Sunshine Coast Spoken Word

28/02/2024

I've been tracked down by Leah Lowe forom SA and asked to advertise this event, Emceed by the incomparable Muz Hartin, a bush poetry legend. Here it is.

25/02/2024

THE POEM ON THE WALL

So, in 2016, I was invited by Phil Smith of the Sunshine Coast Creative Alliance to run a poetry slam at an event in Caloundra headlining Bruce Dawe, whose poem was placed on a wall for posterity. A ripping evening. When I got home, still pumped, I wrote this piece about poetry.

The Poem on the Wall

The spell that breaks down walls is on the wall.
Brushstrokes silently seep into surface.
Paint dries, the poem is whole—
graffiti etched upon your soul.

Unlike the wall, these words do not contain you,
though they may divide you,
separate you from your senses, pe*****te your defences,
tip you from the fences you sit upon.

For their purpose is to give you wings,
or to burrow deep beneath the things that prop you up,
squirming through the dark labyrinth of what you thought you felt and knew,
so you emerge with a different view, drink from a different cup.

The lever slips,
the wheel turns,
the fever grips,
the passion burns,
the mind reels,
the heart feels,
shadows and sunlight come and go,
the ebb and flow of life and death,
a dying sigh, a newborn’s breath,
the clouds of life drift by,
and by and by,
you and other readers all
are bound and changed both large and small,
by the poem written on the wall.

The spell that breaks down walls is on the wall.
Brushstrokes silently seep into surface.
Paint dries, the poem is whole—
graffiti etched upon your soul.

© Robin Archbold 2016

19/02/2024

TO AVOID CONFUSION, MY FRIENDS ...

I've posted TWO SEPARATE GIGS on my page the last few days, following enquiries about upcoming appearances. Both gigs are via Liquid Lyrics, run by my friend, Nick Grivas.

GIG 1: Liquid Lyrics Poetry Slam, in Coolum this Saturday night. I'm not competing—don't do that anymore—but I'm invited to be the Sacrificial Poet to set the tone, with a 3 minute limit as per slam rules. The theme for the evening is Love and Other Chemicals. Advise patrons bring cudgels, a box of Kleenex and a change of underwear.

GIG 2: Liquid Lyrics Spoken Mic in Nambour, Saturday, March 9, where I get 10 minutes of emotional mayhem, ditto for poetry heavyweights, Joe Lynch, Ian Mackay, and Gil Douglas. Ten poets get 10 minutes each, so it'll be quite the show.

Check out Liquid Lyrics FB pages for details. There! Sorted?

20/09/2022

Hello, friends, admirers, and ... er ... others. I'm coming out of my FB hermitage in support of my dear friend Emily Maguire, who is doing a Sunshine Coast tour in the second half of October. I've had the sheer pleasure of seeing Emily and husband Christian perform, and let me assure you you're in for a sublime evening of superb singing, songwriting, musicianship, and the gently charismatic presence of two virtuoso performers and wonderful human beings. 'Feel good' doesn't cut it because it's much more than that. Emily's toured with Don McLean and Dr Hook, and performed at London's Royal Albert Hall among a host of accolades, so you're in for a treat. Here's a press release worth reading.

https://emilymaguire.com/hinterland-tour-2022/?fbclid=IwAR2RX1tKNdLTMpNNtkpYYaW5BgnFNu17pOE0KolAG0XSdOPURaFq8ni3bXw

“Music for the soul” MAVERICK MAGAZINE “Exhilarating and transformational” RnR MAGAZINE “Exquisite” UNCUT MAGAZINE British singer-songwriter Emily Maguire has released six albums and toured Europe extensively with American legends Don McLean, Dr Hook and Eric Bibb. With songs described a...

26/11/2021

PACK OF BARDS COMES OUT TO PLAY VENUE CHANGE TO PALMWOODS HALL — TOMORROW 2PM for 2.30PM START

Greetings, Bardophiles; because we have no idea how many people will be attending tomorrow's free event, and we're pretty sure it'll be raining, the outdoor garden is uncovered and the Homegrown Coffee Roasting Shed has limited capacity, we've made a late change of venue to the Palmwoods Hall across the little park from Homegrown. You can't miss it. If you do miss it, you don't deserve to come. Still recommend going to Homegrown early to enjoy superb food and coffee, then stroll across TO THE HALL for 2 hours of wonderful wordplay by 4 celebrated wordsmythologists with over 270 years of life experience to enthral you. Did I say it was FREE? YES, I DID.

12/11/2021

IRISH JOE LYNCH—see him at 'A PACK OF BARDS COMES OUT TO PLAY' 2PM, SAT, NOV 27, HOMEGROWN CAFE, PALMWOODS

So here is an excerpt from my story, 'Thinning the Beets,' about Pack of Bards member, Joe Lynch, followed by a dreamy rendition of his great poem, 'The Bliss and the Blues of New Orleans'.

'In 2004, Joe went to the Woodford Folk Festival for the first time. He won Poet of the Week at the legendary Woodford Poets’ Breakfast, and was encouraged to ‘do your own gigs’. His application to perform at the National Folk Festival in Canberra was accepted, and he was awarded Reciter of the Year for Somewhere in Iraq, a poem inspired by a dialogue between a father and his son (Joe and Joey) who is fighting with the Australian forces in the Middle East. Joe has since become a star fixture at Australia’s two biggest festivals, packing out every venue he performs in, and has enthralled audiences at the Tasmanian Poetry Festival, the National Celtic Festival, the Australian Celtic Festival and many others nationally and on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. His late-life performance odyssey has also taken him to New York and back to Ireland. Joe has adapted many of the traditional Irish myths and legends as well as writing his own compelling material. The Children of Lir is a half hour tale of ancient Ireland that a spellbound audience at the Maleny Community Centre will never forget.

Since his Woodford coming-out, Joe’s star has risen relentlessly. Highlights include his mesmerising performance in front of 25,000 people at the Woodford Festival closing Fire Event, and performing in the world-famous Speigeltent at last year’s National Folk Festival. Woodford Folk Festival founder and director, Bill Hauritz, asked what happened when he noticed everyone crying after returning from a key event at the Woodford Planting Festival last year. The culprit was Irish Joe Lynch and his poem, The Planter and the Tree.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBGnG43b8V0

This is a poem I wrote during a visit to New Orleans, Louisiana. Being totally captivated by her music and magic I felt compelled to capture and save the exp...

12/11/2021

A PACK OF BARDS COME OUT TO PLAY— SAT, NOV 11

A little insight into Pack of Bards member, Ian Mackay ... what a great story. Followed by a vid of The Cuddliest Poet in the World doing what he does so well.
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'Our President Ian Mackay received a Sunshine Coast Environment Council Life Membership award for his services to the Environment and SCEC.

Mark Ricketts, who has worked with SCEC and has also been the Vice President of CRC for many years, presented the award. He enlightened us about Ian and some of his environmental achievements.

“Ian Mackay has been a stalwart of the Sunshine Coast environmental movement for over 25 years. He is President for life of that auspicious body, the Conondale Range Committee, who have styled themselves after a bankrupt banana republic where elections for office bearers resonate with the same groans that accompany those of Nth Korea.

President Kim..sorry Ian...has tried to rid himself of this troublesome group but we continue to follow him around..like love-struck puppies singing “ if you leave us, can we come too?” I suspect he isn’t the messiah but just a naughty boy.

SCEC has always been a benevolent big brother to the CRC – helping us through our self-created crises - the blockades, the libel suits, the battles with bureaucracies. Throughout the last couple of decades, the kind Father Time-like visage of Ian Mackay has smoothed his spiky minions more abrasive sides and presented an image so benign and sensible that none could not love him and so, in turn, us.

Ian’s sense of humour is one of his greatest weapons. Its not at the expense of individuals, though it has made many look incredibly foolish. The lack of malice and undeniable good common sense make his enemies smile as his juggernaut rolls over them. I remember his classic line about the Labor Government’s Traveston dam abomination. It was in the drought of all droughts, and Ian said, “Building Traveston dam to solve a drought is like giving a beggar a wallet.”

Ian takes his role of Mr Nice Guy of the environment movement very seriously. Many years ago, the two of us headed to see the Minister for Mines, the formidable Tony McGrady from Mt Isa. Now McGrady was not known for his love of greenies, particularly ones who had been sticking it to his beloved mining industry and department for the last five years...and..crime of crimes....kept getting it right.

Ian and I were going up in the lift to the Minister’s office to hammer him about the toxic dump his dept had left in the Conondales when I said “ El Presidente...I’m a bit hobbled by my job with Jim Soorley...how about we reverse our usual Bill and Ben and I’ll be the good cop and you can be the bad cop?”

Ian looked like I’d spat on his mother’s grave. “Me.. the bad cop...” he stammered. “But everyone loves me.” “Yes, I know..but imagine the element of surprise," I cleverly replied, “and you are so good at everything you do.” You don’t survive in the shadow of the mighty without picking up some North Korean survival skills.

So we frog-marched into the Minister’s office – me trying to smile and look ingratiating and Father Time practising his “vengeful god” look, hoping that Tony McGrady’s Catholic up-bringing would bring him to his knees.

And....so it was...one look at Ian in his 'St Peter won’t let you in' visage, and McGrady gave us more than we had intended demanding. Mind you, I’m not sure if Ian will ever trust me again.

So Ian has kept the ragtag bunch of misfits that pass for the Conondale Range Committee together and talking to each other for all this time, and when the Regional Forest Agreement looked like delivering wood chips to employ Bill Ludwig’s mates, was able to rise like the living dead and help defeat the evil AWU shock troops. In his time he and his happy helpers have stopped that bloody gold mine and got it all cleaned up, delivered a national park equal to Lamington, a good working relationship with the Mines and Forestry Departments and still everybody likes him. Just like Comrade Kim.

Ian has also taken his natural wit and performance skills and turned them into a formidable cultural force for good. We all give lip service to the three pillars of sustainability while still focussing on the environment. Ian doesn’t – he has taken his cultural skills as a poet, performer and MC to many non-greenie functions, and, through his skills, made people who wouldn’t normally be affected by a tirade from Ian Christesen or a reasoned argument from Narelle (SCEC), think about the environment and our impact on it. Even better, he does it while getting them to smile.

I went into the lunch room of the Luggage Point sewage treatment plant one day and there, up on the wall, was a copy of a poem by Ian about the plant. Some worker had come across it somewhere and they had taken it on themselves to post Ian up high.

I think Ian has made our region a richer place for that approach, and in the same way that we take our hat off to the Noel Gardners, Mark Gilletts and Barry Charles who put our message into song, we dips our lids to Ian Mackay, and thank him for his enormous efforts over the years by asking him to become a life member to match his president for life title and if you are really nice to him, he’ll recite his Luggage Point poem.”

- Mark Ricketts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-ihh_spQsw

THe art of Spooner applied to the famous children's tale by Ian Mackay at the 2013 Maleny Music Weekend's Poets' Breakfast.

10/11/2021

So, it's on—The Pack of Bards Come Out to Play at 2pm on Saturday Nov 27 at Homegrown Cafe, Palmwoods, There's no open mic, just four old pals wanting to play and show off in front of an audience. THE EVENT IS FREE and whether we're in the coffee roasting shed out back or in the garden depends on numbers and weather. Modesty and lack of space prevents me from listing the vast number of awards and accolades of these accomplished poets and storytellers, but be assured you're in for a helluva show. Bring tissues, cudgels and a change of underwear. Here's a poster.

18/09/2021

I've never compared my self to another spoken word performer, but 'poor man's Tug Dumbly' is an accolade I would happily embrace. Here's an oldie.

https://youtu.be/NWeP3V-4xmY

Robin Archbold's take on what happens when his Sensitive New Age Man meets a Liberated Woman, at the 2013 Maleny Music Weekend's Poets' Breakfast.

01/09/2021

The incomparable Tug Dumbly - one of the greatest influences on my performance metier. I had a few tickets on myself in the early days until I saw how Tug cut loose, and the writing and practice it took to do what he does. This is how to command a stage and an audience.

https://youtu.be/PWHaib_-cPE

Tug Dumbly performs "Heroes", Sydney Opera House, October 2013

01/09/2021

So, the Pack of Bards (L-R: me, Irish Joe Lynch, Harry Donnelly aka 'H', and Ian Mackay) breakfasted at the fabulous Homegrown Cafe in Palmwoods this morning. First time we'd all been together in several years. We used to perform together at numerous gigs around the Sunshine Coast until we didn't for various reasons. My mates are all fantastic performers with big CVs. Ennyhoo, as part of my re-emergence into performance world, I've convinced them - didn't take much - to join me in putting on a gig I'll organise for November sometime. It'll be called A Pack of Bards Come Out to Play, and we're just out to play, show off and have a bloody good time. That means our audience is in for a treat. Stay tuned.

24/08/2021

So, I'm going to start posting some my favourite vids from the SCSW archives. This one's by old mates, Janie and Biko from Nimbin, and was filmed at the 2016 Nimbin Performance Poetry World Cup. It's the best example of a spoken word duet I've seen, and the degree of difficulty is insane. The way you can switch into one or the other dialogue is a credit to design and ex*****on. Never got the recognition they deserve, but they'll get plenty from me.

https://youtu.be/6Ap9GnGpAfU

Nimbin Performance Poetry World Cup 2016 finalists Possum & Tango performs their piece. Possum & Tango were one of eight finalists this year. Please check ou...