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This video was for Ann Wainwright's birthday 2009. I made up a daft 12 bar and video. Ann was editor of Poetic Licence on Teesside in 1982 and we ran a poeptry / music venue at the Dovecot Arts Centre - The Castalians / New Poetry Scene about then. Later Ann co ran the Writers cafe at the Georgian Theatre with me. Poetic Licence was the beginning of the creative Writing movement on Teesside.

Put on your rocking shoes and take a listen and a view of this video -

Trev's Album on Amazon USA

TREV's Album on Tunecore / I Tunes

"Trev Teasdel is a lively underground  performance poet,

Trevs

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

Nighfall in Sorrento book

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

Trev performing at Writers Cafe 2006

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.

with Steve Gillgallon and Steve Ingledew on bass and synths and guest players)

Escaped Poet (published 1984)

Shortly AfterMidnight Remix

Trev and the Collective Unconscious

4 comments

JustBeforeDawn2

Paris Affair -music by Steve Ingledew

Phoenix Remix

Poet Reprobate (Published 1985)jpg

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).

A Cottage in the Country

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

Song for Sam

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 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   

Don't despair

Trev Teasdel

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.

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

Going through Divorce

Trev Teasdel

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
Written and performed by Trev Teasdel - Coventry 1978    

U take me outta myself

Trev Teasdel

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.

Trev's Forthcoming Album and others

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

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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!

Nighfall in Sorrento book

"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

Trance music to this by Coventry drummer and producer Jim Pryal - on his Culture Fuzion My Space

Nighfall in Sorrento book

Also the title of my book

Nightfall in Sorrento

Performance poem by Trev Teasdel July 2007

ShopSorrentosPizza

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

Nightfall Sorrento- with guitar by Trev

Unknown

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.