Brendan Hawthorne, Wednesbury Poet Laureate

Its 2002 and I am in Wednesbury Library.  I haven`t written or performed any poetry for years because I felt I had nothing left to say: besides which, I had been concentrating on my legal career, raising kids and learning the dubious joys of gardening, DIY and paying off a mortgage.

Wednesbury was having an "arts festival" (which sounded like an oxymoron) and I decided to go along and have a laugh.  I am no stranger to Wednesbury: my Grandad used to work in the Co-Op that was at the  bottom of Union Street, I attended college in the town and, as a child, my parents used to take me for "traditional Black Country fare" - grey peas, chips and faggots.  At school and university my Black Country roots were beaten out of me and if anybody asked where I came from (horror!  I had an accent!) I would simply say " Birmingham".  In the right-on, politically correct years of the late 1980s the word s "Black Country" sounded racist - a bit like "Baa Baa Black Sheep".

One wonders whether people just had too much time on their hands to find nothing better to worry about.

I saw a sign that proclaimed "poetry workshops" and booked myself in with a couple of middle aged men that looked like a nephew and uncle combination: they said their names were "Bren and Geoff" and my challenge was to describe, in words, the scene of Bob Dylan standing in the rain (in his sunglasses) in 1966 on his way to the Anglesey Ferry.  Right.

Brendan Hawthorne I had never heard of before but Geoff turned out to be none other than Geoff Stevens, Editor and Publisher of Purple Patch Magazine, described by The Times as "a national treasure".  Before his death earlier this year, geoff had run Purple Patch for 36 years, hosted the Purple Patch Awards and Convention at The Barlow Theatre and encouraged a generation of young poets to follow careers in poetry and publish their own work.  In turn, Purple Patch had spawned a wide array of other small presses - and it is estimated that, before his death, Geoff was this country`s most published poet with an output of 250 poems being published around the world a year.

And here he was, sitting opposite me, asking me to write about Bob Dylan in the rain. 

He was also used to submit poems to the Wolverhampton University Student Union Newspaper, Sheepsclothing when I was Poetry Editor (1992 - 1994) under the pen name of Arthur Person (after a song by The Smiths - Half A Person).  I initially thought he might be a mature student (another oxymoron) but carried on publishing them anyway because they were good.

Fast forward 10 years.  The legacy Geoff left when he died this year is immense.  His work has touched the lives of many poets and his light shines brightly in us all, including Brendan Hawthorne.  Jae Alexander Linsey and I are nominating him for Wednesbury`s first Poet Laureate.  Why?

1. Brendan lives and works in Wednesbury
2. He ran Poetry Wednesbury for many years
3. He was commissioned  by Sandwell Council to write a series of poems about the towns within Sandwell in 2005 called The Sandwell Partnership;
4. He is poet in residence of the Crystal Tea Rooms in Stourbridge and Wightwick Manor in Wolverhampton;
5. He was commissioned by Morrisons to write poetry for the opening of their new store in Wednesbury;
6. He writes and performs in Black Country dialect;
7. He was Poet Laureate of The Stirrer for a year and wrote about issues on the internet that affected Black Country folk.

Brendan performs at Wednesbury Town Hall on 8th August with his song writing partner Kerry for their new CD, So It Goes and the Leader of Wednesbury Council, Councillor Elaine Costigan has been invited, plus former Sandwell Mayor Bill Archer.

Brendan performs with Kerry tomorrow night at Bloxwich Library Theatre (alongside Krissy Griffiths, Jae Alexander Linsey and Colin Bird) for the regular adult open mic night.  I will be MC.

So what`s all this got to do with Scouting4FUNds?

1. Brendan performed with 6th Walsall Scouits for their final performance of the play Harvest Home (World Citizen) on 12th May at the Salvation Army Chapel in Willenhall - all proceeds to the orphanage in Tanzania (Forver Angels);
2. Brendan performed at the after-show party at 6th Walsall HQ in Walsall to raise funds for 6th Walsall;
3. Brendan performed on the Willenhall Olympic Stage on 30th June as the Torch came through the town;
4. Brendan contributed towards the poetry workshops on 30th June;
5. Brendan has kindly agreed to write a review of Jae`s new poetry book.

Walsall Saddlers Rotary Support Scouting4FUNds and 6th Walsall Scouts

"The time has come", the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings" (Alice in Wonderland).  The time has also come to tell you just how lucky we are to have the amazing support of Walsall Saddlers Rotary.

Who and what are Rotary?  An international organisation of ordinary men and women doing extraordinary things in their community - locally and globally.  They have a motto - Service Above Self.  In this materialistic, self-centred society, these seem like alien concepts.  Whether the concerns are blindness prevention or the treatment of polio, water and sanitation issues or microcredit. Rotarians the world over work towards a common goal of "service" for those communities.  Rotary is, and always has been, an organisation based on its clubs.  Where and how each club (and each Rotarian) chooses to serve is, ultimately, the decision of each one alone.  The International President of Rotary, Kalyan Bannerjee, said "Open your eyes to the challenges in our world and use the strength you have through Rotary to find ways to overcome them.  Every one of us has so much potential, and can acheive so much, when we Reach Within to Embrace Humanity". 
 
Last night, Sue Barker (of Freedom Group Forever) and I were again invited by Paul Daniels to the Beverley Hotel to make after dinner speeches.  A month ago, Paul invited us to talk to the 41 Club (the name given to people when they become too old to serve with Round Table) and £100 was raised for 6th Walsall Scouts.  This money, along with another £100 donated by the Willenhall Christian Fellowship and my £50 speakers` fee from that event, also went towards the printing costs of the poetry book on the theme of the 2012 Olympics.  Paul, as an ex-scout with 6th Walsall, had kindly written the preface to the book with the Mayor of Walsall writing the foreword.
 
Since that date Sue has become proud Nana to baby Ethan and Paul has officially become President of Walsall Saddlers Rotary.  Sue and I were asked to talk to Rotary about the benefits of Forever Living's health food products and supplements and the Scouting4FUNds project and how Freedom Group/Forever Living had assisted me in my training schedule: I plan to cycle 120 miles over the South Downs in 2 days with just one lung!
 
Sue is donating all of her profits from her sales to Scouting4FUNds, which is enormously generous of Sue!  Paul wasted no time in buying some of her top-selling products because he had spent an hour in his garden on Sunday and could no longer touch his toes.
 
Paul had also called in to see the scouts before attending the Beverley Hotel and the poetry books he brought along were all sold and the sponsorship forms for the 120 mile bike ride were distributed.  A further £75 was raised for our speakers` fee (mine and Sues) which we chose to donate to 6th Walsall Scouts.  Again, this is enormously generous of Sue because she had travelled all the way from Shrewsbury, where she lives, and would not get back home until late.  Thank you, Sue!
 
And thank you Paul and all of the Rotarians with Walsall Saddlers Rotary.

Blog - Open Mic at Bookmark Bloxwich, 13th July - for Scouting for FUNds

A storming night!

I had a call from Becky Menear - she helps runs the Open Mic Night at Bookmark Bloxwich - asking if I would compere the event because their regular MC Tony Barratt was unable to attend.

"No probs", I said.  I would do anything for Becky.  Anything......

My job involved booking in performances, allocating them a slot and then introducing them on stage.  Doors opened at 7pm, show started at 8pm and ran until 10.30pm.  It was free admittance but with a well-stocked bar and full PA system.

By 7.20pm all the available (15 minute slots) were taken and still people wanted to perform.  Slots were reduced to 10 minutes and we started 30 minutes early with a running list of 18 performers on 10 minutes each to finish bang on time!

As I do poetry performance myself, there was a definite poetry vibe about the night with the amazing Jack Edwards, Alex Bardzo and Colin Bird making their debut, alongside Brendan and Kerry from So It Goes, promoting their new CD.  Brendan helped run Poetry Wednesbury with the late, great Geoff Stevens (alongside Alex Bardzo) and is poet-in-residence at Wightwick Manor and the Crystal Tea Rooms. 

Their were regular performers in abundance, with great sets from Damp Squib doing an interesting performance (percussion on a wooden box?), Freeze, the Hit Squad and Get Set - plus the world`s unfunniest comedian - but I was very proud to hear the performance poets getting well deserved encores.  Brendan interspersed his Black Country dialect poems with acoustic guitar work and harmonies with Kerry - all copies of his debut CD werre sold - thank you! Colin Bird, (I hope you got your well-earned pint off Brendan!) and the audience were delighted to hear Alex`s delivery with keyboards.  Jack Edwards, who everyone claims is Brendan`s young pretender, had the audience howling with laughter and performers flocking to guest at his open mic event the following night at The Holly Bush in Cradley Heath.

Jae Alexander Linsey, the Bard of Bloxwich, sold all copies of his new poetry book (Life, the Universe and Poetry) as did Colin.  Kristina V Griffiths (there is a photograph of her in this weeks Walsall Chronicle) had a double encore and made this her third appeareance at Bookmark Bloxwich.

A storming night by some very accomplished performance poets, proving once and for all that poetry has NOT been replaced by lyrics AND that poetry is not a lost, boring, forgotten art form.

The next open mic night at Bookmark Bloxwich is 10th August, Brendan and Kerry play Wednesbury Town Hall on 8th August (with guest readers Dr Paul McDonald, University of Wolverhampton & Gregg Stokes, Kates Hill Press) and Alex Bardzo hosts Purple Penumbra at The Barlow Theatre (aka Oldbury Rep) on 14th August.  All events have free admittance with well-stocked bars and great performers.  What you have here is proof positive that poetry, the spoken word and acoustic music is alive and kicking here in The Black Country; ours is not a cultural wasteland and requires pioneers like Jack, Kerry & Brendan, Alex, Jae, Colin Krissy (and if you have never heard Dr Paul McDonald or Gregg Stokes - why not?  Go and see them on 8th August!) to burn the light brightly in all of our hearts and act as cultural ambassadors for us all.

Go and keep music and poetry alive!

Team Argi

We needed a Project Co-ordinator; someone to pull everything together.  The idea of one lawyer with one lung on one bike cycling for 6th Walsall seemed appealing.  Local businesses were lining up to support the project and save 6th Walsall Scouts disappearing after their burglary.  They lost £7,000 worth of vital equipment and were threatened with closure as a direct result.  Instead of accepting defeat they decided to stand up and fight for their right to exist!
I had been on an entrepeneurs course in London with Richard Branson and Sir Alan Suger.  I had met Nigel Botterill, who set up The Best of Franchise.  I contacted The Best Of in Walsall but all they could do was to publicise the project on their website.  I had plenty of people pledging support - and talk is easy - but who would pull it all together?
I needed a person clued up in business and sympathetic to the core aims of promoting a caring community.

Sue Barker, from the Freedom Group, recommended Jae Alexander Linsey, the Bard of Bloxwich, who ran his own company providing Administrative Support to small businesses.  So we had a businessman and a poet as well - quite a combination!
Jae has done an enormous amount of work in editing and compiling the book of poetry by Walsall Scouts, entitled Our Olympic Heroes.  Not only did Jae do this but he also liased with the printers, Excelerate Print and secured sponsorship off them as well.  Jae enlisted the support off the following:
(1) Kris Burford and Damien McLeod - Impulse Marketing and management
(2) Paul daniels, President of Walsall saddlers Rotary Club (Paul wrote the prefacer to the book)
(3) The Mayor of Walsall, Cllr Dennis Anson (he wrote the forward to the book)
(4) Stephen Plant - musician
(5) Bruno Edwards - Manager at Bookmark Bloxwich.  He kindly agreed to 6th Walsall Scouts premiering their poems for the 2012 Willenhall Olympic Torch at the Youth Open Mic Night on 22nd June
(6) Dianne mansell - Urban Regenerration Officer for Walsall Council.  Dianne allowed 6th Walsall to have a slot on the Willenhall Olympic Stage on 30th June as the Torch came through the town on this historic occasion
(7) Mike Batchelor, Manager of Bridging the Gap in Willenhall.  This project spearheads the love and mission of Jesus throughout Willenhall and is supported by Churches Together in Willenhall.  Mike allowed us all to use their shop and counselling rooms for poetry workshops on 30th as the Olympic Torch came through Willenhall.
(8) Councillor Dianne Coughlan & Councillor Sean Coughlan - supporting 6th Walsall in their prescence at the Willenhall Olympic Torch celebrations
(9) Deputy Masyor & Mayoress of Walsall - kindly agreed to join us on the Willenhall Olympic Stage, read poems from the scout poetry book and do keep fit routines with Sue Barker and Krissy Griffiths
(10) Sue Barker - Freedom Group (www.freedomgroupforeber.com) distributors of Forever Living Products - world`s number 1 in aloe vera and bee hive health and nutrition products for day in, day out fitness. 
(11) Karen Tait, Taits Estates
(12) Neil Quinton, MBACC, MRCHM, Six Ways Clinic
(13) Steve Careless & Krissy Griffiths, Walsall School of Shotokan Karate-Do;
(14) Andrea & Sue, Walsall Mind & Body centre;
(15) Joy Wood, Willenhall Christian Fellowship;
(16) Tim Philpott, musician
(17) Rebecca Meneart, musician
(18) Carl Sciliano, Hair & Beauty
(19) Michelle Morris, Intwine Hair and Beauty
(20) Sangeeta Barracada, Podiatry Clinic, Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield
(21) Ian Bateman, Ancestral Manouvres Photography
(22) Gareth Rogers, SponSport Ltd, Sport PR
(23) Darren Fox-Hall, TogetherWikan.co.uk and Able2Sell.co.uk
(24) Pushpa Alexandra - Headz Up for Business - training, networking and conferencing specialists.
How would we have ever done this without Jae?  Thank you, Jae.

6th Walsall Scouts Get Burgled - Gathering the Team

I had been campaigning for years to be Walsall's first Poet Laureate - poetry workshops for two years with women seeking to exit the sex industry in Walsall and drug addiction with the Manor Womens Project and survivors of domestic violence for another two years with Caldmore Housing.

The reply was always the same, "Walsall doesn't have a Poet Laureate but if it does feel that it needs one it will be advertised."

And then, on National Poetry Day 2011, Walsall Mayor Councillor Garry Perry made me Walsall's first ever Poet Laureate in the Mayor's Parlour at Walsall Town Hall - Just like that.

So I wanted to fulfil my side of the bargain and do as much as possible for the Mayor's Appeal.  However, on 11th April the Mayor held his Business Speed Networking Event and I was out of the country.  My brother in law went on my behalf and brought back a fistful of business cards, amongst them Freedom Group (Forever Living), Impulse Marketing and Puspa Alexander's Headz Up Business.

The final performance of my play was also fast-approaching, 12th May and I was just tired, notwithstanding my recent Easter holiday.  How was I going to make the final performance go with a bang?  The kids were amazing - they had exceeded all expectations and shown outstanding commitment and courage.  The average age of the cast was 10 and these kids had taken a play on tour dealing with such topics as global climate change, pollution and poverty.

Front page of the Walsall Chronicle and Walsall Advertizer - 6th Walsall Scouts are burgled and may close because they have lost £7,000 worth of kit.  There was my answer.  Too many Scout troops are closing down either because they can't get the leaders (its voluntary and demands not just turning up but being trained and the paperwork is a nightmare!) or because of the financial problems.  In recent times the 2nd Walsall group have gone and so have the 10th Walsall (my old Scout and Cub pack).  When these Troops go they never return.  What to do?

I phoned up the GSL, spoke to John Perry and arranged a meeting.  The deal was simple - your kids join ours for the final perrformance in Willenhall to raise money for an orphanage in Tanzania and we will join you for an after show party at your HQ and we will provide the bands and entertainment.  You keep all the funds from the after show party.  Its a win/win - you get the proceeds (I estimated £2500 if they did it properly) and our kids had a party.

What is there not to like?

In addition I would put them in touch with Paul Daniels, forthcoming President of Walsall Rotary (whose mission statement was to promote Walsall's youth) who was frothing mad to enlist Scouts into two of his projects: a charity car wash at Walsall Golf Club and a tidy up after the V Festival at Weston Park.

As it turned out, Paul was ex-Patrol Leader Daniels of 6th Walsall and was only too keen to help out - Thankyou, Paul.

Paul also wrote the amazing preface for our poetry book, Our Olympic Heroes, compiled, edited and published by Business Support Specialist and poet (The Bard of Bloxwich) Jae Alexander Linsey - Thankyou, Jae.

And I would dedicate my bike ride over the South Downs to 6th Walsall - they could keep all sponsorship money raised.  The question I was asking people was this, "Could a 48 year old man with one lung cycle 120 miles over the South Downs in 2 days?"

"One man, one bike, one lung, one dog!" - totally mental for marketing purposes.

And I couldn't think of anyone better than Impulse Marketing to help out.  After all, that Kris Burford had not only gone to Shire Oak School but he had also been promoting rock gigs at The Stein Bar in Walsall for 7 years.

But he was going to New York for a much-needed holiday which meant delays.

Meanwhile, Sue Barker at Freedom Group had been an absolute diamond.  She had reacted immediately to my call for help, driving over to my new Birmingham office from her home far away in Shrewsbury.  The company that she works with,Forever Living, supports orphanages in Tanzania and we looked at whether the object of my play, Forever Angels in Tanzania, was also the same charity.  Sadly it wasn't and Sue agreed to hold fire until the play had completed its "world tour".

Sue and her products, aloe vera and Argi, have been indispensable to this whole project, reinvigorating the project with effervescence it had lost - Thank you, Sue.

Ian Bateman is a truly excellent photographer.  He was the guy who got our cast photographs from the play in all of the regional newspapers and on the Vincent Van Gogh Gallery Website in America as part of the Mayor of Walsall's Appeal.  He is also a former Sea Scout - Thankyou, Ian.

Add into the mix Karen Tait of Tait's Estates (can you believe this estate agent is actually going bungee jumping for 6th Walsall?), Sue & Andrea from Walsall Mind & Body Centre, Krissy Griths from Walsall School of Shotokan Karate-Do, Neil Quinton of Six Ways Clinic (Acupuncturist), John Perry and Lisa Lang of 6th Walsall - I believe anything is possible!

High Note For Walsall's Poet Laureate and Team

 

In March 2012, the 6th Walsall Scouts group suffered a terrible burglary, in which they lost over £7,000 worth of vital equipment and were threatened with closure as a direct result.

 

However, instead of accepting defeat, this brave young group of beavers, cubs and scouts decided to stand up and fight for their beloved group’s right to exist. They set about running various fundraising events and were even able to raise money for an orphanage in Africa in the process!

 

This book of Olympic 2012 poetry is just one of the fundraising projects undertaken by this vibrant group of youths, and is a testament to their tenacity, aspiration and creativity.

 

It is also a testament to the community spirit and generosity amongst our local business owners in Walsall and the Black Country, who so kindly supported the 6th Walsall Scouts, with their time and generous donations. And we thank you all for this.

 

All proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the 6th Walsall Scouts group, ensuring their continued growth, from strength to strength; as well as to other charities.

 

We thank you for your support, in purchasing this poetry book and hope you enjoy the creativity of our children and local poets.

 

 

Copies of "Our Olympic Heroes" can now be purchased online - click here

Setting the scene... Did someone say "Fat Git on a bike?" (by Ian Henery)

This is the first time I have ever written a blog site.  I have heard about social networking sites like twitter (thought thats what birds did?) and facebook (a face in a book?  Unbelieveable) but never understood it.  I have been wanting to do something for a long time to tell you all about the amazing benefits I have experienced as a result of trialing the products of Freedom Forever, in particular the range of health food supplements - but how? 

At 48 my language is at odds with that of my children.  For example, I will remark, "This is a great record, I remember Legs & Co dancing to it on Top of the Pops; I had it in 7 inch". My kids will ask whether I am referring to pizza and "what`s a record?  What`s "Top of the Pops"? Their language is "I`ve ripped this off the computer" (horror!) and "I`ve just downloaded these tunes" (is that illegal?  Breach of copyright?). 

So, (as Mick Jagger famously sang on "Sympathy for the Devil) please let me introduce myself. 
I am a fat git. 
I wear a three piece suit to hide my gut.    
Or at least I used to be a fat git. 
Now I am just a git.  

Of course, it wasn`t always like that. On Tuesday 3rd July I met a client in Cafe Soya in Birmingham`s China Town.  Last year I opened up a branch office doing just private client work (immigration, conveyancing, probate, company/commercial and family) and it has fortunately paid off.  In 2008 during the credit crunch (which one, I hear you ask) I tried to start a branch office in Streetly but lost £60,000.  Ouch.

Now, I hadn`t seen this client for a while - certainly not since I had started using the Freedom Forever products.  I am a lawyer specialising in defending people in the criminal courts or at police stations.  It wasn`t that this client had been behaving himself (he runs a string of brothels in Birminghham) but it was just that the police hadn`t been able to nail him - something about his choice of solicitor.   I am always asked how can I represent guilty people?  How can I bear getting off criminals?  My answer is always the same: if the police don`t have enough evidence, then my client has a right to make no comment at the police station: and if they start answering questions against legal advice, I will kick them under the table.

I have a large client base amongst Birmingham`s brothels.  Don`t ask - I have no idea how it happened.  Some solicitors end up specialising in football hooligans, others tobacco smuggling: for me it was the sex industry.  I am the only man I know who gets paid for going to brothels.

I had got this client off twice in the last 6 months.  We meet, shake hands and sit down at the table.  He orders something involving dead animals with beansprouts and, being a spiritually aware person bound for Nirvana, order the vegetarian.  And my client looks at me and says,
"You`re not such a fat git now, are you?  What happened?"  
And I say, "Team Argi".  
He thinks.  You can see the machinery turning behind his eyes.  Is this some new adult pastime that he ought to be advertizing in what he laughingly describes as a "gentleman`s retreat?"
An oxymoron if I ever heard one - like "military intelligence" or "friendly fire".   

He knows of O-Levels, All around the world, watersports, S & M and adult babies - but Team Argi?  Is this the new name for a "Greedy Two Girl Special with A Happy Ending?"  He is puzzled as he prods his chunks of decomposing cow in black bean sauce. "No", says I, "it is an exciting raft of business owners, community leaders and artists who have come together to raise £10k by the end of September for 6th Walsall Scouts. 

The focal point is a life-saving health food supplement recommended by David Balcon called Argi and I am a member of that Team.
  It involves bunjee jumping, promoting a book of poetry by beavers, cubs and scouts, endorsed by Walsall Rotary and the Mayor of Walsall plus massive support by Walsall businesses - plus an awesome promise auction with such cool prizes as helicopter flying lessons and a limo ride to a brewery".   
My client wanted to know if it would make him look younger and whether it was an alternative to viagra. And I thought - HOW DID IT COME TO THIS!?   And that is the very same thought I had when I stood on the entertainment stage, in front of thousands of people on Saturday 30th June in Willenhall as part of a historic moment - the Olympic Torch passed through Willenhall.  I was booked by walsall Council to prov ide 45 minutes of poetry performance, reappointed Walsall Poet Laureate 2012/2013 and the Deputy Mayor and Mayoress were performing keep fit routines with the beavers, cubs and scouts from 6th Walsall alongside Sue Barker from Freedom Forever and Krissy Griffiths, black belt from Walsall School of Shotokan Karate-Do AND reading a selection of their poems. 

This is the book published, edited and collated by Jae Alexander Linsey - 2supportu.biz which is heading into its second edition a week after its publication.   How did it come to this?  Poetry workshops in Willenhall, with Jae and Krissy, on behalf of Walsall Council, less than two months after the successful conclusion of my play Harvest Home (World Citizen) which was performed in front of approx 850 people and raised approx £1,500 for an orphanage in Tanzania called Forever Angels with a cast of cubs, rainbows, scouts and guides where the average age of the cast was only 10.   And there was that ex sea scout Ian Bateman taking all of the photographs for the Walsall Council websites. 

The "Our Olympic Heroes" Book Now available from 6th Walsall Scouts and on Lulu.com

Hang on - wasn`t Ian Bateman the nice bloke who accompanied us on tour?  Didn`t he get his superb photographs in all of the regional newspapers like the Express & Star and Birmingham Mail?  Don`t I have 4 of his portraits of my children hanging on my living room walls? 

And isn`t he the bloke that ensured that the Harvest Home Band (Tim Philpott & Stephen Plant) had their portraits on the Van Gogh Gallery Website housed in St Louis, USA?      

Isn`t this the same Ian Bateman who took some brilliant photographs of me, all very dramatic, sitting on my bike on the top of Barr Beacon modelling Argi for Freedom Forever? 

 And then, because Kris from Impulse "Make It Happen" Marketing wanted a fun looking picture, had my lying on my back with my mountain bike on top of me "peddling across the clouds" like a dying fly?  

Ians Fun Picture!

    
And isn`t that Tim Philpott, folk musician and Road Safety Manager of Wolverhampton City Council, getting ready to get up on the stage and play as part of the Willenhall Olympic Celebrations? 

Didn`t he play Sutton Coldfield the night before as part of exciting new plans to turn Four Oaks into a live alternative entertainment venue?      

Isn`t that Stephen Plant, lawyer and Britain`s leading Rory Gallagher Tribute, standing in the wings?  Didn`t he also play Sutton Coldfield the night before?  And is it true that Robbie Williams asked him to play guitar on Angels?      

I had been exhausted and felt like an old man.  Although I climbed the three highest mountains of England, Scotland and Wales in 24 hours in 2007 (for Cancer Research) and 2008 (for the British Dyslexia Association), I had caught a viral infection in 2009  which paralysed my phrentic nerve so I only had the use of one lung. 

The left side of my diapram was paralysed. Overnight I had become an old man.  I had gone from being the man who could run the length of the Malvern Hills to being the man who could not run a bath - let alone run up the stairs. 

I had started a series of treatments involving acupuncture and bowen therapy and now I was in training to cycle 120 miles in 2 days across the South Downs to raise money for 6th Walsall Scouts. 

 I was part of Team Argi and I was using the products of Freedom Forever to help me regain my life.      
 This is my story.