Lively performance poem by Trev Teasdel with his raging guitar lashing out on the times we we live in semi surreally and energetically. Written 2006 and performed at the Writers' Cafe in Stockton endlessly and many poetry performance gigs around the country with Keith Armstong. Cover pic froma chalk...
03/19/2009
02/28/2009
12/02/2007
Welcome to the New Intro and Index Page
NEW COLLABORATION WITH JIM PRYAL - CULTURE FUZION - TREV WROTE THE WORDS (VOCALS) FOR SOME OF JIM'S DANCE TRACKS - A COUPLE OF WORKS IN PROGRESS ARE ON THE MY SPACE NOW - MORE TO COME.
A SELECTED VOXED BOOTLEG ARCHIVE OF SONGS AND POEMS BY TREV TEASDEL 1966 TO PRESENT
TREV's Album on Tunecore / I Tunes
Trev's Album on Amazon USA
TREV's Album on Tunecore / I Tunes
"Trev Teasdel is a lively underground performance poet,
songwriter, editor, poetry activist and organiser and digital archivist. One of the Godfathers of the creative writing movement in the Tees Valley and currently Co-director of the Writers Cafe in Stockton on Tees. He was co-founder of Hobo (Coventry Music Magazine and Workshop in the 70's) and Outlet (Poetry) magazine in the Tees Valley in the 80's, He co-founded the Write Around and Merlin's
Cauldron Writers and Arts festivals and has been a longstanding creative writing tutor and Development Worker for the WEA (Workers' Educational Association) and Leeds University Adult
Education. He has been Writer in Residence in various community and educational settings." Wordfringe Aberdeen
Early collaborations were with Nigel Clark of Cardinal / Mojo Morgan, Pete Waterman (Pre-fame), Johnny Adams (ex Squad) / Andy Cairns (who played lead in a band with Horace Panter long before Two Tone)
The audio ranges from non professional practice tapes - digitally cleaned up - to work produced with the band Trev and the Collective Unconcious on a Fostex X15 portastudio.New digitally produced material may follow and a New album called
SONGS FROM THE COVENTRY UNDERGROUND released soon on the Gnome Label See the video ad below.
This is a kind of on-line underground bootleg album style to archive it. Some of the songs, written back in the 70's tell part of the Coventry story popular on my Hobo Vox blog.
Gnome Label wrote -
"Songs from the Coventry Underground Is a collection of the earlier songs from poet and performer Trev Teasdel. It is very apt that he should feature at the very beginning of our Retro-Cov platform.
This is the guy that played an important role in the
development of Coventry's musical conciousness. He kept an alternative voice alive with the production of Hobo magazine that continued the trail from where the fading footprints of the Gnome could still be identified. Taking over the booking of live bands at the Arts Umbrella, he continued the policy that allowed many of the new local bands an airing as well as bringing in some excellent but not often seen names from outside of the City.
He also created one of the cornerstones of the Coventry Music scene, with the inception of the open jam sessions at the Holyhead Road Arts centre.
He left Coventry to study and has since been as active as ever, with an impressive workload of teaching new writers, running poetry magazines and venues from his Teesside home while still writing and performing his own material.
But that's not the only reason for
choosing his work for this release. He is a master craftsman of his artform. His lyrics are carefully honed with the occasional surprise. The working of the words "under the Speenhamland scheme" into the lyric of Captain Swing, written some 20 years before the arrival of Billy Bragg, is phenomenal and deserves a place in the record books.
Aside from that, his work reverberates with the angst and expectations that many living in Coventry at the that time will have felt. Often written on long walks home up the London Road after the last bus, or in teabreaks while working at the GEC. The collective lyrics paint a picture of youthful exhilaration and myradiacl inspirations with echoes of revolt. Some might suggest that they could have been written in and about any city in those times. No they could only come from one place....Our Coventry.
Trev has posted many of his lyrics and the thought and activities behind their writing on this Vox space.
17 tracks on Songs From the Coventry Underground - Shortly After Midnight / Well I Don't Know / The Phoenix / The Isolate / Mrs Stress and Strain / Just Before Dawn / A Lotta Rain is Fallin' / Throw Down My Pack / Scarf / A Teardrop in the Tees / Tonight (Loneliness Surrounds me Like the Dark of Night / Back in Winter Town / With Someone Nice Like You / Captain Swing / Shortly After Midnight (Early version) / Postcards of China / Visions of a Brighter Day.
HYPERLINKED INDEX Click on link to view the lyrics and listen to the audio
NEWLY UPLOADED
A Cottage in the Country & Song for Baby Sam (Norwich 1974) 2 audios NEW
Don't Fall into Despair (1978)
Divorce is Hard (1978)
You Take Me Out of Myself (1978)
A Cottage in the Country & Song for Baby Sam (Norwich 1974) 2 audios NEW
Don't Fall into Despair (1978)
Divorce is Hard (1978)
You Take Me Out of Myself (1978)
SONGS BY TREV AND THE COLLECTIVE UNCONCIOUS (1981 - 1986)
with Steve Gillgallon and Steve Ingledew on bass and synths and guest players)
Shortly After Midnight (Full band versions) 1985
Well I Don't Know (Full band version) Co- Written with Johnny Adams (Ex Squad) 1986
The Phoenix (Full band version) Co-written with Steve Ingledew / Steve Gillgallon 1986
The Isolate (Full band version) 1986
The Paris Affair (Music by Steve Ingledew) 1992
Jon Jon the Sniper's Son Music by Steve Ingledew / Lyrics by Trev Teasdel 1992
Postcards of China Music by steve Gillgallon and Steve Ingledew. Words Trev Teasdel 1985
Synth and Metal Folk (working Title) 1992 (Trev solo on Keyboards)
20TH CENTURY INERTIA 1975 / audio - Trev solo and keyboard version 1998
Nothing to Add 1975 / (audio 1985)
Back in Winter Town 1970 (audio 1985)
Lady of Darkness (song by Colin Walker 1983)
PERFORMANCE POEMS
Nightfall in Sorrento New - July 2007
Down Our Street with a Trance Track by The Nerve 2006
Hey Up! What's the Crack? 2006
Dance and R & B (The Surround Sound) 2005
Stereophonic London 2005
Streetbattle 1980
Borders (How Many Books?) 2005
Sin City 2005
Circe 1992 - (Music Track) Words (not included by Margaret Weir) music (included here) by Trev Teasdel
Hardrock Holiday 1982 with music track early demo by Colin Walker
Port of Love and We Talked for Ages Two poems written 1985 + Audio by Trev and Collective Unconscious
CLAWPICKING SONGS
Just Before Dawn 1979
A Teardrop in the Tees 1981 (Several audio versions) with Colin Walker and Ann Wainwright on Violin / Flute
Vision of a Brighter Day 2001
I'll Go with you Anywhere 1999
Oh Why Did Ya Leave 1966
SONGS WITH STEVE GILLGALLON on lead acoustic (audio from cassette working tapes)
Victor Jara (with Steve on bass) This one is a cover of the Adrian Mitchell / Arlo Guthrie song)
No Limit (To How Far You Can Go) 1981
A Lotta Rain is Fallin' 1981 (Originally this lyric written in 1970 had music by Pete Waterman - Pre-fame)
Throw Down My Pack 1973 (audio version with Steve 1981 and a keyboard version by me 1992)
Love Song 1982
Scarf 1981
Political Asylum 1981 (audio with Steve and a later keyboard version)
Reggae Reggae 1982 /4 (with Ian Digby on Keyboards)
Women on the Change 1981
JUST THE LYRICS (NO AUDIO YET WITH THESE)
Black Lizard Stream 1970
Screenplay 1996
A Bottleneck of the Blues 2001
The Elusive Metallic Idol 1969
Flowers of the Wayside 1970
Sepulchre City 1970
Like the Lake of Serbonia 1971
Glaik (The Illusion of the Lake) 1971
Search the Crowd 1971
I Dig Rock n Roll and Shakespeare 1971
It's a Long Hitch Hike Home 1967 / 69
One More Battered Women 1981
Runaway Train 1970
I Need Some Comfort Now 1970
My Sorrow Hid in Shame 1970
Man Supreme, the Perfect Being 1969
Wanna Come Back to My Place 2005
TREV SONGS - WITH SOLO AUDIO FROM CASSETTE on accoustic guitar or piano.
Melissa's Garden 1998
Captain Swing 1978
With Someone Nice like You 1980
Mrs Stress and Strain 1968 / revised 1978
Tonight Loneliness Surrounds Me 1982 (piano)
Ice Cream Cones 1991
I'm A Capitalist 1974 (Audio 1991)
I Think of You 1977
The Precinct of St. Mary 1969
Sonny Boy (plays them drums) 1973 (Very rough and old cassette version)
12/01/2007
A Cottage in the Country
The story behind the two songs - (A Cottage in the Country & Song for Baby Sam) Lyrics and audio are below.
Summer of 1974 I made a trip from Coventry to Norwich to visit Steve and Lyndie Brimstone. My father had come from Gt.Yarmouth so I took time out to visit my dad's family. I'd met Lyndie at Arts Umbrella in Coventry - she was studying to be an actress at Brookland's Annex drama college. We'd become close friends and shared the cottage at Shilton for about a year. Along way, while living in Birmingham summer 71 we collected Steve Brimstone (his father was the well known folk singer Derek Brimstone. Not surprisingly Steve was a great guitarist and good friend. By 1974 they had married and were living in Norwich. They rented a house in Gypsy Lane owned by Gypsy Dave (Donovan's manager). In the shed was a writing desk with Donovan Leitch written on the underside and a turtle shell mandolin. While there I explored Norwich and found an Indian Summer album in the second hand record store to my delight (a Coventry band for those who don't know).
I Steve had a copy of his father's new album Mrs Fisher which I enjoyed listening to. Mrs Fisher was my favourite, in two parts - the first in the form of a poem to Derek's clawpicking guitar and the second a song. This was one of Derek's own compositions. I wrote two songs during my week there. The first was a fingerpicking song A Cottage in the Country. Although in actual fact they divorced soon after, while there they were still considering getting a cottage in the country and being self-sufficient. Lyndie often wore long skirts and hand crocheted shawls and Steve had branch out from guitar to play mandolin and fiddle, wore a waste coat and had the feel of a country gent. I picked up on their life-style and wrote this song.
The second song was written for their son Sam who was still a baby at that time. I think it was a bit influenced by some of Woody Guthrie's kids songs. These are first rough recordings. I probably have better and more practised versions somewhere which I'll look out but these give an idea of the songs.
These are not on the new album.
A Cottage in the Country
c.Trev Teasdel - Norwich 1974
I see you as an old lady
Sat serenely in your chair
The knitting is in your hand.
In the cradle rocks the bairn.
Though you are still touched by youth
All about you is so slow.
Just as if an old lady
And a rustic quaint.
Chorus
And Oh so slow the river flows
So (oh) slow - Oh...........
Your husband too like a country gent
with his waist coat, pipe and stick.
His head bowed down in a book
as a lazy clock, it does tick.
He with his old mandolin
and expensive violin
Harmonising with the breeze
Like a slow motion sneeze.
Chorus
And oh so slow the river flows
So oh slow oh....
Scrub a dub dub in an old wooden tub
Chop up the tree for fire wood.
Chop up the tree for me,
Chop up the tree for warmth and love.
Your hand tills the land
for food and for sale.
There's a goat in your garden
that gives milk in a pail.
An old wishing well and a chemical loo
A little wayout cottage just suits you.
Brown rice and veg and unleavened bread
You believe you are what you are fed.
Always on the sill lie apple pies
Away with the ring the Jackdaw flies.
A few miles away in a smoky old town
Hard to recall how time merry-goes-round
Outside in the lane, wrapped up in your shawl
Fruit and veg on sale on your stall.
Chorus
And oh so slow that river flows
So oh slow oh
It's strange when you think that not long away
The bairn at your bosom will be making his way
Soon to be at the stage we are now
and we - the older generation.
Chorus
And oh so slow that river flows
So oh slow oh
SONG FOR BABY SAM
c. by Trev Teasdel Norwich 1974
Hello Sam, Eyes wide and beaming,
Smile that is gleaming - down.
Like a sun upon high
You are pie from the sky.
Give a sad little sigh
Sad little Sam - Smile, don't cry.
Hello Sam - face tender and chubby
Hands wet and grubby - yeah.
And "What's that mess on the floor?"
And "And mind your hand in the door"
And "What? Oh you want some more?"
Oh Sam, smile don't snore!
Bridge
With your mother so lovin' and all
You stand tall although you're so small
Hey Sam - chin up and smile -
Each day is a new toy to be explored
And Oh Growing up it takes such a while.
Oh Sam - Please don't look so bored.
Hello Sam - You're Daddy works hard
Hold you in high regard.
And "Oh don't you pull my hair!"
And "Oh, the world is so unfair"
but let's give a little sigh
And Sam - smile don't swear.
Back to the bridge..and finish.
I see you as an old lady
Sat serenely in your chair
The knitting is in your hand.
In the cradle rocks the bairn.
Though you are still touched by youth
All about you is so slow.
Just as if an old lady
And a rustic quaint.
Chorus
And Oh so slow the river flows
So (oh) slow - Oh...........
Your husband too like a country gent
with his waist coat, pipe and stick.
His head bowed down in a book
as a lazy clock, it does tick.
He with his old mandolin
and expensive violin
Harmonising with the breeze
Like a slow motion sneeze.
Chorus
And oh so slow the river flows
So oh slow oh....
Scrub a dub dub in an old wooden tub
Chop up the tree for fire wood.
Chop up the tree for me,
Chop up the tree for warmth and love.
Your hand tills the land
for food and for sale.
There's a goat in your garden
that gives milk in a pail.
An old wishing well and a chemical loo
A little wayout cottage just suits you.
Brown rice and veg and unleavened bread
You believe you are what you are fed.
Always on the sill lie apple pies
Away with the ring the Jackdaw flies.
A few miles away in a smoky old town
Hard to recall how time merry-goes-round
Outside in the lane, wrapped up in your shawl
Fruit and veg on sale on your stall.
Chorus
And oh so slow that river flows
So oh slow oh
It's strange when you think that not long away
The bairn at your bosom will be making his way
Soon to be at the stage we are now
and we - the older generation.
Chorus
And oh so slow that river flows
So oh slow oh
SONG FOR BABY SAM
c. by Trev Teasdel Norwich 1974
Hello Sam, Eyes wide and beaming,
Smile that is gleaming - down.
Like a sun upon high
You are pie from the sky.
Give a sad little sigh
Sad little Sam - Smile, don't cry.
Hello Sam - face tender and chubby
Hands wet and grubby - yeah.
And "What's that mess on the floor?"
And "And mind your hand in the door"
And "What? Oh you want some more?"
Oh Sam, smile don't snore!
Bridge
With your mother so lovin' and all
You stand tall although you're so small
Hey Sam - chin up and smile -
Each day is a new toy to be explored
And Oh Growing up it takes such a while.
Oh Sam - Please don't look so bored.
Hello Sam - You're Daddy works hard
Hold you in high regard.
And "Oh don't you pull my hair!"
And "Oh, the world is so unfair"
but let's give a little sigh
And Sam - smile don't swear.
Back to the bridge..and finish.
10/30/2007
Don't Fall into Despair
I wrote this song in 1978 while working emptying the bins at J & J Cash's (the famous name-tape and woven picture textile firm) doing my A' levels at night class. It was written for a friend going through divorce as with several others during the course of the year.
Inspiration also from a collection of poems by Coventry's Edith Wilkinson called Bright Flame which her daughters had published posthumously. I'd found it a Coventry bookshop and read it in the Golden Cross a few years before one poem was a metaphor about the Three Spires of Coventry giving comfort, I think written during the war and some of the poems very inspiration, written for her daughters -
"tackle anything that comes
Keep all those fears at bay
say to fate "you will not be, first you must to grips with me"
show life what you're made of..."
Edith Wilkinson - Keep Trying - from Bright Flame - Coventry 1973 (ish)
I sent the poem to my friend and this got me started on the song.
Don't Fall Into Despair
by Trev Teasdel 1978 Coventry.
I know that you feel like crying, feel like dying, can't stop sighing
I see that you're frowning, feel you're drowning,
A fool - just clowning around.
I know that you've got a problem and it's got you licked
and your affairs are so cross woven, they're hard to unpick
but don't sink into despair
Cos there ain't no answer there
Once it gets you in it's snare
You're gonna be hard to repair.
Bridge 1
Don't be defeated
Don't let yourself get mistreated
Show some courage - some character
Kick back to win, don't just give in
Say to hardship "you'll have a hard time with me"
I know you gotta problem and it seems too deep, difficult and involved
And you've given up thinking that it can ever be solved
It's been a problem for too long, it's second nature.
Bridge 2
But get up
Umm get out,
Shake your will-power, shake it all about
Turn the tables, switch the labels
Turn your problems inside out.
I know that feel like crying, feel like dying, can't stop sighing.
I see that you're frowning, feel you're drowning, a fool just clowning around.
Divorce is Hard
This again was written in Coventry 1978 when several friends who had married early were splitting up - As usual it's a writing draft put down on cassette rather than a professional recording, but clean up on the computer. The lyric got re-written several times after the recording was made but never settled beofre being put in a draw so there may be extra verses here.
DIVORCE IS HARD
by Trev Teasdel - Coventry 1978
The rain on the window taps out a tune
Night time and sleep cannot come too soon
Nothing means anything when there's nobody there
No one to care.
Wasting my time in my lonely armchair
There's nobody there, no one to care.
Out in the morning to the factory gate
They can sack me if they like
I don't care if I'm late
There's plenty to do but I can't concentrate
I can't concentrate, I can't concentrate
Never bothered to wash and my clothes in a state,
My clothes in a sate, my mind's in a state
Chorus
And all that I know, all that I know
Is that going through divorce is so hard
Going through divorce is so hard.
I'm so cold and all alone
No one to ring me on the telephone..
You think of the kids that maybe you miss
or the face and lips that once you did kiss
Life had a purpose, a plan and an aim
but now all those plans have gotten way lain
They've gotten way lain, they've gotten way lain.
Chorus
Come back come back you cry with your heart
but you know that love has been lost in the dark
Tears warm your cheeks like love's lost caress
and you know that you've got to pick yourself up
out of this mess.
The lies and the anger linger like pain
It's hard to believe those lips could have caused you such pain
and it all seems insane, and it's all just a game
as you sit there in bits thinking life is the shits
Is there a God up there?, there's nobody there
sat on your own thinking nobody cares
Clutching a photo in the courts of despair.
Chorus
You Take Me Outta Myself
You Take Me Outta Myself
Written and performed by Trev Teasdel - Coventry 1978
If I pick up my pen when I feel the need
You know over paper, my feelings will bleed
Arranging my pain in patterns on paper
Releasing the pressure that burns like a taper.
Chorus
You take me outta myself
You improve my health
And just for that while
You suprise my lips with a smile
Just for a little while
You take me outta myself
You take me, take me outta myself
You take me, take me outta myself.
You help me with your words and ear
You ease my fear,
with loving eys you dry all my tears,
feeling the cool and the calm of someone near
I need you here - OO I need you here.
Chorus...
My laughter was locked up in a safe
You found the combination instantly
You're not the kind to take the world by storm
You give your talents like a creeping dawn.
>.......................
Song Story.
A close and long time friend of mine was going through divorce. She was in a bit of a state - her confidence and self esteem gone, she lost a lot weight and was floundering. I was her listening ear and support for a while until she got back on track. Something she said about me or my support gave me the idea for this song written in Coventry in 1978
The audio is home recording on cassette - at the ' put it down on tape stage' rather than a fully developed and arranged studio recording. I cleaned off the tape hiss and enhanced the sound as best as I could with Magix Audio Cleaning lab on the computer.
10/20/2007
Coventry Days - The New Album
It could be true - soon to be released - new year time I think - an album of songs written in the spell of youth back in Coventry - with a bootleg feel on the new Gnome Label. New material is forthcoming but these songs tell a story of a time and a place and the struggle of a musical city called Coventry where the songs were forged by someone who was part of the scene. Digitally remixed from old cassettes of various qualities it brings the downhome feel to the market place and marks a new era where the music world is turned upside down once again.
There are three initial releases on the Gnome Label with a promise of new innovative acts to come during the year. An exciting time and the result of the Coventry interactions here on Vox. A label based on international co-operation, with a deep concern for the environment, peace, integrity and the artist. Music that means something is not rooted in passing fads and fashions and market trends. There is a vast demand out there for music
It's not that all the music from Gnome will be focussed on those concerns but it's as much the way of doing it that is important and yes there will be music just to listen to but also to dance to and listen to and a few breaking new ground, pushing the bounderies. Without the experimenters nothing changes or evolves. Music can still be fun, sexy, exciting but integrity is the keynote and concern for people and the world regardless of colour, creed, sex etc. These are exciting times and the Gnome Label are making an important statement here and showing leadership. They have my applause. Evolve the ethos people!
NIGHTFALL IN SORRENTO - The Book
Trev's New Book - Nightfall in Sorrento - On sale soon - £3.50p from Glass Orange Publications (a site with paypal will be available soon). Featuring Trev's recent Performance Poetry and others. Trev has had many poems in international magazines including Gypsy (alongside the likes of Henry Miller), Has toured with Jingling Geordie Keith Armstrong and published two previous collections The Escaped Poet and Poet Reprobate. Trev is a lively performance poet with an "urban rich, youthful, imagistic cutting-edge diction and always with something worth saying"
"some great stuff in there, it makes you think about your own situations, and that I like."
Pete Chambers ( Author of Godiva Rocks & The Two Tone Trail)
"Good stuff, especially 'Borders' and 'Down Our Street'. But isn't it time you submitted a full-length MS to Mudfog or Ek Zuban ? " Dr Andy Croft (Author / Poet and Co-founder of Mudfog and Smokestack publications)
"Trevor’s work
is suited to his fast delivery that prompted ODi to call him “The 50
Cent of Stockton”.
Ian - Writers' Cafe Reviewer
07/25/2007
Nightfall in Sorrento
Trance music to this by Coventry drummer and producer Jim Pryal - on his Culture Fuzion My Space
Nightfall in Sorrento
Performance poem by Trev Teasdel July 2007
Sorrento -
The Communion of the urban puzzle
Where elegance is attitude
The fashion club of the urban groove
eco-driven
citizens.
In slender tones
of mobile silence
Nocturnal spiders
In basement bars
Live the lust
Of the selfish-gene
In Sorrento
.
Spin-doctored money blenders
With hidden agendas
Crammed with fruit
In the cave of clones
Lie low
in Sorrento
In the wah wah cadence
Of Sorrento radiance,
re-mortgaged estate Agents
with Vintage Bentleys
sway in the breeze
to nightfall’s synthful,
sassy jazz
Glow-worm leprechauns
In dust-down
Denim delights
Ageless
And jazz-hot.
Hide behind enemy-lines
In Sorrento.
Nightfall in sorrento
The civil disobedience
Of a New Era
The world in one city
Refuelled and
air-cooled -
Adidas pre-Raphaelites
On a full-english
cutting edge
Predicting a riot in
The chic -chill-out
Of a power-pop city.
The Revlon
Accurist
With pipe smoking planes
In his own back yard
Sails his Skintight riverboat
In the
shimmering waters of Sorrento
.
Escaping
The chaos of
A goose-pimpled
Colditz
With his third wife
escape plan
from the regional assembly
Of the Cantebury tales
Lost in Sorrento .
Midsummer night Dream-time
Astro-bars in Sorrento
Robert Frost fashion-brands
Follow the universe
less travelled by
.
She was a trainee with a code name
Sleeping with the saints in Sorrento
Dark textured
With age defining make-up
The full
Glamour and scandal
On DVD
Eagerly awaited
The king of contenders
Hot toasted and out to sea
On another public art project.
Dizzy in the city with
Calvin Klein moth-repellent
Paying lip-service to high drama
In the urban puzzle
She’s like art in unexpected places
Soft-spoken
Sky diving
Sun-fresh
Sensitive
Sexy, suave
Stealing the show
On the soft silken routes of Sorrento
On the soft silken routes of Sorrento.
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