Hello WriteOutLoud!

I’m going to start work on a project soon about pubs and all the culture around it. By this i don’t mean all binge drinking culture aspects but the myths and stories that the buildings and regulars share with the place. I want to tell these tales in a new show. Taking inspiration from the oral storytellers who used to travel the regions inns and entertain the locals, I aim to create a number of shows about pubs, bars and everything inbetween on my uni campus where I sit with a small audience and tell them stories about the pub and poems inspired by the venue.

I’ve started doing research on pubs around britiain and ones that have been a big part of my life, Dog and Partridge & The Old Man and Cythe in Bolton, The Golden Lion in Lancaster and Temple, TV21 and Britons Protection in Manchester, in source for inspiration. I also plan on using some of the essays of George Orwell , specifically Moon Under Water, to help shape the piece.

All I need now is your help. Yes you. Before I approach any of the bars on campus I need some stories to practice with. So what I need you to do ; get in contact with me either through tumblr, Facebook or email and tell me a story about you and a pub. This can be from a heart wrenching memory to a time your mate threw up on the pub dog. There’s no restrictions. All i ask you to consider is who public you want this story to be. Before you submit it please consider how you will feel with it potentially being heard by an audience who have no idea who you are or if this story even is true. So, mention on the message if you would like to remain anonymous or if you want your name in the piece. I will try and get back to those who submit pretty quickly with ideas and questions. I need your full support before I go through with your story.

Just a quick note to say that your stories don't have to be written in prose or 4 page dramatic monologues. The less detail the better. I will send you back the work I've done on your stories so you are involved in the creative process. I love to collaborate and this is a perfect opportunity to.

Please get in touch, be wonderful to hear your stories. I’m looking forward to them

Email me at - moon.under.water.tales@gmail.com

Cheers

Hello Joshua - always glad to see that pubs still have their place in our affections. And quite right too! Before it changed (and some do, not always with our approval), I used a local pub called the Turners Arms. Its landlord then was a big bearded guy (like a rocker) and his petite wife who was no pushover! I wrote some lines based on an incident one day and will post them if you are interested - to your email address or here -Cheers...
MC

Hey M.C!
If you could email me it to moon.under.water.tales@gmail.com. Thank you =]

Joshua - OK, I'll dig it out.
MC

What happened to the Illiterate Poet discussion? Has it been obliterated for some perverse reason that I'm not privy too?

Click on Discussion on the homepage - then click on General - then read all the titles till you come to it.

I had a fabuous encounter in a pub, in 1975, with a man who bet me, a callow teen, a pint he could blow smoke out of his ears. He played it out all evening and then, on the stroke of closing time, by which point I, and my mates were all convinced it was a con...he only went and did it!

I'll never forget seeing that tiny, but unmistakeable puff of smoke.

Fab!

: )

Jx

Were you on the floor looking up when you saw it?

No, I was staring three inches from his ear. He had spent the whole evening winding us up, rather brilliantly, so we were utterly confused as to whether he was a charlatan, con-man or chancer...it turned out that it was a sort of party piece he did when strangers were in the bar. It was like a performance art attack.

He really could blow smoke out of his ears.

A pint was only 20p in those days....but it was my 20p.

: )

Jx