my guests were:

business author Sam Knowles
glass artist Claudia Wiegand
Jonathan Brown, who's organised the Lewes Festival of Solo Theatre
and novelist Beth Miller.

The music I played was:

Taylor Swift: Our Song
Gilbert O'Sullivan: What's In A Kiss
Sarah McLachlan: Fallen
The Dead End Kids: Have I The Right
The Whitlams: Your Daddy's Car
James Taylor: Fire and Rain
Chris de Burgh: Lonely Sky
Imelda May: Tainted Love
Jill Sobule: Almost Great

Rocket FM Lewes: 'Talking Culture' 27th October 2019

I've been invited back to present another series of 'Talking Culture' shows on Rocket FM Lewes.

My guests on this week's programme were:

playwright Philip Ayckbourn

writer Michelle Porter

artist Keith Pettit

The music I played was:

Badly Drawn Boy: You Were Right

Delta Goodrem: Lost Without You

Simon and Garfunkel: A Hazy Shade Of Winter

Barbra Streisand / Josh Groban: All I Know Of Love

Bay City Rollers: Give A Little Love

Patsy Gallant: From New York to L.A.

Mary Chapin Carpenter: I Feel Lucky

Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes: Don't Leave Me This Way

Co-Co: Bad Old Days

The Wonder Stuff: The Size Of A Cow

The Reform Club: Endless Faithless

Linda Thompson: I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight

Rocket FM Lewes: 'Talking Culture' 15th October 2018

I'm presenting 'Talking Culture' on Rocket FM Lewes for the next three weeks. My guests in this week's show were:
Simone Riley, the current chair of Chalk Gallery,
Lulah Ellender, who wrote Elizabeth's Lists,
Vivienne Lynn, whose art is currently on show at Martyrs Gallery.

Today's music included...
Simon and Garfunkel: Keep The Customer Satisfied
The Partridge Family: I Think I Love You
Nickel Creek: Ode to a Butterfly
Norrie Paramour and the BBC Midland Radio Orchestra: Copacabana
Eddi Reader: Patience of Angels
Marc Cohn: Walk Through The World
The Chefs: 24 Hours
Charlie Dore: Here Comes The Sun
Renaissance: Northern Lights
Bellowhead: Betsy Baker
Kathy Mattea: Where've You Been
Josh Groban: Granted

Finding your true voice for writing

Simon Armitage talks about the idea of a poet finding their true voice (from 'The Verb' 21st April 2017 on BBC Radio 3; this conversation started approximately 21 minutes into the programme). Ian McMillan asks "do you think you have to find a true voice?"

I think that's become a very convenient shorthand for blurb writers on the backs of books: "he has found his voice and he has found it early". In fact, I think it might have said that on the back of one of my books... as if it were there waiting under a stone and you just had to have a good rummage around the garden and you would come across this thing called 'your voice'. Because I think probably more realistically what happens is that when you start writing, you are experimenting, you're shopping around, you are writing portfolio collections, and what you notice eventually is that one version of your voice seems to be appreciated over others - and that's probably the voice that you start using in your poetry because you can see that it's an appealing one.