listen up north!

Striking Stories from The Easington Writers

After a short break for the festive season and taking time to publicise Celia - The Film, I'm looking forward to bringing you some great spoken word over the next 12 months. 
I am pleased to report that Celia is up to 729 views and rising but we still need lots more interest to attract that all important sponsorship to make the 5 more episodes waiting in the wings.  Please don't forget to share the link with everyone you can: http://www.youtube.com/listenupnorth 

Today I bring you 2 very different short stories from the The Easington Writers:

 

Dreamer by Chris Robinson
As Sandra makes her way home from night shift, she dreams of stardom.  But she is soon back on planet earth when she finds that her is mother missing...

Pit Strike 1984-1985 by Mary Nightingale Bell
A moving account of a bitter and divisive strike from Mary, Easington born & bred.  Very relevant with the recent release of The Iron Lady film

Staying with the mining theme,  16 January 2012 sees the 150th Anniversary of the Hartley Pit Disaster and the death of 204 men and boys. A book has been compiled by Tyneside poet Keith Armstrong of Northern Voices Community Projects, who is also a regular on listenupnorth.com.  Contributors to this book, including myself, will be reading out their work at a special launch event at The North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, Newcastle (next to the Lit & Phil) on Thursday 26th January 2012 starting from 5.30pm for coffee then a talk at 6pm by Norman Jackson & at 7pm readings from the book and music.  All welcome.

 

Season’s Greetings

Hi Listenupnortherners!
A quick newsletter to say a big thank you to everyone for supporting listenupnorth.com through its first year.  Please continue to spread the word!
Instead of new content I'm going to signpost you to explore the site and perhaps revisit some of your favourites.  Make yourself a little oasis over the festive season: feet up, glass of wine to hand, large tin of Quality Street and listen up!  And if you haven't already, please catch my webdrama: Celia - The Film

 

 

Quicklinks to:

Drama
Short stories
Poetry
Book extracts
Interviews

And here is Celia - The Film from listenupnorth.com

And don't forget if you fancy a ghost story Dolly's House radio drama is available to buy at 69p per episode:

Wishing you a Happy Christmas & all the best for 2012
Happy listening!
Rachel

Words of Wisdom

A few weekends ago, The Newcastle Winter Book Festival 2011 took place in various locations around the City. A celebration of all things literary, both North East and further afield, it attracted writers of great calibre.  listenupnorth.com was thrilled to interview and record 3 of these writers: MC Beaton, Ann Cleeves and David Almond.  This took place in a small room at the magnificent Newcastle City Library.

Despite being giants of the literary world and continually being interviewed and asked all kinds of questions; I found the authors to be very gracious and generous each giving a fascinating insight into their outlook and work.
A great piece of advice from David Almond: 'Write your own story in your own way'.

 

Moving to different genre, Celia - The Trailer was released a short while ago and I am pleased to report that Celia - The Film is now available to watch either though listenupnorth.com or directly through YouTube.  I also hope to show it at film clubs in local village halls and to do that the County Council have had to give it a special classification (15) so that it can be shown in public. 
Celia has her own Twitter feed @Celias_thoughts and Facebook page Celia@listenupnorth.com so please follow her.
Please also spread the Celia - The Film link to as many people as possible as I need to create interest to attract sponsorship for this and further episodes of the webdrama.  Share buttons are available on the listenupnorth.com and YouTube pages.

Quicklinks
About the Newcastle Winter Book Festival

An interview with M C Beaton
A renowned author whose best selling crime fiction includes the Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin books.

 

An interview with Ann Cleeves
An award winning crime writer, author of the recently televised Vera series.

 

An interview with  David Almond
Award winning Children's writer, his first novel Skellig was a best seller and his latest book The True Tale of The Monster Billy Dean is aimed at adults & older children.

 

Celia - The Film written by Rachel Cochrane
One Woman's dilemma - hot flush or hot date?

 

 

Happy listening and happy viewing!
Recommend this page to your friend(s).

listenupnorth.com - Shakespeare & Chess!

listenupnorth.com - Shakespeare & Chess!.

listenupnorth.com - Newletter Two November 2011

listenupnorth.com - Newletter Two November 2011.

Listenupnorth.com Newsletter Two November 2011

Hi listenupnortherners

I have been very privileged to learn about Gordon MacPherson's life (1928-1999), through his daughter Heather, son Gordon and the book Fight to the Finish (Northern Voices Community Projects).  Gordon MacPherson of Easington Colliery was a miner in the Durham coalfield and a family man who took time to write down his memories, musings and comments on life.  Together with Heather's account of her father's life, Gordon's words have unwittingly provided us with a social history of a working class man in the 20th century.

In preparing the recording of extracts from Fight to the Finish, read by his children Heather and Gordon  for listenupnorth.com, I hope that I have played a part in preserving Gordon MacPherson's story, something which I should like to share with you:

Quicklink
Fight to the Finish (extracts) by the late Gordon MacPherson

Thank you to Seaham Safety Services Ltd for sponsoring this recording.

I am looking forward to next weekend (24 - 27 Nov 11) when the Newcastle Winter Book Festival will be taking place once again.  There's a great programme with writers of all genres and workshops - something to interest everybody.  I am doubly excited as I have been asked to interview and record some of the visiting authors.  Just who these will be is top secret until confirmed but the recordings will be available shortly.

I am also really excited (and just a bit nervous) that listenupnorth.com's  photodrama Couple is being performed live tonight at  the new Newbiggin Maritime Centre (definitely worth a visit) as part of an evening of local culture.  I have every confidence in Ann Ridley and Tony Jackson doing a great performance - fingers crossed for sound effects coming at the right time!

Also being performed will be Newbiggin Saturday, a poem by Judy Walker who has previously recorded her short story Still the Same Old Katharine for listenupnorth.com

Happy listening!
Rachel

listenupnorth.com - Newletter Three September 2011

listenupnorth.com - Newletter Three September 2011.
Listen to these evocative poems by Geoff Holland on The Cheviot Hills, Northumberland.
You can subscribe to our newsletter and be the first to learn of our new spoken word content

listenupnorth.com - Video - 55 seconds

listenupnorth.com - Video - 55 seconds. A beautifully crafted short doc film by friend and mentor Jan Cawood about Saltburn Cliff Lift last Summer.

listenupnorth.com - Poetry

listenupnorth.com - Poetry.
Listen to some great new poems from NE poets Degna Stone & Cicely Chetwood
Free to listen online or download/
Dolly's House - a supernatural thriller by Rachel Cochrane coming soon

Serendipity

Sometimes a chance conversation or meeting can yield far more than the most time consuming strategic planning.  So it was with Couple, the very first audiodrama that I recorded as a pilot for my spoken word website listenupnorth.com.  The drama is a conversation based around the two figures in Couple by Sean Henry, a sculpture which is to be found on the breakwater off the coast of Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Northumberland. 

 

It’s a piece of art that’s held a fascination for me since it was lowered into place in August 2007 and in 2009, the  audiodrama was recorded and edited at Core Music with The Stocksfield Players and appeared initially on this blog site in spoken word form.

 

Because of the static nature of the subjects, I decided on a little experiment. I thought I would take some photos and, using the skills of Teen2, make Couple into an photodrama. 

 

And so Wonderhubby and I found ourselves in Newbiggin-by-the-Sea on a gloriously sunny day, walking along the headland and promenade, snapping the coastline and such things as the Alcan factory, St Bartholemew’s Church and the fishing cobles which are referred to, and of course both the on and offshore versions of the Couple sculpture.

 

 

Problem was, without a zoom lens, there was difficulty in getting close-ups of Couple out to sea.  We headed for the Heritage Centre to learn something more about the area only to find volunteers emptying out the ‘hut’ as it was closing to make way for a brand new centre.   Deliberating, I decided to mention to volunteer, Sheila, about my project and I’m so glad she did as she showed great interest in what I was doing and took my e-mail address. 

 

A few days later, thanks to Richard Martin, some amazing shots of Couple arrived to use in my photodrama.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is the result: Couple - a short film in the form of a photodrama: http://www.listenupnorth.com/drama-page/195

And consequently I feel very honoured to have been contacted by the Trustees of the Newbiggin Maritime Centre and asked if Couple could be performed in front of an audience at one of it’s opening events in a few months time.

listenupnorth.com - Steady Hands

listenupnorth.com - Steady Hands.

A ghost story for Christmas set in Victorian Newcastle written and read by Simon Van der Velde.  Listen if you dare!