Legacy -- Anthony 'Trance' Jones

Anthony Jones at the first Cellar Bards

What a tragedy it was to hear of the sudden death of one of the foremost promoters of spoken word literature events in west Wales.

The funeral of Anthony ‘Trance’ Jones was held yesterday (August 7^th) and was followed by an afternoon of tributes from many friends and poets in the packed Queen’s Hotel in Carmarthen – venue of the monthly Poems & Pints event that Anthony founded in 2010.

People packed into the Crematorium and the pub heard many anecdotes and poems written in his memory. Poems were sent by friends who couldn’t be there – from as far afield as Siberia, Sweden, Portugal and Ireland, as well as from Wales – and these were read out by friends.  Anthony’s own poems were read during the events by friends and by his brothers, Richard and William. Ably hosted by Anthony’s close friend and colleague, Dominic Williams, the afternoon was a fitting spoken word tribute to a wonderful man and Anthony would have been pleased and proud.

Always a supporter of The Cellar Bards spoken word event in Cardigan, Anthony’s help and advice was sought when that was launched in June 2012 and he continued to offer his support and encouragement.  The Cellar Bards will always be indebted to him for his love and support of spoken word in general and of our event in particular.

This was my tribute to him, on behalf of the Bards, at the Queen’s yesterday afternoon:

Legacy

i.m. Anthony ‘Trance’ Jones

words – off the page

your words     my words

our words

poets     poets

shoot words out there

everywhere

vibrant voices

snipers shooting

vivacious words

poets speak out

shout out words

fired like bullets         

over the land

across the seas

out there, your words

your episodes and fragments

in Tranas and Tramor

in Aberteifi and Caerfyrddin

your words       my words

our words

all the poets’ words

over all this world

cutting through

daily blather and banter

always speaking out

off the page

our responses, challenges

propositions, positions

our sounds, our clamour

our words     your words

all out there.        Now

you are more than words

you are more than

all the words

over all the world

 

There is plenty more on Anthony's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/anthony.t.jones

The Cellar Bards 2017

At the start of 2017 I was pleased to become a co-organiser of The Cellar Bards, the popular live literature event held regularly in Cardigan's Cellar Bar (where else would you find Cellar Bards!).

We meet on the last Friday of each month (not August or December) and often have a special guest as well as open mic slots for our very talented local writers.

I do all the organising – booking guests, make funding applications, publicity; while Dave Urwin is our compere.

The video above was very helpfully put together for us by David Powell and shows a few highlights of the February 2017 event, which was a pure open mic night. Good to see a couple of musicians bringing a song or two into the mix.

We have some great plans for the rest of 2017. Already on the scheduled are:

Maggie Harris, who will be reading from her stunning new short story collection, Writing on Water (Seren) on March 31. https://www.serenbooks.com/author/maggie-harris

Martin Locock will be with us at the end of April with his latest collection. http://martinlocock.blogspot.co.uk/

Roger Garfitt is our guest in May with his poetry and the new jazz CD composed by Nikki Iles – In all my holy mountain,  a celebration in poetry and jazz of the life and work of Mary Webb. http://www.londonjazznews.com/2017/02/cd-review-roger-garfitt-poet-nikki-iles.html

June 30^th will be our fifth birthday and we’ll be celebrating with the wonderful Natalie Ann Holborow, whose first collection was published by Parthian last month.

Our meet at the end of July will be a pure open mic night, giving a chance for all our talented local writers to share their work

In the autumn we’ll have the totally fabulous Sophie McKeand, and the wonderful Mark Blayney as our guests, plus others soon to be announced. More details and more links will be posted later, in the meantime to keep up with our events check into our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/333544513348067/

That page is not only about our event, we also share news in there that may be of interest to writers and performers everywhere.

Our thanks to Literature Wales and Parthian Books for their generous sponsorship, and always to The Cellar Bar for the fantastic venue.