The other week I took a trip to Cardiff to record a segment for Radio 4’s poetry show, Bespoken Word. We recorded in front of a live audience in a lecture hall at Cardiff Uni. The whole thing was a lot of fun- great performances from everyone on the bill (Laura Dockrill, Disraeli, Nathan Penlington).
I did an abridged version of my poem Trips to Spar. The piece is my vague attempt at a Raymond Queneau-esque ‘iterative narrative’ (non wanky translation: “like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day”). The idea being that I tell the story of the time I was ID’d in my local grocers, then retell the same story over and over again, pushing it into increasingly ludicrous genres (19th century novelist, Satanist’s Handbook, Ragga, drunk sci-fi, etc). The only problem was, because it was the BBC, I wasn’t allowed to say “Spar”, as it counted as advertising (or slander, I can’t remember which). So, instead of reading a poem about “Spar” I had to read a poem about “Schmar”. (See how this starts to get complicated…)
Despite the awkward footnotes, the thing went OK, and ended up getting repeated on the Pick of the Week program the following Sunday. So far, no word of complaint from Schmar, so it looks like I’ve got away with it. Although I was in there earlier today buying a box of Flake Cakes and the woman was rather terse.
Listen to the poem here:
Ross Sutherland – Trips To Spar
This piece also appears in my new solo show The Three Stigmata of Pacman. I’ll post full details on how to buy tickets v. soon.