Running smoothly

On Wednesday it was Salvage - dramatised readings of three superb pieces by Peter Spafford in the cleared-out arts and craft room upstairs at the Bowery, and on Thursday members of Trio Literati seemed well pleased at the very full audience which had arrived to sample their special brew of poetry and song, immaculately rehearsed and beautifully presented. Lesley and Richard Quayle are pictured below performing Dylan's Don't think twice, it's all right just before the interval.

Amongst those spotted in the audience were David Robertson from Theatre of the Dales (see below) and Paul Priest, author of Sonnets, the new play which the company will perform at the Yorkshire College this coming Saturday and Sunday at 7.30pm. You can watch a slide show of their recent Twelfth Night by clicking here.

Robert Barnard fielded a fair number of questions after his talk on Friday Making Crime Pay from aficionados who were obviously very well-acquainted with the genre. At one point, there was even speculation about the relative merits of Norwegian and Swedish crime writers! Apparently the Norwegians are now on the up and up, so eat your heart out Henning Mankell.

Theatre Group Blah Blah Blah performed When the Wind Changed no less than three times on Saturday morning due to popular demand from the five and six year-olds in Headingley Library, some of whom had turned up a little late. They were charmed. They liked the way the actors sitting on the carpet made faces and put wigs and hats on and became funny people. They liked the orange juice and the biscuits too.

Ian Clayton's writers' workshop on Saturday afternoon in the Stadium café was attended by seventeen people - which according to Ian is a lot more than the usual.

Rugby met literature met music in the Executive Suite at Headingley Stadium on Saturday evening when Phil Caplan spoke about his work as a ghost writer for sports celebrities including, of course, Jamie Peacock. He explained how the books (like No White Flag, the Jamie Peacock story) had grown out of match reporting, and how Rugby League, which has world-class sportsmen and long traditions, is still, regretfully, treated as a poor relation in Britain outside the north of England. Jamie stepped forward to confirm that everything in the book was true, and answered questions from the audience. Doug Sandle introduced Phil and Jamie and outlined the work of the Rugby Arts Steering Group, which has already made a number of achievements, including, for example, a specially composed piece from composer Carl Davis.

Richard Wilcocks said a few words about the Headingley LitFest and the fruitful partnership with the Rugby Foundation before introducing Ian Clayton, mentioning that Headingley had produced both sporting and literary greats, and that it was right and proper for them to be celebrated together. The Ancient Greeks had given awards to athletes and poets at the Olympic Games, and why not? Similarly, it should not be enough to just watch a rugby match or listen to a poetry reading: the watchers and the listeners should be encouraged to do it themselves. So - the LitFest and the Rugby Foundation had provided opportunities for young and old in the form of a sports story competition for high school students and a writer's workshop.

Ian Clayton spoke as only Ian Clayton can speak, and the audience was very soon falling about because of his opening anecdotes. His talk was wide-ranging, and included a reading from Bringing it all back home - for example the sections about his encounter with Johnny Hope, who could recite Featherstone Rovers' teams right back to Edwardian times like prayers, and his search for the place where Bessie Smith died in what was once the Afro-American Hospital but which is now the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Soon after the applause, plenty of copies of the hardback and the softback editions were sold.

Below, Lesley and Richard Quayle, David Robertson with Sauvignon Blanc and Ian Clayton with a pen:

Launched

Richard Raftery (that's him in the picture) was feeling expansive at the LitFest Launch Party yesterday. It was held in the long room at the back of the New Headingley Club. Daffodils adorned every table.

Richard Wilcocks spoke about the superb response to the 'Create a Sports Story' competition, organised for high school students by the LitFest in Partnership with Leeds Rugby Foundation, and then read out the winning entry, Richard Raftery, Trio Literati and poet Murray Edscer performed, and Trevor Bavage was the affable man with the gavel in an auction which raised two hundred pounds for LitFest funds. Winners of the literary - and very non-trivial - quiz were treated to drinks at the bar and Head For Heights provided excellent music. Now for the first event on Wednesday - Salvage by Peter Spafford.

See them at the stadium

An Evening with Ian Clayton and Phil Caplan with special guest Jamie Peacock

Ian Clayton, television broadcaster and author of Bringing it all back home, and Phil Caplan, ghost writer to Leeds Rhinos player and England Rugby League captain, Jamie Peacock (No White Flag), on the same bill this coming Saturday.

Reviews of Ian Clayton's book - "One of the best books about popular music ever written", [Record Collector], / "Not a single false note. Clayton has written a compelling memoir of place and culture" [The Times] / "The best read I've had all year, at times very funny, genuinely touching and always deeply personal. The perfect book for anyone who has defined their life through music and the memories of youth” [Joanne Harris].

Premier Suite, Headingley Carnegie Stadium, Saturday 21 March, 7.15pm £12.00 (£8.00 concession-including students). Includes pie and peas supper - pay bar.

Tickets to be purchased/reserved in advance at Leeds Rugby's Ticket Office at Headingley Carnegie Stadium - 0871 423 1325 - or contact Doug@balladoolish.fsnet.co.uk, phone/text 077 5252 1257 ASAP. Proceeds to Headingley Rugby Foundation's Learning Centre and Headingley LitFest).

In the photo - Phil Caplan, Jamie Peacock and Ian Clayton.

A terrific starter

A terrific starter! Last Sunday afternoon, Kester Aspden and Ian Duhig attracted a large and appreciative audience to the Yorkshire College for the first LitFest event of 2009, in spite of the snowy weather. We were starved with cold outside, but soon warmed up inside, especially after being served with tea out of a proper teapot and home-made cakes.

Ian Duhig began the event with a selection of his poems, which included Róisín Bán (that’s White Rose in Gaelic), about the obliteration of the much-loved Roscoe pub by the new Sheepscar Interchange, and God Comes Home, his brilliant poem on the Oluwale case, which you can read by clicking here.

Kester Aspden began by talking about himself and how he came to write Nationality Wog: The Hounding of David Oluwale after researching other topics which might be described as a little arcane. Well it’s more than lucky that he did get it together, because now it stands alongside the 1999 Macpherson Report on the bungled investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence in what might be called the History of Institutional Racism in the Police Force. He read from the opening pages and used the two words which tend to come up frequently when the subject is discussed – “bad apples”. Inspector Ellerker and Sergeant Kitching, who were sent to prison for a lot less than manslaughter, were not the only ones, according to Kester Aspden: “There were more than two bad apples”.

He then went on to make the point that the rest of the Leeds police at the time was not corrupt, that the wrongdoers were shopped by a young policeman, and that the hero of the story was DCI John Perkins from Scotland Yard, whose persistence resulted in the prosecutions.

Discussions afterwards covered attitudes to asylum seekers today, the degree to which David Oluwale was “mad” (apparently, the cast of the play debated this for hours) and the effects of closing down huge institutions/asylums like Menston.

Poet Rommi Smith made a powerful appeal for the Oluwale Memorial Campaign at the end of the event, which resulted in a good amount.

If you are reading this before the run finishes at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, get down there! You can read Alfred Hickling’s review by clicking here. You can also watch the trailer here.

The Hounding of David Oluwale

Richard Wilcocks writes:

The image below (the many snapshots are all of parts of Leeds which would have been known to Oluwale) was produced by the West Yorkshire Playhouse as part of the publicity for the play version of The Hounding of David Oluwale. I'll be seeing that on 4 February in my capacity as editor of Harmony, the news magazine of the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard, which is based at Education Leeds. The play will be reviewed, because the story is very relevant for anyone concerned about institutional racism in the police force - of the sort condemned in the 1999 Macpherson Report which looked at the way the Metropolitan Police had investigated the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in London.

The Headingley LitFest event on Sunday afternoon 8 February at 4pm at the Yorkshire College of Music and Drama is not just a follow-up for people who have seen the play, but something which stands by itself. It is an excellent opportunity to meet and to question Kester Aspden, the author of the brilliant book which inspired the play, and to listen to poet Ian Duhig. Put it in your diary and on your calendar.

SIGN UP NOW

If you would like your child to participate in When the Wind Changed with the Blahs (that's three of them in the picture) at Headingley Library on Saturday 21 March (two sessions beginning at 10.30 and 11.30am) please get the name down on the booking list. There's a maximum of twenty per session. Lists are currently at the library and at Café Lento. Similarly, if you want to join Ian Clayton's writing workshop in the café at Headingley Stadium on the same day (it begins at 2pm), get your details on the list in the same places. You could also send an email.