PURPLE PATCH POETRY CONVENTION

The beautiful sunny weather of the 1999 Convention unfortunately gave way to persistent rain, and yet some 50 people braved the elements for an opening, Friday evening, session, which allowed twenty-eight poets to read and ample time for a drink afterwards.

The all-day Saturday stagings attracted over one hundred people and the only complaint seemed to be that with two events staged simultaneously, plus bookstalls, there was no time to eat without missing something. I joked that that was because the Convention had a built-in slimming course at no extra charge. In fact, the local sandwich shop, the 'chippie', and the Model public house (called that because it once belonged to The Aston Model Brewery Company) and the Indian Restaurant, all supplied sustenance.

While a workshop, in which delegates were given a short talk about concrete poetry before making some themselves using visual and aural aids, was in progress under the guidance of P.Q.R.'s Tilla Brading, poetry readings from Ted Smith-Orr, Michael Newman, Geoffrey Clarke, Brendan Hawthorne and others, could be heard in the auditorium.

Attempts were also made to attract buyers to the magazine and book stalls that were situated in the rehearsal room and the entrance lobby. Poetry readings alternated between bar/lounge and stage areas throughout the day and there were talks by Roger De Boer and Steve Sneyd, the latter's well-researched piece on the inclusion of poetry in prose books, over the years, attracting a good audience and a follow-up interest in the subject.

A number of groups performed their poetry as a sequential unit, notably Ragged Raven Press authors under the leadership of Bob Mee, Maureen Dodson's Stourbridge trio, Di Neogh's seven 'bubbly' women writers (who were introduced as The Magnificent Seven in drag that had just ridden in from Wolverhampton, and took it in good part when the audience was told to try and pick out Yul Brynner!), and Rip Bulkeley's Back Room Poets. Incidentally we talked about a 2002 Convention and the last mentioned group are considering staging it in their home town of Oxford. Look out for details in the near future.

Peter Donnelly's photographs of industrial Birmingham and the Black Country were a novel way of illustrating his spoken poems. The lunchtime session, with Peter Tomlinson, Eamer O'Keeffe, John Adair, and Keith Melbourne was impressive, as was the addition of Stephen Owen, who when asked why he read a poem about Lenin, replied "why not?"

The 100th. edition of Purple Patch was launched with Maureen Weldon reading her own inclusions in the magazine over the years, and when the 100th. issue was unveiled, I was gently ribbed for a 'youthful' (not quite!) photograph of myself on the cover of the supplement. I hastily explained that it was taken when I was young and virile, and added — a few weeks ago —.

Due to a cancellation, I had to hastily prepare a workshop to replace an advertised one, and came up with an idea that gave me the minimum of 'hassle' and the participants a challenge, in the limited time, but they all came up trumps and were able to give renditions of their really excellent writings, after the 35 minutes of composition allotment (Thank you all!) Les Merton, whose collection of Cornish dialect poems has sold well over a thousand copies, organised a dialect reading, using poets from Yorkshire, London, Birmingham, the Black Country, and Liverpool, linking it with his own regionally accented work.

The evening proceeded with fine readings from such as Gerald England, Andy Robson, Sam Harcombe, Steve Sneyd, Robert Cole, Susie Reynolds, Sam Smith, and Peter and Michael Bedford. The rhythmic renderings of Tilla Brading also highlighted this period of entertainment. Local talent was represented by the excellent Raymond Avery, the prolific Andrew Detheridge and performance poet and Birmingham 2000 laureate, Simon Pitt.

The final session of the Saturday was devoted to Spouting Forth's touring show of prose, poetry, and music, the full version of which had appeared at mac in Birmingham, Ludlow Assembly Rooms etc. etc.

It was time to wind down on Sunday, and after an open mike session, and a discussion panel provided by Raw Edge Magazine, which put out the question 'Small Press Magazines — Outside Funding or Not', and engineered a robust interchange of views, in which Martin Holroyd, Peter Donnelly, and Steve Sneyd were prominent, along with the panel of Roz Goddard, Charles Johnson, and chairman Dave Reeves, final drinks and farewells were to be had in the bar.

I had a great deal of organisational help on site, from Steve Sneyd, Pam Hewitt (who came all the way from the South of France), Brendan Hawthorne, Maureen Weldon, Martin Holroyd, and a great 'jacket off and at it' help, without being asked, by Lynn Hawthorne on the reception desk.

It was an hectic but happy gathering, gregarious, friendly, humorous, convivial, and even sad at times when we thought of delegates that couldn't come due to illness, like John Hirst, Anthony Cooney, and Bob Bishop (in a German rehab, centre after, his words — having a foot removed from his gut, due to gangrene — I didn't ask if there was a jackboot attached to it! But then, it wasn't that sort of weekend, no one putting the boot in, everyone friendly and generous to each other).