What an emotional day. Sunspots took a luxurious month off for Christmas, so on Monday morning I'm trying to splash myself awake into touring-mode when from the bathroom, around 7 a.m., I hear the Today programme announce the death of David Bowie. It almost gives me whiplash.
Read MoreSunspots: Kings Place London, December 7
The last show of the year and the third one in London (previously we've been to Keats House and the Royal Festival Hall) brought us to this premier venue. I have a little bit of history with Kings Place, having been commissioned to write new poems for its opening in October 2008.
Read MoreSunspots: York St. John University, November 25
Every time I go to York I swear to go more often. Such a beautiful city (particularly so in the winter months) and only two hours from King's Cross. In the last few years I've visited the University of York a couple of times with Psycho Poetica but this time we were bringing Sunspots to York St. John University.
Read MoreSunspots: Bournemouth Arts by the Sea Festival, October 13th
From the north to the south and an intriguing new venue: Bournemouth's Natural Science Society. This beautiful Italianate Victorian building is crammed with cabinets full of shells, skulls, skeletons and all manner of natural wonders: the kind of things my Sun likes to take credit for: "I made the cats./I make the snow."
Read MoreSunspots: Reading South Street Arts Centre, October 8th 2015
After London, Reading was another 'home fixture'. I lived here from 1989 to 1997, having side-stepped academia to work at Our Price Records for a couple of years. The second 'Summer of Love', which I'd spent in Brighton and which did its best to distract me from my MA, was soon clouded o'er by Britpop and the seeping mist of shoegazing.
Read MoreSunspots: Royal Festival Hall, October 2nd 2015
I'm going to write short blogs about each stop on my Sunspots tour. How did it go? How did I feel? What went wrong? What went well? All of this, none of this. That kind of thing.
Read MoreA Sunspots digest: eat the Sun!
On Friday October 2nd, in the Royal Festival Hall's atmospheric Blue Room, I kicked off the Sunspots live tour to a packed, responsive audience. The event was part of the London Literature Festival and we received great support from Freddie the tech lead and her apprentice Susanna.
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