What an incredible year it has been for us all in Write Out Loud (WoL). It’s hard to remember that this time last year we didn’t have a web site, we didn’t have much of a mailing list, we only had one regular and one major irregular venue, we’d never promoted someone else’s event, we didn’t organise trips out to other poetry venues and so many of our favourite poems had yet to be written. All that changed during the course of this year and next year promises to better than this one.

Some of the obvious highlights for me include the WoL organised Bordeaux Festival; National Poetry Week including gigs at Bolton Library, Turton Media & Arts College and the Phoenix; Matthew Welton at the Octagon; Write Out Loud trips to various venues such as Spotlight, the Urbis and the Everyman Theatre; the first WoL poetry picnic with, amongst many others, Bill “Freedom Fries” Kelly (the lone ranger); the Hovis Presley memorial night at the Green room when Kevin Bates not only organised it but managed to be part of nearly every act; attending an event at an underground Arts Squat in central Manchester; not to mention visiting Thick Richard in their converted toilet; the 4 Continents slam; attending a great poetry workshop in Newquay, Cornwall and going to Charlie and Rachels Halloween party – my feet still hurt after having to walk 15 miles home dressed as Hannibal Lector at five in the morning.

Here are some of my choices for the year:
Best Poetry Web site in the world: http://www.writeoutloud.net and it’s going to get better
Best nom de plume for a poet: “Room without doors” - Go to the “Freed up” night at the Green room to see her perform.
Best anthology: Dead Good Poets Society, this was a long time a coming but well worth it.
Best single poet collection: “See no evil “ by John G Hall contains both the moving poem about his mother “Alzheimers” (performed first at Write Out Loud I seem to recall) and the epic “And still I cannot wake from their war (parts 1 to 3)”
Best new night of the year: “Riders on the Storm!” – Well what did you think I’d say?

As to the best poems and performances? I can’t pick out only one as the best as there are so many great ones. Actually I’ve heard so many poets this year in so many and varied venues that I can only remember a few of them and I’m sure that as soon as I hear other poets mentioned by you lot I’ll kick myself for not remembering them. So I’m sorry in advance if I don’t mention you or one of your favourite poems.

Obviously I’m too modest to mention any of my own sacred works but I hope that you remember one or two of my better ones (if you think I have any) and any insults I may have thrown your way as part of my compering duties were only in fun so you could you stop booing me now please.

Starting at home with Write Out Loud (WoL) I think that generally the poetry has gone up at least one level if not more and we now boast some of the best poets around.

I’ll mention in passing (I don’t want to be too sycophantic) Julian Jordon and Dave Morgan who have done a great job in taking Write Out Loud forward whilst somehow finding time to write some illustrious poems.

Julian already had many wonderful poems like his crowd pleasing green poem “I need my car”, the [terrible] protest poem “Rhubarb” and the one about the chav berating her two year old child but in my humble opinion he exceeded himself with was his poem “Canal Street”. I know I joked at the time that it was his “coming out” poem (of course it wasn’t – was it sweetie?) but read it on his poets profile on the web site and you’ll see how clever and witty it is.

Dave has also produced some brilliant stuff from the incomprehensible yet compelling “Ironing”, the poem he reads as a woman (your slip is showing Dave), the moving “Sole man” about his relationship with his father and son to his corporate lecture poem. He’s always vibrant listening and is forever rocking us out of our complacency.

Hilary Walker arrived just over a year ago with her funny yet true “Paranoid” and she continued to write some fantastic stuff like the “tit” poem but she topped it all with the tour de force of “Giving the world to Venus” and she certainly didn’t look out of place on stage with the world class poets at the Four Continents Slam. She invited a phalanx of poets to her Birthday party earlier in the year and this was a totally groovy affair though I can still see the look of shock and horror on the faces of her guests when I performed “Psychopath”.

I’ve heard so many versions of Scott Devon’s magnificent “Dancing boy” that I almost feel that I wrote it myself – OK I know my “Dancing mice” is better but it wouldn’t exist without Scott’s original (this is a joke Scott!). He’s produced some great stuff through the year, I think of “Four nights” and “Blind Rage” (or whatever it’s called this week) but the biggest shock was when he suddenly launched into an unbelievable but hilarious comedy routine at the Second “Riders on the storm” gig which went down like house on fire – you know where your future lies Scott.

A poem that has got to me over the last couple of months is Bill Brierley’s “The weapon on the wall”, I like a lot of what Bill does because it is quirky and original but this poem makes the personal universal and is a damning indictment on the establishment who did terrible things to him in the name of so called justice! He is often backed by Don Parry (a talented poet in his own right) on guitar when he performs it which adds another layer of meaning and gives it greater impact. By the way I hope they find your brain soon Bill!

The best thing from Abi Idowu wasn’t a poem at all but her moving story “Yellow bride” about a woman in Nigeria who couldn’t get pregnant and the terrible repercussions that had on her life. Having said that two of my happiest memories of the year are of Abi embarrassing school boys at Turton reading her poem “He” to them and leading us all in song with, naturally enough, “Birdsong” at another gig in Bolton. She also ran a close second to Sandy Clays in the steamy sex poem arena with a series of poems on lust that she produced mid-year and her naughty, flirtatious eyes deserve a special category of their own.

Having watched many people cringe in disbelief or horror (or some other emotion) as I performed “I am your stalker” I know I suffer from poor taste, so one of my poems of the year has to be Nat Clare’s “Sex Bag”, as well as being very funny and strangely sad (Nat really hasn’t got a sex bag) it is a brilliantly structured poem and it’s a master class in how editing can increase impact. Nat won Slam Idol with an audio version of “Sex Bag” in August and I won the December Slam Idol with a video version of my celebrated poem “Policeman in my head” – someone tell John G Hall because he forgot to put it into his magazine.

Nat also starred and played an incredible set at the first “Riders on the storm” gig at the Socialist Club in Bolton. “Riders” is a new departure for Write Out Loud and is a night of not only fine poetry but great music as well. Nat gave a fine performance to a packed house with a mixture of his own poems and songs rounding off his set with Nick Jackson’s “Northern Town” which is appropriate as Nick is our guest in February.

The woman who brought Nat Clare & I and others to Write Out Loud is Rachel Appleton. This year she made an unexpected but highly pleasurable return to WoL and played us some rather good songs. I’m hoping that she will star in a “Riders” gig later in 2007 and that will be a performance worth watching believe me.

The steamiest, sexiest poem of the year has to be Sandre Clays “Minotaur” which had us all crimson with a combination of embarrassment and lust, though I discovered she had another side when she told me not only did she love me (I think she was drunk at the time) but that she was a gothic horror poet of some renown - this was after she’d heard and been suitably impressed with my horror poem “Doctor Curio”.

Whilst I still love John Clays eccentricity and joy especially in poems like “Smoke signals” and the one about “ride me like a Fire engine” and “taking cocaine” (which I’m sure he hasn’t done since having some in the dentists in 1954), my abiding memory of John was when he pretended to walk out of the room after being introduced at the Dead Good Poets Society in Liverpool bringing the house down with gales of laughter.

As always Tony Walsh has delivered some great stuff this year, one poem that I liked in particular was one of his most recent ones called “I can write a rainbow” about love (part of the love versus lust Commonword slam tour) and how describing love is like naming all the colours not only of the rainbow but of all the millions of other colours, hues and tints that can possibly exist. I know it sounds soppy but it is nothing like the trite song of almost the same name, it is better than good (I’m running out of superlatives and I’ve lost my thesaurus) and could herald a new direction for one of our finest poets.

Anwen Lewis was to be found much of the year backing Akil “Scorcha” Chinelo on her cello in their ground breaking work “Doin’ Moon” which I think had its premier at WoL and has toured as far away as the prestigious Poetry café in London. Unfortunately this has meant that we’ve not heard as much of her poetry as I personally would have liked. At least she read some of her stuff at our Christmas party and this cheered me up enormously. She also brought Chanje Kunda along and she wowed us especially with her “carry on” poem, you can bring her again Anwen!

Eric Tomlinson moved me too but in a different way with a couple of poems so miserable I had to put on several Leonard Cohen LPs to cheer myself up. Actually Eric can be funny as well as he showed to great effect at the Christmas show and now he’s gotten over his illness I’m expecting even better things from him.

David Makin was spikey, minimalist and inspired in the work he produced (even though he once commented adversely on my compering ability) but nothing was as memorable as his joke about still having sex at 67 (when he lives at 24) which brought the house down at Turton Media and Arts College.

I hate Jeff Whitehead! Not only has he got more awards than me but he’s nearly outshone me on some occasions - the bastard. I love the award winning poem he wrote about God in a tree which appeared in the same version of Current Accounts as my award winning short story “Viking”.

My friend James Hartnell has had a bit of a rough old year but he’s survived it and will now grow from strength to strength. From the first poem he performed at Write Out Loud “East Anglia to the North West” we knew we had a rare talent. Unfortunately we haven’t seen him at Write Out Loud for a bit and he’s been missed, so let’s hope a new year will see a renaissance and with a bit of luck he’ll be able to hear more of my breathtaking and stunning works.

Ruks Badat came to us a poetry writing virgin but that didn’t last long once I’d taken her under my wing and let her assist me in both writing and performing “Perfect girl friend”. Once our cowgirl had gained confidence she soon got into her stride and produced some terrific stuff the best of which was her poem “Confidence” about her mother which was received great acclaim. She now says she wants to write more for the page but as soon as she sobers up I’m sure the smell of the grease paint and me performing will entice her back.

A stalwart of Write Out Loud right from the early days is the inimical Rob Goodier [our very own Goodie], who continues to produce a mix of serious and funny poems though once this year he sailed rather close to the knuckle and was nearly strung up by the women in the audience. He survived and has learned his lesson girls – He made me say that!

Tony Ryan told me he’d given up donating all his money to bookmakers when he made a welcome return to the fold this year. His finest hour came at Turton School when he entranced the kids with his talk on the joys of youth telling them they were all “Millionaires” as a consequence. He’s now threatening to come on our trip to Wiltshire early in the New Year and if he does come then the southerners will be in for a real treat.

One of my abiding memories from this year, which will stay with me to the grave, is that of John Mather wowing a 200 plus French audience with poems in English about obscure and often long gone places in the North West of England. Never mind his mad desire to swim the wide and dangerous river in Bordeaux, or frightening the locals with his sudden outburst of bon hommie, to watch him charm a French mademoiselle and hear him pronounce the word “ambience” with a French accent was simply priceless. Pity his wife doesn’t like poetry but then you can’t have everything John.

Though from Wigan, newcomer Ian Gray has been adopted as an honorary Boltonian since he became a regular at WoL with his distinctive poetry style and delivery was an instant crowd pleaser. We look forward to hearing more of his work next year.

Malcolm Whittle was already an excellent poet before he became a student at Bolton University but since becoming one there has been no holding him back. At the end of one of our great WoL Sunday events he gave a bravura performance as a raconteur and story teller bewitching us with his stories and anecdotes well into the early hours. However, his strange and abrupt disappearance from an Urbis gig remains a mystery to this day.

Another Bolton University student who has become a regular and has impressed audiences far and wide (and not just for his capacity for the drink which I have to say is awesome) is Keith Hilling. Keith has brought a new and interesting dimension to Write Out Loud events and his performance late in the year at the Trof café in Fallowfield, Manchester stunned the Manchester literati and had Rosie Lugosi complimenting him on his work. Unfortunately once Keith had found out that Rosie was indeed a woman (he was very drunk) he immediately fell in love with her, well at least until he sobered up a week or two later.

A man who has become a friend over the last year, Gordon Zola has produced some interesting, funny and even brilliant stuff. There are some who say that his serious poems are the best but I like them all and I love to see him playing with his organ too. One of the lines of the year has to be the one about Mother Theresa and his one man opera/pantomime is a real hoot! Keep ‘em coming Allan!

And what about about that “Four Continents Slam”? What an atmosphere! What poetry! What back flips! We’ve had feed back from some of the world-class poets who performed that night and they tell us that the gig at Phoenix Theatre, Bolton was the best on the tour and would like to thank all who attended for their enthusiastic support.

Finally (in the WoL section of my review) a thanks to our best and most consistent audience namely Louis Coulson and Charlie Kirkham who have attended more gigs than a lot of the poets! Louise has now broken her duck and actually performed which took a lot of bottle and deserves a round of applause – everybody now! We look forward to hearing more from her shortly.

Moving further a field we saw a change of management at the Dead Good Poets Society (DGPS) in Liverpool with Sarah MacLennan (who has become a great friend of WoL) seamlessly replacing the scintillating Cath Nichols as the co-ordinator. Some of the best poetry nights I have ever experienced have been at the Everyman Theatre and this has held true this year too when there have been many great open mic and guest nights. Obviously this is partly down to me as I have been the compere there three or four times but even I have to grudgingly admit that there were one or two successes without me (don’t tell Sarah though).

Two of the guest nights starred Liverpool favourites Colin Watts and David Bateman. Both nights were sell out affairs and both poets rose to the occasion with storming performances that left the crowd exhausted from cheering yet pleasantly sated – yes it was good for me too thank you.

Of the Liverpool poets my preferred one has to be David Bateman and this year he gave us the extremely funny “Tale of two poets” story which ran over several nights to gales of laughter and general acclaim. However one of his best poems appeared in the DGPS anthology, called “The world’s greatest impressionist” it is an exceptional poem that I wish I had written. Thinking about it I may murder him and claim it as my own.

I also like Chris Clark and all of the stuff she does, but this year her series of poems about Boy Band Busted really did take the biscuit. I sense that Chris may soon turn into a stalker and I’ve written to the Chief Constable to warn him.

Claire Kirwan and Nic Payne had the pleasure of training me as a compere and what a great job they did! Claire continues to challenge what poetry should be about with quirky, unusual contributions and I particularly liked her poem about silence. Actually my poem about silence is better because it contains a great deal of silence, in fact it is all silence, and not me forgetting my lines and definitely not a cue for you to boo me, has as occurred on several unfortunate occasions.

Nic Payne challenges all kinds of conventions with his contributions and I love how he playfully skips from voice to voice in often seemingly normal but underlying surreal poems. I remember during one open mic Sarah MacLennan and I were worried that Nic was using all his time on an introduction when in fact that was his poem – you can’t buy talent like that, I know I’ve tried.

As to Aaron Murdock, as usual he bestrides the stage like a colossus and makes outrageous prophesies and statements that sometimes sound like the deranged ramblings of the weirdest conspiracy theorist you have ever heard from but almost inevitably turn out to be true. Well almost true. OK they never turn out to be true but they should and perhaps they are in an alternate universe.

Scott Devon had raved to us about the Fugitives, a group of poets from Canada, but even his recommendation didn’t do them justice. They gave the Everyman audience a very special night indeed with a combination of sharp, fast poetry mixed with some excellent music that got the whole place jumping. If you get the chance sell your private parts to see them. They are great!

The Manchester poetry scene has been as vibrant as ever if a little anarchic at times.

At the beginning of the year Citizen 32 moved to the Urbis Café and we all got excited about that until we saw the bar prices. Nevertheless there were some excellent nights with outstanding performances from some of the greats of Manchester such as John G Hall (as himself), Chloe Poems, Rosi Lugosi the vampire queen, Segun Lee French, Jackie Hagan & Connor A. Citizen 32 also hosted the first ever appearance of WoL’s Word Army consisting of Scott Devon, Dave Morgan, Hilary Walker and me.

Talking of the colourful Chloe Poems, I went to a wonderful workshop at Bury Met about writing monologues run by Gerry Potter, Chloe’s Clark Kent type alter ego. After the workshop was over some of us went for a coffee next door and there was a shocked silence from a few of the students when they discovered why Chloe is so notorious. Incidentally, at gigs Gerry is suddenly transformed into Chloe and no one knows how it happens though I’ve a heard a rumour that cottages are somehow involved.

In my humble opinion the best individual show at the Urbis came from Segun Lee French. He arrived late, got a drink whipped out his gob iron (that’s a harmonica to you squares) and gave a virtuoso performance that combined music, song and poems in two languages and left us gasping in admiration.

I’d heard a lot of good things about the infrequent Speakeasy night at the Green room but when I attended the last one of the year it blew my boots off. What a great night, with humour and poetry from such luminaries as Julian Daniel & the wonderful Dike Omeje (his poem “Santa’s a player” has changed my view of Christmas for ever) to truly virtuoso performances from singers and musicians so good it is almost unbelievable they aren’t major stars already. And all this was followed by a vibrant and intoxicating Brazilian drum based carnival type thing involving all the Speakeasy regulars and a troupe of Brazilian type drummers from Oldham of all places. A night to treasure and get down to, keep watching the gig guide for when it’s happening (usually on a Saturday).

Verberate at the Trof in Fallowfield which was run largely by Zoe Lambert, was a must-go-to venue where all the literary greats hung out with me and was arguably the coolest gig in Manchester town. There were some intense but rewarding nights and I particularly remember a very moving evening featuring a number of refugees which included a haunting song from an Arabian singer followed by another outstanding set from Segun Lee French, oddly the first time I’d seen him perform. Alas Verberate is no more - at least for the moment, though Zoe has already recently run a benefit poetry night at the Trof and there is a possibility it will be revived sometime in the future. I’ll be back when it is!

Another night that is sadly missed is the Truth poets Society gig at the Iguana bar in Chorlton. Although from the ashes came an unbelievable gig in an Arts squat close to “Band on the Wall” in Central Manchester. It was like a scene from “Apocalypse Now!” with water literally gushing from holes in the ceiling and running down walls in smooth waterfalls but the show went on and was magnificent – well done Rough Mouth!

“Freed up” is a very friendly monthly night at the Green Room run by Steve O’Connor and Dominic Berry (he bakes some delicious cakes which he hands out before the show), it’s a free (i.e. no charge for entry) open mic night on a theme designed to encourage new writing and there have been some real class poets performing there who I haven’t seen at other venues. Get yourself down to the next one in February, the theme is Love, it really is worth a visit

A brand new night is the Manchester University Poetry Society which doesn’t seem to have a regular venue yet but I’m sure will settle somewhere in the New Year. At first these intellectual Scallies had an age limit of 35 but following a visit from the boys (Julian, Gordon Zola and myself) they have seen the error of their ways and dropped it. In fact they now plead with me to come and perform - though I couldn’t make it last time.

And so to Embryo at Studio Salford a wondrous night with an eclectic mix of new types of writing and can include anything from poetry, monologue, comedy, extracts from theatre performances, short films, music of all types from singer songwriter to electronic & full bands plus a variety of works in progress. The joy is it is an absolutely unpredictable night. It can be an event of absolute brilliance or not, though generally it is somewhere in between and there is usually at least one “act” that is worth the £4 entrance fee. Though it’s not everyone’s cup of tea and can be a bit chaotic at times, I love it and go to as many as I possibly can and recommend it to everyone I meet.

I went to a few of the events at the Manchester Literature Festival the best of which was a reading by Sharon Olds of whom it is said that she is the world’s third best selling poet -whatever that means. The marvellous reading was held in an atmospheric gallery in Manchester Museum with stuffed animals all around and above us the skeleton of a whale and above that, rather oddly, a human skeleton apparently swimming. I went with Linda Morgan, herself a very good poet, who is a big, big fan of Sharon’s and it was a pleasure to watch Linda approach Sharon after the reading to nervously ask her to sign her copy of “Father” which of course Sharon did with a flourish.

Unfortunately many of the poetry nights in Lancashire seem to have died the death and it saddens me that Preston in particular, which was a happening place in the poetry world a couple of years ago, seems to have little going on now. The one beacon of hope for the county that stands magnificent and defiant and which a few of us have visited several times this year is the superb Spotlight Club in Lancaster run by WoL favourites Ron Baker and Sarah Fiske. The Spotlight is a mix of the spoken word and music and is a gig you must go to! Plus they have not only hosted a version of the WoL’s Word Army - Scott Devon, Hilary Walker and myself (Dave was ill and couldn’t attend), but Julian Jordon and Dave Morgan won second and third places in their recent annual slam competition. So now they’re giving us money too – Whoopee!

And that’s more or less it - But Paul, I hear you moan, we’ve not heard enough about you. Well dear friends isn’t that always the way and as you know I don’t like to talk too much about myself… [Had to chop out 20 pages about him due to lack of space – ED] .

What a great year! Let’s reminisce but then, in a New Labour kind of way, say goodbye to it and move on. Next year is going to be even better with new WoL nights in Wigan and Oldham and God knows what else is going to happen, I couldn’t have predicted even a quarter of what we’ve done this time last year.

Thanks to everyone for your contribution & support and I can’t wait to hear the new work you are going to produce in the near future. Keep on writing and performing….

Well Paul, you haven't left much uncovered there. In brief my top ten (poetic) memories of 2006 in no particular order were:

1. The WoL Christmas Party on Dec 17, still fresh in the memory, thanks to Clive for all the eats, I've never seen such a riot of food and paper in one room since working in a primary school thirty odd years ago, and still the poems kept flowing. Most memorable Gordon Zola's cod opera, hope he does it again soon.

2. Four Continents Slam, call me parochial but I was very proud at a) our organisation and b) our poetic contributions. Thanks to everyone from Manchester, Lverpool, Wigan, Bolton and beyond for making it a success. The Slam Champs weren't bad either, so a big thanks to Steve Larkin for entrusting us with the event.

3. Our own Slam knock-out at the Howcroft to pick three performers for the above. A complete break with tradition and stated philosophy, high-risk, and definitely one we thought long and hard about. Thanks to all for accepting that not everyone could win a place at the Phoenix.

4. Health and the Arts, Bolton Parish Church, October. From fringe involvement to being credited by both the Director of Adult Services and Director of Public Health, with helping make the day a success and for opening the creative door to a wide rang of adults. WoL acted as scribe in a number of workshops and is charged with writing a creative report on the day, it provided a twenty minute set before an audience of 60 professionals at lunchtime, and fronted a workshop in the afternoon session. Outstanding contributions from Jeff Whitehead, Bill Brierley, Bianca Holden, Abi Idowu and Malcolm Whittle, all extremely confident and professional in their handling of their material and the audience.

5. I you didn't go you're probably sick of hearing about Bordeaux. Yes it was as good as everyone else makes out. Yes it all really happened, we didn't make it up and spend a weekend in Bognor. John Mather was the Godfather of Poetic Soul.

6. Bill and Don forging a partnership around Bill's lyrics, Don's unselfish and sympathetic accompaniment on guitar. Well received at Howcroft, DGPS, Urbis and Riders on the Storm. More music and poetry in 2007?

7. National Poetry Week. It was a non-stop round of events which created many new friends and partnerships, including Bolton Libraries and Turton Media and Arts College. Over twenty local poets took part. Don't forget in 2004 and 2005 we did nothing in Nat Poetry Week. Already planning 2007.

8. Poetry Bus. Our first expedition was to Huddersfield where we walked into the Albert mob-handed, having only just managed to negotiate an exit from the motorway in one piece. They were magnanimous in giving us our own set in the second half and it was the first of a number of outings by bus to Machester, Liverpool and Lancaster.

9. Wol Word Army first appearance at Urbis for a Citizen 32 gig. The troops, led by Scott Devon, done good despite being dressed in overcoats , scarves and hats, the heating being unnacountably switched off. (The experience stood the Word Army in good stead months later at Dave Ruffmouth's event at the Northern quarter squat in the old Fruit? market Hall. Possibly the wettest night of the year, the cavern like Hall was candle -lit like a gothic cathedral, water poured from the ceiling in greatfalls, all like a scene from Dr Curio with Paul in the lead role, and Lynda got a gin and tonic with cherry, class!

10. The Poetry picnic, a lovely day, lovely company, lovely poems, summarised so much up.No-one knew who would turn up. John and Sandy indomitable as ever heading to a Entwistle they had never heard of before, Bill Kelly walking up the river valleys from Farnworth, Natasha Wiseman and girls turning up on spec. A perfect day despite missing the train back.

I said it was arbitrary. Best poetry peformance of the year for me was Hilary Walker unveiling "Venus" at Urbis, word-perfect, no advance notice, edge of seat stuff, best "freebie" of the year was attending Latitude with Tony Walsh, what an eye-opener of poetic talents. The more I think, the more I remember. Can't come up with one disaster. one "wish we hadn't othered" occasion. Thanks to all at DGPS, Citizen 32, Verberate, Spotlight at Lancaster, Wigan Lit Fest, and all WoL regulars and irregulars, guests and friends. Wishing us all an equally excellent 2007.

Dave Morgan