Eclectic IRON

FRACKING IN CULLERCOATS: A play by Peter Mortimer
Crescent Club: Thursday June 4th, 7.30 pm

Off to an Explosive Start! Fracking is the recent and controversial method of extracting fossil fuels from the ground, and in Peter Mortimer's new satire they've started the fracking process in Cullercoats.
But before Global Reach Ltd began drilling, why didn't they listen to the advice of the two gadgies digging the soil on Marden Allotment? And what is that strange underground rumbling?
The play is performed by drama students from Marden High School, Cullercoats, who along with the school Head of Drama, Hailey Eastlake worked closely with the author over the Spring term. The students are involved in many aspects of the show, including design, publicity, and light and sound.
Introduced by Jonathan Morris, head teacher Marden High School. With music from Marden High School Orchestra (pictured below).
Tickets £6 - book online for Fracking in Cullercoats

PS: Coast Buskers at the Salt House, 22:00 - 0:00

Two recent gems from IRON Press
Cullercoats RNLI: Friday June 5th 7.30 pm

MILLIE AND BIRD: Avril Joy Avril Joy, who lives in Bishop Auckland, has been shortlisted for various awards. The title story of her new collection won the prestigious 2012 Costa Short Story Award. The stories are set in Paradise, a fabled northern place peopled by ghosts and mapped by the river; stories of secret hearts, of dreams and longing. A woman buries a pig, birds fall from the sky, a woman dreams of ice-cream while her child drowns...

ANIMAL MAGIC: Liz Brownlee This unique book features poems with a playful lightness in the face of climate change devastation. Every poem centres on a threatened species and the footnotes contain fascinating, often startling information on those threats. Beautifully illustrated by Rose Sanderson, these poems by West Country poet Liz Brownlee work for both adults and children and are lucid and profound.

Introduced by the celebrated North East novelist Wendy Robertson : Music by Ruth Lambert, one of the coast's most talented musicians.
Tickets £7 - book online for Avril Joy and Liz Brownlee

PS: Coast Buskers at the Salt House, 22:00 - 0:00

WRITERS ON A ROCK
Cullercoats Rocks: Saturday June 6th/ Sunday June 7th 12.00 noon - 3.00 pm

We invited writers to apply for this, the two shortest writers' residencies known to humankind. Each lasts only three hours, each writer perched out on a rock near low tide in Cullercoats Bay. The writers are Joan Johnston (Saturday) and Sandy Chadwin (Sunday).
The writers will be denied all the hi-tech gadgets of our modern age; no mobile, no laptop, no tablet, no iMac. Paper and pen are the only writing implements allowed. The natural world and the writer's own imagination is the only inspiration. What will the sessions produce? We have no idea, but we will ask the chosen writers to give an informal summary of the experience to the Sunday night audience at our late night Festival club in the Salt House. Come and find out!

THE FRINGE
Beverly Terrace / Mast Lane Saturday June 6th/ Sunday June 7th 12.00 noon - 4.00 pm

So now we have a Festival Fringe too! Look out for outdoor performers on Saturday and Sunday afternoons in the open space on the southern corner of Mast Lane and Beverley Terrace on the sea front.
If you want to perform at The Eclectic Fringe, get in touch with Terry Jones at 49 Beverley Terrace (top flat), or telephone: 0191 2513203 or e-mail:

INPRESS BOOK FAIR
Cullercoats Community Centre: Saturday June 6th 10.00 am - 4.00 pm

Come and discover a new world of quality books from the publishers who resist a market increasingly dominated by multinationals. IRON is a member of Inpress Ltd, the Newcastle-based organisation funded by Arts Council England, which supports and represents to the trade nationwide around forty independent literary presses. Here you'll find the bizarre, the outrageous and the unexpected.
The book fair joins forces with the Centre's monthly table-top fair. Held in the main hall. Refreshments are available.

Storytelling and Exhibition from Seven Stories
Cullercoats Community Centre: Saturday June 6th 12.00 noon - 4.00 pm

Prior to the Festival, Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books will be working for a full day with children from Cullercoats Primary School on the project The Snorgh and the Sailor, a story about a miserable, marsh-dwelling Snorgh ("snorgh" is pronounced with a hard G, so the website snorgh.org has the same "org" sound twice).
When a bedraggled sailor arrives telling exciting stories of exotic lands, the Snorgh finds himself going on an adventure. The Snorgh and the Sailor is an exciting tale of adventure, storytelling and grumpiness.
Work from the children inspired by the story will be on display in the Community Centre's Val Clark Room, where there is also storytelling.

BAIKU: Poetry on a bike
Meet at Cullercoats Bike & Kayak Centre Café Saturday June 6th, 10.00 am (for coffee)

How to combine two of the best activities going, poetry and bike riding? Answer - book your ticket for Baiku! Simon Laing of the new Cullercoats Bike & Kayak Centre will lead you off on a 20 mile coastal and countryside bike ride with your own printed guide highlighting the many curios and attractions en route. And it's nearly all flat! Hire your bike or bring your own. And bring a note book to jot down the kind of small detail writers feed on. And after the ride...

HAIKU WORKSHOP with David Bateman
Meet at Cullercoats Bike & Kayak Centre Café Saturday June 6th, 3.00 - 4.30 pm

Poet David Bateman (who will be with you on the ride) leads a 90 minute workshop on how your bike ride experience can be developed into writing those distinctive three-line verse forms, the haiku. Writing haiku opens up a new area of the visual imagination and IRON Press will consider publishing a booklet should enough work of quality emerge. We planned a similar publication in the 2013 Festival with our Sea Haiku venture, but bad weather left the poets shore-bound!
Maximum number for Baiku is 20 people - so book early! Book online for Baiku: £20 including bike / £10 bring your own

Colette Bryce - The Poetry of Cullercoats
Cullercoats RNLI: Saturday June 6th, 2.00 - 3.30 pm

Colette Bryce is a highly praised poet, shortlisted in 2014 for both the Forward and the Costa Prize, and with four collections of verse published by Picador (including her latest The Whole & Rain-Domed Universe). Yet the pamphlet that sprang from her Leverhulme Poet in Residence at Cullercoats' Dove Marine Laboratory, Ballasting the Ark (published by NCLA) has been strangely overlooked. The poems powerfully evoke both the Dove Marine and the distinctive Cullercoats land and seascape. When the tide withdraws/like a jeweller's cloth/ to reveal a mile/of glittering rocks,/ what's not to love?
Colette Bryce received the Cholmondeley Award for her poetry in 2010.
With music from award winning singer-songwriter Katie Doherty. She has worked with artists such as Nitin Sawhney, Kathryn Tickell and Howard Goodall. As a composer and musical director she has worked under the direction of Samuel West with the RSC and more recently with Northern Stage on five successful under-6s Christmas productions. Katie regularly tours with the acclaimed folk duo Broom Bezzums who are based in Germany, and is looking forward to playing some solo material here on her home ground.
Tickets £8 - book online for The Poetry of Cullercoats

The Rescue of the Limerick
Fishermen's Mission: Saturday June 6th 4.30 to 6.00 pm

Among the poetry cognoscenti, the limerick's reputation as a verse form has always been low, a state of affairs we aimed to redress with our recent book Limerick Nation, inviting poets from throughout the UK to submit limericks inspired by - and possibly reflecting upon - their town/ village/ city. They were also invited to write a short quirky piece about that same place of residence. The submissions poured in and we had great fun editing the book, which contains enough intelligent limericks to help rescue the form from being considered merely the home of infantile smut. We also invited our limerati to take part in this festival event and more than 30 of them have said yes, travelling from all parts of the country. Here's a small taster. Do come along and hear a good many more.

The coastal resort of Torquay
Once delighted the haute bourgeoisie
But is now looking shabby
Despite its old abbey
And bust of Dame Agatha C.
               Jerome Betts

Introduced by co-editor of Limerick Nation, Eileen Jones
With music from the Seaton Sluice Ukulele Band, who regularly perform a wide range of songs, from traditional to contemporary, in local venues.
Tickets £6 - book online for The Rescue of the Limerick

Tony Harrison
Community Centre: Saturday June 6th 7.30 - 9.30 pm

We are thrilled to offer a rare chance of a Tyneside reading by Tony Harrison. Harrison is Britain's most important film and theatre poet, an often controversial writer whose powerful writing tackles areas of public life in a way few other poets are capable of and in a manner simultaneously political and highly personal.
Since his first collection The Loiners was awarded the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 1972, Harrison's poetry and plays have been published, broadcast and performed world-wide to huge acclaim. The Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre have produced his work and the many adaptations of his poetry on television include the controversial long poem V (Channel 4 1987), which the Daily Mail said should be banned. The poem won the Royal Television Society Award. It springs from his discovery that vandals had desecrated his parents' grave in Leeds.
His awards include the European Prize for Literature Wilfred Owen Poetry Award. Faber published his Collected Film Poems in 2007 and he has also written several opera librettos for New York Metropolitan Opera and others. 2015 David Cohen Biennial Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature.
The poet lives in Newcastle.

Cello Music by Liz Maynard, a freelance musician/ artist who has performed with several orchestras. She moved to Florida in 1990 and played with the Venice Symphony, the Anna Maria Chamber Orchestra and the Sarasota Pops. She lives in Lincs, a member of the Lindsey Chamber Orchestra, the Dilletante Trio and the Polycelli quartet.
This event is sponsored by New Writing North
Tickets £8 - book online for Tony Harrison and Liz Maynard

PS: Coast Buskers at the Salt House, 22:00 - 0:00

Crime Writing Day: introduced by Ann Cleeves
Bike & Kayak Cafe: Sunday June 7th, 10.00 am - 3.30 pm

A unique chance for crime writers, both real and aspirant, to hone their skills aided by some of the top names in the business. After coffee and priming with leading crime novelist Ann Cleeves, the writers will be free to explore the village. Participants will be provided with a body on a pool table (photograph, right, by Dave Turnbull), a crime scene, (Cullercoats Watch House), witness statements and a Cullercoats locations map. An expert panel comprising retired Chief Inspector Rocky Ramshaw and forensic specialist Brian Rankin will be on hand during the day to answer questions and queries.
Cullercoats novelists Kitty Fitzgerald and Carol Clewlow will be your hosts for the day, encouraging you to imagine as many scenarios as possible and workshopping the creation of your own invented characters. You will also be encouraged to visit and make notes on Cullercoats settings. Our hope is that from this schedule eventually will emerge the makings of at least one crime novel or short story based in Cullercoats, which IRON Press would of course be interested in reading.
Kitty Fitzgerald has published five novels and has written poems, and various stage and screenplays. Her novel Pigtopia is translated into 22 languages. Carol Clewlow wrote the best-selling A Woman's Guide to Adultery and several other novels. She also writes for the North East theatre company Operating Theatre.
Tickets £20 - Soup, coffee and refreshments included in the price, as is entrance to the Ann Cleeves evening event. book online for Death in Cullercoats - and book early as the limit is fifteen people.

Ann Cleeves, music by Catherine Geldard
Community Centre: Sunday, June 7th, 7.30 pm

Fresh from inspiring our hopeful crime writers, the coast's very own queen of crime Ann Cleeves reads from and talks about her work. Ann moved to the North East in 1987 and lives in Whitley Bay. She is a crime writer whose books have been translated into twenty languages. Her Vera novels have formed the basis of five ITV drama series, starring Brenda Blethyn. Equally successful are her Shetland novels, adapted by the BBC as Shetland. Her novels include The Sleeping and the Dead, Burial of Ghosts, and her latest Shetland mystery, Thin Air. She has also published a collection of short stories about islands, Offshore.
Catherine Geldard is a Shetland born fiddler now living in the North East of England where she spent 5 years studying traditional music. She has since performed with a variety of bands and undertaken several composition projects. These include writing music for the opening ceremony of the Tall Ships Race in Lerwick, Shetland, and her most recent project, the trio NE3Folk. Catherine plays a mix of traditional and contemporary Shetland music along with some self penned compositions.
Tickets £8 - book online for Ann Cleeves and Catherine Geldard

PS: Coast Buskers at the Salt House, 22:00 - 0:00

Hot off the Press - two new books from IRON
Cullercoats RNLI: Sunday June 7th, 4.30 to 6.00 pm

The She Chronicles by Lisa Rodgers: Lisa Rodgers is a coast-based writer and this, her first full poetry collection, is inspired by the courageous, pioneering and indomitable spirit of some remarkable women through history. The poems give a distinctive voice to the likes of Dido Belle, Aphra Benn, Anne Bonney, Mary Shelley and Fanny Burney, women who are often lost to the modern consciousness and were indeed often vilified in their own time.
Limehaven by Vicky Arthurs: Vicky Arthurs is a writer, editor and performer based in Newcastle, and this is her debut full poetry collection. Limehaven was the home of her grandparents and these vivid poems are inspired by her childhood memories of the place and its people; life's small detail captured with a true poet's eye. Vicky was published in the IRON Press poetry pamphlet anthology, Pieces from Eight
With music by Jack Arthurs, an accomplished singer/songwriter whose latest CD is Only Dreams are True.
"Music to warm your soul" - The Journal
Tickets £7 - book online for Lisa Rodgers and Vicky Arthurs

Who ya ganna call? COAST BUSKERS!
Every night, Thursday - Sunday! Free! Brown's Salt House 10.00 pm - midnight.

North Tyneside's coastal region is a vibrant place for musicians, and any night of any week the buskers' scene offers a choice of venues where you can listen to a whole range of talented artists - all absolutely free. We wanted to acknowledge this vibrancy and the importance of a healthy live music scene, so we brought together a dozen of the leading performers for two recording sessions at Brown's Salt House. This CD, the moderately priced Coast Buskers, is the result. And on each of the four festival nights you can hear a selection of musicians live at the same Salt House - our late night Festival club. Free entry. It's the perfect place to chill out after you've stimulated your senses at some of the earlier evening events and where you can sample Cullercoats Brewery's special Eclectic IRON bottled beer. Don't go home without your own copy of Coast Buskers to remember the festival by. The Featured Buskers are...

• Ron Brown
• Berry Burgess
• The Creels
• Dan Hodgson
• Alan Jones
• Ruth Lambert
• Jenny Lascelles
• Neil McBride
• J.D. O'Neill
• The Primates
• Ray Rowley
• Robby Thinman

This festival is supported by Arts Council England North East, New Writing North, North Tyneside Council and Inpress Books Ltd.