Station Identification (1983 -1985) was a second magazine created by Ann Wainwright and published in Norton on Tees to contain more avant Garde then was suitable for Poetic Licence. The magazine contained poetry, articles, graphics, reviews and stories.
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May 2010
05/27/2010
Poetic Licence (1982) (Teesside's first Poetry Mag since the 19thC)
pdf's of the magazines and flyers to come to this.
Poetic Licence was the first Teesside poetry magazine (as far as I know) since George Markham Tweddell produced the Yorkshire Miscellany and Cleveland Tractates in the 19thC.
It was the brainchild of Ann Wainwright and Pamela Hutson. Ann Wainwright was also a student at Teesside poly on the Humanities degree course with Trev Teasdel. Ann noticed there was a need for a local poetry outlet and Pamela had come back from Sheffield University with magazines produced there. The two decided to remedy the situation and Poetic Licence was born.
The first issue had local poems in which came as a result of press and radio coverage and some from Trev Teasdel's poly group The Multi Media Society. Poetic Licence caused a great deal of excitement on Teesside and at Teesside Poly and was an instant success.
Competitions
The magazine came out bi monthly and had a competition in each issue,judged by poet John Saunders who was then
head of the Leeds University Adult Education Centre (Harrow Rd.) in Middlesbrough and Radio Cleveland's Housecall Presenter Mike Hollingworth awarded book tokens as prizes and read out the winning poems. Radio Tees also used to read out the winning poems as can be heard on audio from one of the broadcasts.
The A5 size booklet carried a few ads and informations but mainly poems with illustrations from BG and a number of other local people. The magazine was printed on duplicator at Teesside Poly Student Union at first and sold for 50p
Ann Wainwright's ground work with Poetic Licence was an important step in the development of the Cleveland Creative Writing Movement in many ways.
Small Press Network
After the first few issues, Ann (who continued to run the magazine after Pamela left to join Voice of the North), widened the scope of Poetic Licence to include contributions from all over the country alongside local ones. This was facilitated by join the Small Press Network. Poetic Licence would get reviews in magazines all over the country and Ann produced a digester insert reviewing small press magazine and publications
which enabled local poets to get their work to a wider audience. The networking was particularly effective.
Poetic Licence Collective - Publications
Soon Poetic Licence was producing its own anthologies and chapbooks - the Open Heart Book (1983) contained Love Poetry and chapbooks - examples of which will be included in the pdf files when I've linked them.
Asian Poets
In the late 80's and early 90's the Teesside Writing movement saw developments with local Urdu writers with an Asian Writer in Residence, Cleveland Review magazine run by Khadim Hussain and regular Mushira's (or Urdu Poetry Symposium) often with non Urdu writers joining in. However back in 1982, Ann Wainwright linked up with Radio Cleveland's Asian presenter Ashi to try and get some Asian contributions for Poetic Licence.
Editorial Policy
The Editorial policy was Open Access in the tradition of the small presses and was important to the development of
writing on Teesside which had been under encouraged and under developed.
Developments from Poetic Licence
- Ann began a second magazine in 1983 called Station Identification (blogged about separately) a little more avant Garde and designed to cater for material that wouldn't be suitable for Poetic Licence.
- Ann initiated, with Colin Walker and Trev Teasdel - The Castalians - a mixed media poetry event at the Dovecot Arts Centre (later called the New Poetry Scene). This brought together many of the people who would take the work forward over the rest of the decade.
Poetic Licence folded toward the end of 1985 after Ann moved to Hull. Outlet followed in autumn 1986. Poetic Licence was briefly revived as a broadsheet in the early 90's for one issue and and a few poetry cards, but Ann has been involved in various literary projects in the area since - including the Merlin Cauldron Arts Festival 1997 and The Writers Cafe in Stockton 2006 - 2008 with Trev Teasdel.
Multi-Media Society - Teesside Poly
The Multi-Media Society was formed in autumn 1981 by Trev Teasdel, Dave Wood and Amelia Ward as a
The idea came from Trev who had run similar events in Coventry in the mid 70's before the Two Tone put Coventry on the map. As explained in the previous post on the Humanities Society, the idea was discussed with singer songwriter Dave Wood (a link to his song site) at Humanities Society gig. Trev and Dave mooted the idea on the Student Union Ents committee, headed by songwriter Jeff Lawson and Amelia Ward (interested in developing a drama group) came in with us.
The mainstay of the society was a regular mixed media event held at the Lord Wellington pub, Albert Rd. Middlesbrough or in the Student Union building. This was supported by a number of creative workshops - Drama - led by Amelia (and later Fiona Richards) and Poetry and Music workshop led by Trev Teasdel and Dave Wood. Additionally the Multi Media ran mini bus trips to gigs such as to see the Blues Band at Durham University or John Martyn at Newcastle Town Hall etc.
MULTI MEDIA GIGS
These ran on a regular basis with a mix of student / local performance poetry / singer songwriters / street theatre or drama shorts and guests. Some of the guests included Middlesbrough blues and ragtime guitarist and songwriter Eddie Walker / Saltburn's Ying Tong John / Bradford performance poet Little Brother and more.
DRAMA WORKSHOP
Amelia Ward initiated the drama workshop,involved the group in writing and performing a street theatre / mumming play for the Poly's involvement in the Youth Unemployment Campaign, along with some of the musicians and poets in Cleveland Centre. In 1983/4 a big project via Fiona Richards was the production of Godspell at Middlesbrough Little Theatre, again involving some of the musicians. Often they would write and perform something for the multi media gigs.
POETRY AND MUSIC WORKSHOP
Run by Trev Teasdel and Dave Wood. This was an opportunity for students to try out songs or poems and for musicians and poets to get together and work out collaborations for the multi media gigs. Sometimes the two workshops would collaborate on a project for specific events.
OFFSHOOTS- The Mulit-Media Society
Multi Media Band (aka The Euclidean Mushroom Band
This band formed around singer songwriter Dave Wood with Ade O'Tool on vocals and guitar, Ted Carron on vocals / Keys and Harmonica and Geraldine Wade on Violin and backing vocals. The band did a mix of original songs by Dave, Ade and Ted and some covers such as Knocking on Heaven's door. In addition to songs, Dave Wood composed some music to back Trev Teasdel's extended anti poem / extravaganza Cannon Hill Park which Trev performed with the band, along with slides. The band did a mini tour between study commitments taking in Sheffield Art College, Middlesbrough Town Hall Crypt supporting the Virgin band Here and Now / New Model Army / Joolz and Little Brother and Wild Willy Beckett. They also played Teesside Poly / The Empire pub Middlesbrough / Dovecot Arts Centre in Stockton. There is quite a bit of audio to come to this. Meanwhile the audio can be found here on the Writers Cafe Site http://writerscafe.vox.com/library/post/the-euclidean-mushroom-band.html and a video below Blow Wind Blow - written by Dave Wood and performed by the Multi Media Band aka (Euclidean Mushroom band)
Poetic Licence
Poetic Licence was a Teesside poetry magazine started by fellow student Ann Wainwright and her friend Pam Hutson. This will be blogged about in a separate post but through Trev, poet members of the Multi Media Society contributed to Poetic Licence.
The Castalians / New Poetry Scene
Again this will be blogged about in a separate post but The Castalians was a mixed media poetry performance venue that came out of discussions between Trev Teasdel, Ann Wainwright and Colin Wlaker. Trev wanted to take the Multi Media idea out of the Poly area and Ann wanted a venue for contributors to Poetic Licence to perform. The Castalians (Later called The New Poetry Scene) opened in 1982 at the Dovecot Arts Centre and poets and musicians took part in some of the early events and Trev took a leading role in 1984,
Poly Writers Workshop (later called - Middlesbrough Writers Workshop)
By 1983 some of the poets wanted to form a poetry workshop group beyond the poetry and music one. In a link up with The poly English lecturer - John Carthew and the new Dovecot Arts Centre writer in Residence Bob Pegg (of the folklore band Mr Fox), a poly writers workshop was formed. The group continued (as is blogged about elsewhere on here) and in 1986, with a new student intake, poet Richard Briddon took charge of the group. By 1989 Trevor and associates were establishing the first Write Around festival and on a visit to the poly, noticed the group was still going and led by Richard. Richard got involved in Write Around and Outlet via Trev and Richard went on to form Paranoia Press and much more that will related elsewhere in this history. At the same time Bob Beagrie came to one of Trevor's Creative writing classes.Trev helped him get on a degree course and involved him in Outlet and Write Around. Bob returned to Teesside inthe 90's as a literature development worker and now runs the MA in Creative Writing Course and much else at Teesside University. So this early Poly work laid much of the ground work for what was to develop.
Poetry Chapbooks - John Quinn and Trev Teasdel
In 1983 both Trev and John, both performance poets, wanted to produce their own chapbooks of poetry.Trev got
involved with the Darlington Media Group which had Typesetting, photographic and layout resources. Trevor had attended a photographic workshop there and was using the resources for the layouts of Voice of the North magazine (see the post on this). Trev helped Multi Media poet John Quinn produced two booklets there as well as his own book The Escaped Poet. John Quinn (a Teesside student from the Lake District) was involved with Multi Media society and writers group and a regular performer at the Castalians.
More flyers and information to come via the PDF attachment (coming soon).
Humanities Society - Teesside Poly 1980 - 83
(AUDIO AND ATTACHMENTS TO COME TO THIS POST)
The Humanities Society was pre-existing Poly society for those on the BA Humanities course at Teesside Poly, co-ordinated at the time by Pauline Thompson and supported by some of the staff. It's relevance here is that it was the first organisation through which literary activist Trev Teasdel organised his first event on Teesside and which sparked a development that would continue outwards into the wider community.
Pauline assigned Trevor as a first year representative in 1980 when he arrived on Teesside as an undergraduate and later as Secretary. The Humanities organised educational trips for students for example the 1980 residential trip to Stratford to see a series of Shakespeare plays and social events and lectures / discussions.
Relevant here are several mixed media and spoken word events Trevor organised for the Humanities society. Trevor had previously run a music fanzine Hobo in Coventry and the Hobo Workshop in the mid 70's at the Holyhead Youth Centre. These mixed media gigs, with bands, singer songwriters and poets were aimed at musicians and poets who were just starting off, finding it hard to get gigs etc. In 1980 when Trevor arrived on Teesside many of the musicians that had started off or had early gigs at the Hobo Workshop were beginning to make it and some were in charts after Two Tone had broken through. The importance of providing first step venues and encouraging new musical and literary talent was becoming evident therefore.
On Tuesday 24th March 1981 upstairs at the Empire pub (now the Tavern) on Linthorpe Rd. Middlesbrough
Trev launched the Humpoesic Happening. Named after a word he put together for a competition to find a word that described what The Scaffold did -ie Humour Music and Poetry. The idea was never sent but he used it for various mixed media events.
The event involved a mix of local or student performance poetry and music. The main event was the local band Partners In Crime - fronted by fellow student Russ Teasdale whose other band Moulin Rouge had won the Battle of the Bands that year with EMF (a Coventry Ska band Trev knew and had written for) coming second.
Trev had invited another fellow student - Dave Wood (a link to Dave website and songs)- a singer songwriter
who, along with Trev, was on the Student Union Ents committee and were involved with the Poly Folk club at the Lord Welling pub in Middlesbrough. After Dave had played, Trev told him of the idea he had for developing this into a regular event and running creative workshops towards the performances. They decided to progress the idea through the Student Union, forming a Multi Media Society and this was launched in autumn 1981. The Multi Media Society is discussed further in a separate post.
Meanwhile Trev continued to be involved with the Humanities Society and ran an annual mixed media event for them in addition to the regular Multi Media ones. In March 1982 he organised the second event for the Humanities Society. This time it had a folk emphasis with Alistair Russell - the Scottish folk singer associated with the Ossian and the Battlefield Bands as well as being a fine solo artists. Alistair was living in Middlesbrough at the time. The event was supported by poets and musicians from the Multi Media Society including Dave Wood whold played a solo spot and backed Trev on an extended poem. Other singers included Kay Castle,Paul O'Neill, Colin Scarf and Mike Campbell. The gig was advertised on Radio Cleveland's Folk Programme presented by Stuart McFarland (the audio will be attached here soon).
In 1983 the Humanities event included some street theatre from the Multi Media Society and a playlet written by Dave Wood and a performance by the Multi Media Band.
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