Thursday, 26 March 2020

Vers Libre Show 5 - Versions - Thursday 26th March 2020 - 10pm Norway Time

Music

- Curtis Stigers & The Forest Rangers - John The Revelator
- Eric Clapton - Cocaine (East Attack Remix)
- Tricky - Hell Is Round The Corner
- Chris Smithers - I Feel The Same
- Nouela - The Sound of Silence
- Common - I Used To Love HER
- Kygo & Ella Henderson - Wildest Dreams (Live in Radio 1 Live Lounge)
- Suldusk - The Elm
- The Clash - Pressure Drop
- Black Crows - Hard To Handle
- Carolina Chocolate Drops - Hit 'em Up Style
- Guy Clark - Dublin Blues (Live at the Bluebird Cafe)
- Steve Earle - Lungs
- The Devil Makes Three - Champagne & Reefer
- The Delta Bombers - Smokestack Lightning
- High Kings - Star of the County Down
- Johnny Cash - Hurt

Poetry/Spoken Word From SV

Fragments

Snapshots, then stops.

Blanks.

Few pictures claimed
Like sensory remains

Like the smell of wet sand
and the feel of your hand

...in mine.

The fog of time erases
Dark and distant places

I let go of all the anger inside
To the sound of summers evening tide

Under hazy summer sun
Back when I was young.

Stop.

Other Contributors/Samples

- Ramshackle Rhymster - Ode to a Weed - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGa29IiTITE
- Vers Libre Sample
- Heroes Sample Series 1 Ep 2 - Who Controls Us?
- Wind In The Willows - Listen to the River





Sunday, 9 February 2020

Vers Libre Show 4 - Love & Heartache - Friday 14th February 2020 - 10pm Norway Time

Music

- Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash - Long Legged Guitar Pickin' Man
- Shovels & Rope - Boxcar
- The Cure - Perfect Girl
- Toots & The Maytals - Sweet & Dandy
- Elloush - Kiss Me
- Chillion Ft Seren - Wicked Game
- Dorthia Cottrell - Moth
- Daughter - Youth
- Freya Ridings - Lost Without You
- The Doors - Moonlight Drive
- Pretty Lights - Finally Moving
- Wretch 32 - 6 Words
- Aleah Stanbridge - Breathe (Demo)
- Black Sabbath - Planet Caravan
- Cigarettes After Sex - Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby
- Callaghan - It Was Meant To Be
- Emmylou Harris - Boulder To Birmingham
- Hem - Leave Me Here

Poetry/Spoken Word From SV

Fading, Again

We argue to the sound of fading dreams,
Waning passions and what might-have-beens

How much longer do we burn on past crimes
In my mind I've already left so many times

Sanctuary though is a place unknown, and the journey is pain
So we paper over the cracks, time and time again

Lurching to another stony compromise
While love fades from each others eyes

Perryman's Lane

He said I'll meet you when night falls, by the gate on Perryman's Lane
The world outside us just wont exist, and we won't even notice the rain
We'll stay until the pale greyish light, of the drizzly Autumn morning
And our secret lovers meeting ends, just as day is dawning
-
She whispers softly in his ear, that their love makes her heart sing
But it must remain hidden in shadows, that only light of moon can bring
Souls entwined in night's suspense, set free from daylight's chain
And the secret stays with you and me, and the gate on Perryman's Lane

Other Contributors/Samples

Ramshackle Rhymester - Phoebe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXg1DLnyWDg



Sunday, 19 January 2020

Vers Libre Show 3 - Winter - Thursday 23rd January 2020 - 22.00 Norway Time

Music

- Sasha Sloan - Fall
- Myrkur - Tva Konungabarn
- Joanna Jinton - Kulning (Ancient Herding Calls) Winter's Lullaby
- Gary Jules Featuring Michael Andrews - Mad World
- Isolated - Ora
- Hallatar - Severed Eyes
- Arum Rae - Gold
- Joy Division - Atmosphere
- Jaymes Young - I'll Be Good
- Shovels & Rope - Shank Hill Street
- Antimatter - Angelic
- Kazukii - Need
- Dropkick Murphy's - The Green Fields of France
- Wayr - Sleeping Forest
- Alec Benjamin & Alessia Cara - Let Me Down Slowly
- Tori Amos - Winter

Poetry / Spoken Word from SV

Winter Morning Escape

Lets go somewhere where the wifi can't touch us they said.

An adventure. The trees so beautifully defined, outlined in white so fine.

A quiet in the freshest air. We could run away from almost everything on a morning like this.

It smells like the real world here, where we go to escape our realities.

It feels like truth here, among the pines and bare branches.

We can lose ourselves here, among that truth and reality.

We are beyond this place, as we are part of it.

We are already connected here, no networks in range

Just for a little while.


Last Post

Red and yellow leaves whipped into the air, and skated across the the playground, bouncing off the concrete, as the children gathered.

An old man in uniform held the standard, his wife by his side, and a selection of children ready to read poems or show their artwork. Poppies and proud soldiers, to the end, they remain.

To their left stood the man with the bugle. Solemn he stood, like the dark clouds crying fine tears over us on the dreary, windswept day.

With conviction, he stepped forward, like a man ready to face his destiny one more time. Not fearless, but determined, unshakable in his commitment.

He placed the bugle to his lips, and began to play. The lonely, haunting notes defiant against the day. And as the last post sounded, the bells from the church on the hill began to sound, each chime a snapshot, time disordered and unimportant, fallen in the cause of the free...

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven.
-
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

...With apologies to Robert Laurence Binyon...

Snowdrop

Light comes from darkness, always ... so long as you let it ...

If I said there were fairies in the garden
Would you sit under the tree with me
Shallow moonlight, in and out of sight
Will you share the hidden journey and see

A mild winter they say brings them early
Snowdrops so fragile, gentle and new
Like a silent tear, or dream of a new idea
Waiting for sun, just wishing for you

The days are still grey and short
Winter storms may be moments away
So sit with me, under the old garden tree
Among snowdrops we'll watch fairies play


Other Contributors / Samples


- Jonna Jinton - Ice Speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chxn2szgEAg

- Vers Libre Voice Sample

- Thomas Hardy - The Darkling Thrush https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44325/the-darkling-thrush

- Ramshackle Rhymester - Winter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8NY64uciss


Friday, 13 December 2019

Vers Libre Show 2 - Time - 20 December 2019 at 19.30 Norway Time

Music

- Blackalicious - It's Going Down
- Brother Dege - Bastard's Blues
- Lula Wiles - Shaking As It Turns
- Arum Rae - Should I
- Suldusk - Autumnal Resolve
- 8mm - Liar
- Kygo & Ellie Goulding - First Time
- Billy Strings - Doin' Things Right
- Nikki Lane - Send The Sun
- Rising Appalacia - Swoon
- Paul Kelly - Peace
- The Raconteurs - Old Enough ft Ashley Monroe & Ricky Skaggs
- The Gaslamp Killer - Nissim
- Tracy Chapman - Give Me One Reason (The Tailors DJ's Remix)


Poetry / Spoken Word From SV

Watch

There's something sad about a watch thats stopped. Once loved, now hidden away, its beauty denied a chance to shine, its purpose diminished.

I don't know why I always look at the time on a stopped watch. What happened at that moment, what was significant.

A death, a change, a period of isolation?

Maybe nothing at all but, nah, I can't believe that.

A motivation, a chance to place significance in this most precious of vessels. Memories infused into each link, love forever captured.

So important, but still irrelevant, at the end of it all.

For now, motionless. A relic to former glory, a homage to past, a signal of the future. It rests now in the present.

Like a pocket watch tattooed between roses, even a stopped watch tells the right time sometimes.

Rainy Days & Journeys

At the edge of town, then out. Into no mans land, somewhere between hills and concrete. Villages hiding scoundrels and treasure, lurking pretty between town and city.

Driving down single lane tracks, past ghosts screaming from every hedgerow. But they didn't know, I gave myself the opportunity to change and grow.

Finally, I arrived at sacred ground.

Whispering in my ear, words came to me as I stood alone, describing my pain, snow and slow tears giving way to gentle rain.

I took those words, and I wrote them down, because I didn't know what else to do. Because I couldn't contain my feelings about life and about you.

Because between there and here I'd made mistakes. Kept heading up those downs, when it should of been around.

Pushed everything away - out of mind, out of sight. Maybe I knew I felt this way all along, and I was just gathering material for a poem or a song.

Maybe, I just wanted to remember you.

New Day Ahead 

Watched you sleep, full of hope for the new day ahead.

When you sleep and your peaceful it lifts my soul, I feel ok again.

I kiss your forehead and tuck you in, murmur then rest, settle and calm again.

Trace the lock of blond hair and tuck it behind your ear, soothing motion, a sigh, then relax again

I whisper night night sunshine, I love you, gentle truth spoken into the night again.

And I leave feeling peaceful, full of hope for the new day ahead.

Other Contributors / Samples

- Big Ben Bells

- Vers Libre Sample

- Clock Tower Sounds

- Al Pacino - 'Inches' Speech from Any Given Sunday

- Ramshackle Rhymester - Procrastination https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAev5yzuNJ0

- William Henry Davies - Leisure https://englishverse.com/poems/leisure

- Eddie Hearn Voice Sample

Friday, 15 November 2019

Vers Libre Show 1 - Nature, The Elements - Friday 15th November 2019 at 19.24 Norway Time

Music

- Molly Tuttle - Take The Journey
- Lord Huron - Way Out There
- Kopa - Things Change
- Hallatar - The Raven's Song
- Morcheeba - Never An Easy Way
- Gillian Welch - Tear My Stillhouse Down
- Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi - Spiritual
- Gospel Whiskey Runners - Muddy Waters
- The Controls - You'll Hide
- Kyla La Grange - Cut Your Teeth (Kygo Remix)
- Mandolin Orange - Golden Embers
- Laura Stevenson Christmann - Just Beyond My Reach
- Trees Of Eternity - Sinking Ships

Poetry / Spoken Word from SV

Stealing Victories - The Raven

The raven fluttered into view
Cut through the rain with grace
She perched on a branch in springtime
Reminded me that I love this place

When did you last hear birdsong
In a spiritual way, and what did it say
When did you last look within you
And what did you hear on that day

The raven sang songs of nature's truth
So I followed into the sky without fear
I let the elements transform me
As I flew through the atmosphere

So always listen out for the birdsong
As good souls appear from the mist
The raven whispers on the cold wind
And the storyteller's visions persist


Stealing Victories - 9 Foxes

I went back to the place I knew best. Entered the darkness, remembering my way to the waterside.

The heavy moon poured light from the star laden sky. I emerged from the thick copse to be bathed in the calming white of her rays.

My eye was drawn to the glint of the moons' light, touching the tops of the ripples in the water, made brighter still by the surrounding darkness.

Shimmering, like magic.

It was cold, perfectly cold, and the air was fresh and open, the kind of night the veil stays so thin into the night and you can almost see just by feeling. When you can feel the serene and endless expanse of the universe. An overwhelming sense of purity and clarity.

Nothing, and everything.

Whispering incantations into the night. The flicker, the burn, the touch, the slight movement of air on the trees and the gentle lapping of water on the bank.

Then, it was done.

I returned to the real through trees and fields, passing streams and reeds along the lakeside. I knew then, I felt it. I was strangely comforted by its sadness.

Peaceful sleep, first for an age.

I woke before dawn clutching a vision. A message so clear it could never be dream.

Weeks passed, the foxs' eyes caught mine and stared into my soul. Then it was gone, in an instant hidden.

The vision was realised.


Other Contributors / Samples


- Keshav Bhatt - Nature Speech - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlpyeu-B9i8

- Ramshackle Rhymester - The Call Of The Wild - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9_-2nIDixQ

- Charlotte Mew - In The Fields - https://www.thereader.org.uk/featured-poem-in-the-fieldscharlotte-  mew/

- Jack Killion From Midnight Caller

- Various nature themed samples


Thursday, 10 October 2019

What?

Welcome to the new blog, and here you will find posts that relate to the radio shows I am hosting on the Vers Libre radio station.

I will put up a post for each show, along with the date and time, and the content will have the set list, any poetry or short stories that were on the show, links to any contributors or samples etc. There may also be some notes on the show or general feelings and thoughts related to it.

Thank you for taking the time to visit and if you listen I hope you enjoy the show!

Cheers,

SVx

Tuesday, 8 October 2019

History

The idea behind Stealing Victories is as it sounds, creating opportunities no matter what your situation, and keeping going through tricky times. Taking the good from the bad or difficult. A kind of cautious optimism.

The phrase came from a late night conversation sitting in a car with a friend and he said something like 'sometimes in life you have to steal little victories, like tonight, they keep you going'. That was it, Stealing Victories was the name of my one man band from then on.

Things got in the way, but I came back to it and in around March 2018 I started writing poetry and short stories, which came out of the blue, but I found it rewarding and almost something I had to do. When I came up with a new idea, almost no matter where I was I would have to make a note of it.

Life changes us, and I am finally realising something that has been within me all my life, but I had no doubt suppressed.

I'm not a particularly good writer, but I enjoy it. Words, music, nature and family are the things that inspire and move me.

I'm not a particularly good DJ either, but a new challenge is round the corner.

I started listening to a Norwegian internet based radio station a few months back called Vers Libre. Based on free form radio, where the host/DJ has full control of the show, I thought I would like to have a go.

So here we are! I will be hosting a radio show for Vers Libre (www.verslib.re) and it will contain a real mixture of musical styles, along with some spoken word, poetry and samples, and some general chat. This is all brand new and I'm really looking forward to what path this journey takes.

Each show will be based around a theme, and I will post here around the time the show goes out, the set list, note of any contributors and links to them, and the poems/spoken word stuff.

I hope you enjoy the show!

Cheers,

SVx