Nic Treadwell’s Storyville: Recent Episodes
Nic Treadwell
In this podcast, I reflect on my encounter with the childhood hip disorder, Perthes, and recount some of the barbaric treatments myslef and my fellow sufferers had to put up with back in the 1970s.
Ultimately, I learn that writing a funny silly peom about the whole sorry episode, in a northern accident, may not bring closure, but does help to place the illness in the context of a wider life of shite.
As a result of funding cuts by Birmingham City Council, there is now a proposal to reduce the library services budget by up to 40%. This would mean that many beloved local libraries around Birmingham would need to close, staff levels would be reduced, transferring library services to other non-council owned locations and creating an unspecified number of “hub” libraries. This plan would be an unprecedented disaster for everyone that uses the vitally important services provided by our public libraries, which lie at the heart of our communities. A campaign called Birmingham Loves Libraries has been formed by members of the public in order to try and overturn this decision and get Birmingham City Council to realise just how important our local libraries are. Link with the campagn herehttps://www.birminghamloveslibraries.org/https://www.facebook.com/groups/949227466905839/https://twitter.com/BrumLibrarieshttps://www.instagram.com/brumloveslibraries/
A personal reflection and tribute to Brendan Higgins who died in January 2024. Big Bren was a writer who was well known around Birmingham for his unforgetable poetical outbursts at events over many many years. He also fronted the avant garde free jazz banf Big Bren's Combo, was a novelist, playwright, actor, facilitator and event organiser.
In this podcast I reflect my friendship with Bren , his creative output and his legacy.
Including poetry, music and more from the man himself.
Further infomration about Brendan can be found @ Big Bren's Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/308653259223097/
In Oct 1973 the Midwest United States experienced a UFO flap that ignited the imagination of the country. Sightings of strange light, craft and beings flooded the TV and Radio.
One such strange incident happended one rainy night in Zanesville, Ohio. Seventy five year old Eric Gillan (suffering with the late the stages of Alzheimer's disease) woke up in the middle of the night and saw a strange light out of the window of his care home .
What happend next would have a profound effect on him and his son Will.
Written and narrated by Nic Treadwell (C) 2023.
Angelsong - written by Marc Cohn & released Atlantic Records 1991
Help and support for families affected by Alzheimer's
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/
https://www.alz.org/
A one act, one scene play set in a living room of a quiet suburban home in the West Midlands. Jules has been waiting patiently for Baz to return from the pub, where he’s been most of the evening. Their son Ricky is in his room playing on his Xbox. It is around 10pm when Jules hears the front door slam signaling Baz’s return.
Credits:
Sorry Luv, was written, recorded and produced and performed by Nic Treadwell
Additional music sourced from freemusicarchive.org under creative commons license included:
Prelude No 21 by Chris Zabriskie - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/chris-zabriskie/ CC BY 4.0 DEED LICENCE - https://chriszabriskie.com/
Free Day By Denys Kyshchuk https://www.audiocoffee.net
httpsfreemusicarchive.org/music/daynigthmorning/business/free-day/ CC BY NC-ND 4.0 DEED
Additional Original Sound Recordings sourced from Freesound.org
In part Two of this two part podcsst, i explore some of the horror films that made a big impresssion on me during my teenage years - Jaws, The Fog, Poltergeist, The Burning, Alien, An American Werewolf In London and The Omen.
There will be a spcial spotify enhanced version of this podcast feauring soime of the music from the films.
in part one of this two part podcast, I revisit some of the strange and weird kids tv shows I was subjected to as a child.
Shows such as The Pipkins, The Boy From Space, Chocky, Wurzel Gummidge, Public Information Films and Project and Survive.
In part two I will tackle some of the films that terrorised my teenage self.
A review and my experience of reading Liz Berry's new book of poetry, The Home Child. Which is a story in verse, inspired by her great aunt, who, orphaned, was chosen to be emigrated to Canada in 1908 as part of the Home Children project.
More on Liz's work at her website - https://www.lizberrypoetry.co.uk/
The Home Child was published in March 2023 by Chatto & Windus
This article was written by Ron Jonson following an extensive Skype interview in 2021 with the artist, Jacque Stru’del, it first appeared in the Bloxwich Slacker on 9th April 2021. For this podcast, Ron has kindly contributed the original recordings of the interview, records from his own private collection of Stru’del memorabilia, and the voice over narration.
Jacque Stru'del is pop icon from 60's band The Stru'del Brothers. After leaving the Brothers he blazed a solo artist trail, leaving a wake of experimental projects in music and audio. His name is synonymous with disasterous failures, though his contribution to culture is priceless.
This is his story.
Credits:The track Breath Of Life is adapted from Presto, Pizz and Rhondo by Andrew Christopher Smith under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 USAll other musical works are by Nic Treadwell copyright 2023
This podcast features the narration to Ron Jonson's latest substack article. Which you can find here
https://open.substack.com/pub/nictreadwell/p/the-return-of-a-maverick-cb6?r=1eh0xb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Following an extensive Skype interview in 2021 with the artist, Jacque Stru’del, it first appeared in the Bloxwich Slacker on 2nd April 2021. For this podcast, Ron has kindly contributed the original recordings of the interview, records from his own private collection of Stru’del memorabilia, and the voice over narration.
Jacque Stru'del is pop icon from 60's band The Stru'del Brothers. After leaving the Brothers he blazed a solo artist trail, leaving a wake of experimental projects in music and audio. His name is synonymous with disasterous failures, though his contribution to culture is priceless.
This is his story.
Credits:The song My Death is adapted from Majestic Nature by Maxim Novak - used under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
This podcast features the narration to Ron Jonson's latest substack article. Which you can find here
https://open.substack.com/pub/nictreadwell/p/the-return-of-a-maverick?r=1eh0xb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Following an extensive Skype interview in 2021 with the artist, Jacque Stru’del, it first appeared in the Bloxwich Slacker on 26th March 2021. For this podcast, Ron has kindly contributed the original recordings of the interview, records from his own private collection of Stru’del memorabilia, and the voice over narration.
Jacque Stru'del is pop icon from 60's band The Stru'del Brothers. After leaving the Brothers he blazed a solo artist trail, leaving a wake of experimental projects in music and audio. His name is synonymous with disasterous failures, though his contribution to culture is priceless.
This is his story.
In the context of the events of the last few years, which has seen a worrying move towards a more authoritarian society, I look back at the relationship between art and protest thoughout history.
Written by Nic Treadwell
In this revised piece of writing from 2013 I explore the effect of one particular episode of Deep Space Nine called The Visitor, which had a profound effect on me at around the same time as my mother passed away.
Written in 2010 and expanded and revisted in 2023 this is a reflection on my own experience with TV and how I remember those days back in the 70s and 80s.
Part One of a poem I’ve been working on for quite a few months. Part truth/fiction/conjecture and intuition. Copyright Nic Treadwell 2022
A reading and an examination of my perceptions of the poem Retrospect by English poet Ruth Pitter. From the 1945 collection The Bridge.
The Destroyer - Killer Chromosomes by Richard Sapir & Warren Murphy - Chapter 8 narrated by Nic Treadwell
The Destroyer - Killer Chromosomes by Richard Sapir & Warren Murphy - Chapter 7 - narrated by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 37 Infusorian Doomsday Her Room, Record 38 (I Don’t Know What Goes Here, Maybe Just: A Cigarette Butt) - read by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 35 In A Hoop Carrot Murder, Record 36 Blank Pages, The Christian God About My Mother - Read by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 33 (No Time for Contents, Last Note), Record 34 Those On Leave A Sunny Night Radio-Valkyrie. Read by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 31 The Great Operation I Have Forgiven Everything A Train Wreck , Record 32 I Do Not Believe, Tractors, The Human Chip - Read by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 29 Threads on the face Shoots Unnatural Compression, Record 30 The Final Number Galileo’s Mistake Wouldn’t It Be Better? , read by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 27 No Contents - Can’t, Record 28 Both Women, Entropy and Energy, Opaque Part of the Body - read by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 25 Descent from Heavon History’s Greatest Catastrophe End of the Known, Record 26 The World Exists A Rash 41 Degrees Centigrade - read by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 23 Flowers Dissolution of a Crystal If Only, Record 24 Limit of Function Easter Cross It All Out - read by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 21 An Authors Duty Swollen Ice The Most Difficult Love, Record 22 Frozen Waves Everything Tends To Perfection I Am a Microbe - read by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 19 Third Order Infinitesimal A Sullen Glare Over The Parapet - Record 20 Discharge Idea Material Zero Cliff - Read by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 17 Through Glass I Died Hallways, Record 18 Logical Labyrinth Wounds and Plaster Never Again - read by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 15 Bell Mirror-like Sea My Fate to Burn Forever, Record 16 Yellow Two Dimensional Shadow Incurable Soul - Read by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 13 Fog Familiar ‘You’ An Absolutely Inane Occurrence, Record 14 ‘Mine’ Forbidden Cold Floor - read by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 11 No, I Can’t…Skip the Contents, Record 12 Limitation of Infinity Angel Reflections on Poetry - read by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 9 Liturgy lambs and trochees Cast-Iron Hand, Record 10 Letter Membrane Hairy Me - read by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 7 An Eyelash Taylor Henbane and Lily of the Valley, Record 8 The Irrational Root R-13 Triangle - Read by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 5 Square Rulers of the World Pleasant and Useful Function, Record 6 Accident Damned ‘Clear’ 24 Hours. Read by Nic Treadwell
We - Record 3 Jacket Wall The Table, Record 4 Savage with Barometer Epilepsy If - read by Nic Treadwell
Two songs, Lost Highway is an old song that keeps coming back, Child, is brand new and still needs some work.
Sebastian Haffner was a non-Jewish German who emigrated to England in 1938. This memoir (written in 1939 but only published now for the first time) begins in 1914 when the family summer holiday is cut short by the outbreak of war, and ends with Hitler's assumption of power in 1933. It is a portrait of himself and his own generation in Germany, those born between 1900 and 1910, and brilliantly explains through his own experiences and those of his friends how that generation came to be seduced by Hitler and Nazism.
A reading of Clive James deeply moving poem Anchorage International from his 2017 Picador collection Injury Time.
From the introduction of Discovering Scarfolk by Richard Littler published by Ebury Press 2014
Whisper of a Thin Ghost from Tell Me The Truth About Life - A National Poetry Day Anthology 2019 published by Michael O’Mara Books Limited
This chapter in Grahame’s classic story comes out of no where and is beautiful for its description of the animals encounter with the nature god Pan, who helps them find the most Otter child Portly. When I read it aloud tonight it leaped out of the page.
Two poems by Aldous Huxley. Sentimental Summer from The Burning Wheel (1916) and Summer Stillness from The Defeat Of Youth And Other Poems (1918)
Two poems. Perils Of The Small Hours from The Burning Wheel (1916), Waking from The Defeat Of Youth And Other Poems (1918)
Invariably when I sit at the piano something comes up...tonight I streamed some lyrics and this is it so far. TBC.
A recording from many years ago of a song about the rejection of senseless process of corporate selection.
Recorded a few years back and rescued from audio boo here is my reading of Barry’s rant from the brilliant Oliver Stone film Talk Radio.