Colin Shaddick: I was the 'Writer-in-Residence' at the Appledore Book Festival in 2009. I also performed at the Poetry and Music Fringe Event too. The Appledore Book Festival is one of the most respected, and fastest growing literary festivals in the country. Don't miss it next time!
The Festival ran from September 26th - October 4th.
For more information on this top event, please go to:
www.appledorebookfestival.co.uk
Colin Shaddick. North Devon's "splendidly eccentric poet", is being promoted by 'The Eccentric Club'. London:
"Colin Shaddick's poetry is a remarkable example of this talented author's courage to bare his soul to a complete stranger, something only a few would dare to do these days in the English poetry, where the form and the style so often become victims to fashionable concepts and hot, much talked about, news-items with a life-span of a fly. Colin, following in the footsteps of the ancient poets, blind-foldedly, invites his readers to join an honest and engaging conversation with him, a human, fascinated with the world around him, with his own life and body, just like a newborn child but with a gift of poetic expression. He is at ease with his words and is not pre-occupied with what effect they may have on his readers. Such a sincerity and absence of fear attract todays readers seeking purity and strength of the creative expression. You can like more or less his various poems, but you can't avoid falling in love with his soul by the time you finish reading his book and laughing at his kind and charming drawings."
http://www.eccentricclub.co.uk/recommended-read.php
* "Being eccentric these days is considered somewhat old-fashioned, expensive, damaging to ones reputation and prospects and generally not popular within the society apart from some artistic circles where it is still recognised for its potential of original and creative thinking, variety of talents and skills granted by the nature and God himself as well as some sparks of ingenuity ... or pure genius (do we need to be shy of it?!)" * The Eccentric Club: 'An Ode to British Eccentricity'.
The Eccentric Club once was one of the most important institutions of the British society. Its name is a long established and reputable brand, its members were amongst those who had shaped the British culture into what it is now, its history is inseparable with that of Britain itself...
Founded a number of times by seemingly unrelated and socially different groups of people, for centuries it served as a meeting point to many great and original minds, pioneers of thought in artistic, literary, theatrical, scientific, legal and political circles, providing an amicable environment for their recreational and creative pastime as well as a testing ground for the novel and controversial theories and approaches to the issues equally important to the British society and the entire mankind.
Colin Shaddick's 'Stuckist' Poetry.
Stuckist poetry is not about being 'stuck', it's all about 'honesty'and 'real values'; not 'hype and pretentiousness'.
"Stuckists and their art have been called many things in the press and by observers. A quick cull reveals that we are neo-conservative, revolutionary, reactionary, progressive, traditional, anti-establishment, old-fashioned, new, obvious, controversial, cliched, original, a backlash, radical, pop, expressionist, outsider, conceptual, anti-conceptual, craftsmen, daubers, trained, crude, precise, unfinished, thought-provoking, guache, witty, naive, deep, a joke, serious, contrived, authentic, insensitive, heartfelt, peurile, high-flown, clumsy, genuine, grotesque, important, bad and great.
These things may well be in Stuckism, but none of them is Stuckism. The contradictions that result from attempting to impose conventional definitions are inevitable, because the nature of Stuckism is to contain these opposites and integrate them. There's a very useful word which can be accurately applied to the nature of Stuckism, but it hasn't quite sunk in yet (although it is being 'tracked' by the OED so hopefully people will believe it sooner or later). It is 'Stuckist'." *
* Taken from: 'A Stuckist On Stuckism' by Charles Thomson.
Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance ... poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music - Ezra Pound.
My very good friend and mentor, Ken Sprague: print-maker, posterman, painter, cartoonist, muralist, banner maker, psychodrama teacher and art teacher, well known throughout the political cartoon world as The Peoples Artist, once said to me:
‘Not that the Artist is a special kind of [person], but that every [person] who is not a mere idler or parasite, is necessarily some special kind of artist.’
Ken was a great inspiration to me and it’s because of his encouragement and support, that I began to write and draw.
A quote by ‘Filthy Pedro’, AFUK, sums up my kind of work very well:
‘... a re-discovery of folk ethics and a reaction against the rigid genre that folk became in the 60s. It’s about using whatever you want to tell everyday stories, valuing humour over sorrow, storytelling over technique, and personality over polish.’
I very often mix poetry and song during my act. This strand of my work usually comments on the potentially embarrassing areas of life the majority of people really want to keep to themselves. But of course, these subjects can be very funny too!
BBC Radio 4 contacted me and asked if I’d be interviewed for their programme,
Ramblings, with Clare Balding. This is what the press had to say about me:
‘... an exquisite portrait of an eccentric slice of British life.’ Radio Times
‘ ... a very tall master of the haiku.’ The Daily Telegraph
‘... a bullet-headed, six-foot five-inch haiku poet.’ The Observer Magazine
‘... an ogre of a man whose thuggish appearance hides the fact that he is a haiku poet of uncommon sensitivity.’ The Guardian
‘... six foot five and built like a rugby player ... uses economical words.’
The Sunday Telegraph
‘... a six-foot five-inch, 18-and-a-half stone, shaven-headed man who keeps being mistaken for a bouncer ... is a haiku poet ... eccentric.’ The Mail On Sunday
‘... finds inspiration in an abandoned truck, its camouflage enhanced by black seaweed... he had the requisite knack of saying less and meaning more.’ The Guardian Friday/G2
‘... a shaven-headed tower of a man (again, this being a radio programme, we have to take the physical dimensions on trust) who turns out to be a gentle poet.’
The Times Online
'... Colin's gentle, thoughtful haiku poems focused on nature and, true to the genre, eschewed fancy language for short, sharp effects...' The Scotsman
'... poetry and music is the way for this gentle giant.' North Devon Journal
'Colin is a world class poet and performer.' Ron Whitehead. Kentucky poet
Here’s how it all started: I first became involved with the jazz/poetry scene in London in the mid to late 60’s. It was a great scene then and luckily enough, poetry has made a huge resurgence in the last few years. It’s great to get two bites of a cherry in one lifetime!
I began writing haiku in the 70’s after reading Jack Kerouac’s, The Dharma Bums. It looked so damned easy! I’m still trying to write a good one!
I am also an illustrator/cartoonist.