In 2023, Blake published a new collection of poems: Never the Right Time. This forms the basis of our 2024 shows.
The poems in the Shingle Street collection celebrated Suffolk landscapes and seascapes. In Never the Right Time, Blake has widened his scope to encompass themes of elation, regret, nostalgia, sensuality and domestic mishap. There’s a sense of passing time or ‘timefulness’ – of fading memories, missed chances and the coming of age – but his touch remains light throughout.
Our original show was based on poems from Blake Morrison’s, Shingle Street, a poetry collection which depicts the desolate eroding landscape of the Suffolk coast.
Inspired by this collection, members of the Hosepipe Band have composed original music to accompany a selection of poems from the collection. A full-length recording of these poems is now available from this website and at live performances in East Anglia during 2023 – see below.
Four sample tracks with the poems are read by Blake with accompaniment by the Hosepipe Band.
• Dunwich (Music by Simon Haines)
• The Ballad Of Shingle Street (Music by Cara Bruns)
• Covehithe (Music by Peter Nice)
• Flotsam (Music by Val Woollard)
This video combines Cara Brun’s music with Blake’s reading extracts from his poem against a backdrop of the strange and background of Shingle Street beach on the Suffolk coast.
PERFORMANCES
2024
• June 23 Southwold Arts Festival
• June 29 Felixstowe Book Festival
• September 21 Dunwich Museum
• October 16 Blackheath Halls
• October 26 Westleton Village Hall
• November 8 Aldburgh Poetry Festival
Previous performances
2023
• March 1 Blackheath Halls
• March 17 Corn Hall, Diss
• April 21 Two Sisters Arts Centre, Trimley
• May 20 Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh
• July 28 Wivenhoe Music
• July 29 Walpole Old Chapel
• August 19 Folk East Festival
• Sept. 30 Laxfield Village Hall
• November 22 Cecil Sharp House, London
2022
• June 1 Essex Book Festival – The Electric Palace, Harwich
• June 26 Felixstowe Book Festival – at Harvest House, Felixstowe
• July 1 John Mills Theatre, Ipswich
• July 9 Dunwich Museum
• July 28 Colchester Arts Centre
• October 15 Wingfield Barns
The recording is available, in a two-CD digipak format from this website and from the band at the live performances.
CD 1 Blake Morrison reads his poems with musical accompaniment.
CD 2 The music composed and played by The Hosepipe Band
Buy this recording here.
Blake Morrison’s writing
Poetry
• The Dark Glasses
• The Ballad of the Yorkshire Ripper and Other Poems
• Pendle Witches
• Selected Poems
• Shingle Street
• Skin and Blister
• Never the Right Time
Prose works
• And When Did You Last See Your Father?
• Things My Mother Never Told Me
• As If
• The Executor
• The Justification of Johann Gutenberg
• The Last Weekend
• South Of The River
• Two Sisters
More information about Blake Morrison
• His website
• Wikipedia
Print and Kindle versions of Shingle Street are available from Amazon
Contact
for enquiries about bookings or the recording,
• email: simonhaines1@icloud.com
• phone: 07818 417780