Lager Time

Greetings, bonjour, what’s happening?

Welcome to episode 112 of the Lager Time Podcast.

Three poems this week - they’ve been edited a bit since I read them last on here. It’s all part of the process as I get the poems ready for this next book - working title - Last Chance Academy for Dying Ideas.

As ever, if you’re subscribed on Substack you can read the poems below, if not cree.substack.com

That’ll do

Have a banging weekend

Paul

LINKS

Boyhood at Pleasance

https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/boyhood

Peter Pan at the Polka

https://polkatheatre.com/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=24388830179&gclid=CjwKCAjwi-zWBhAdEiwAqlRf-ErX3TNf9BK_ftwQqOrBvizNbmSwyFKDPjUL6nKzh1gHxyoPZfd2_hoCvzAQAvD_BwE

BUY-ME-A-LAGER / https://ko-fi.com/paulcree

THE SUBURBAN BOOK / My 1st book collection of stories and poems

www.paulcree.co.uk/shop

Beats & Elements: A Hip Hop Theatre Trilogy

2 plays I co-wrote plus Denmarked by Conrad Murray

https://paulcree.co.uk/shop/beats-and-elements-a-hip-hop-theatre-trilogy

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cree.substack.com

Greetings, bonjour, what’s happening

Welcome to Lager Time.

Finally got round to selecting some potential poems for this next book - The Last Chance Academy for Dying Ideas - I’m now starting to go through each one to get them match fit. Some of them won’t make it, some, very much on the fringes, may well go on to become mainstays. Some, are clearly not as good as I’d first thought. But there you go.

In the meantime, if you’re in London over the new few weeks and fancy watching a play with some live beats and rap in - my good pal Conrad Murray has written a bunch of great songs for the show Boyhood - which is playing at The Pleasance Theatre and also stars another Beats & Elements longtime collaborator - Kate Donachie. It’s also going to be at Lantern Arts n Raynes Park and Wimbledon Libray.

That’ll do for now

Have a banging weekend

Paul

If you’re able to, these are ways you can support my work

SPOTIFY

APPLE

YOU TUBE

BUY-ME-A-LAGER

https://ko-fi.com/paulcree

THE SUBURBAN BOOK

My 1st book collection of stories and poems

www.paulcree.co.uk/shop

Beats & Elements: A Hip Hop Theatre Trilogy

2 plays I co-wrote plus Denmarked by Conrad Murray

https://paulcree.co.uk/shop/beats-and-elements-a-hip-hop-theatre-trilogy

Whistle Posse

When did the small pool I

Inhabit get overrun with a

load of overgrown kids to

scared to get wet?

Who let them get hold of

the lifeguards whistle?

Who didn’t remove that

Whistle when the kids got

Happy Happycore and blew

us all out the pool, removing

the lanes and switching off

Wave machine? Screaming

out statutes over the

PA about health and safety

In the workplace

Now a load of us are

Scared to get in

Though not for

Fear of getting

Wet, for fear of

A headache while

Lamenting the joy

That once was

Burned in the

chlorine to

dribble down

The overflow

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cree.substack.com

Greetings, bonjour, wha’s happneing?

Welcome to Lager Time.

Short one this week. Just the one poem this week and it’s new-ish work-in-progress one called Teams. Poem below for those on the Substack cree.substack.com

That’s it, mate. Short and sweet

Have a banging weekend

Paul

LINKS

BUY-ME-A-LAGER

https://ko-fi.com/paulcree

THE SUBURBAN BOOK

My 1st book collection of stories and poems

www.paulcree.co.uk/shop

Beats & Elements: A Hip Hop Theatre Trilogy

2 plays I co-wrote plus Denmarked by Conrad Murray

https://paulcree.co.uk/shop/beats-and-elements-a-hip-hop-theatre-trilogy

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cree.substack.com

Greetings, bonjour, what’s happenin?

Welcome to Lager Time

Another week, another poem from The Suburban audio project. Another one that I remember writing but don’t think I ever performed it. I remember thinking it was alright, though. A bygone phase of relationship-style poems that aren’t really in my wheelhouse anymore.

Been back on some workshop and education business this last week, with Fourth Monkey Drama School, Dream Arts Rep and Woolwich Library.

Speaking of Dream Arts, it’s the final show of the What We Do When We Can’t Dance. After a successful tour this year, which included our first 5-star review, it’s coming home to Marlebone Theatre on Sunday 11th October. Tickets are free, just book via the link.

They team also got to see the first draft of some early scenes of the new piece last night, which I’ve been writing over the last couple of weeks. Always an exciting and anxious moment when they first read through it. Over the next few weeks, no doubt they’ll be some edits and I’ll be getting busy on the boards starting to make the music for it.

As mentioned on the podcast, if you’re interested in having a little poem for you, by me, get in touch on [email protected] – can be about anything you want, we can have a little chat from there.

That’ll do for now

Have a banging weekend

Peas and Taters

Paul

LINKS

WHAT WE DO WHEN WE CAN’T DANCE @Marylebone Theatre – October 11th – 6pm

The Suburban BOOK

More 64s of Boredom – 5-track rap EP

KIMBR feat Paul Cree – In These Times

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cree.substack.com

Greetings, bonjour, what’s happening?

Welcome to Lager Time!

Apologies for the lack of Lager action these last couple of weeks; I’ve been double busy with life stuff. Regardless, hope you’re all well out there in Lager Land.

Two more poems from the Suburban this week; I’m slowly putting together an audio version of the book, which came out back in 2018. These poems certainly represent a moment for me, in that I went through a phase writing these sorts of poems and don’t really anyone. But it’s enjoyable going back over them.

You can find the poems below for those of you subscribed on Substack, www.cree.substack.com for those who aren’t.

Couple of dates for you:

The final show of WHAT WE WE DO WHEN WE CAN’T DANCE - after a successful UK tour, is coming home to London, Marylebone theatre on SUNDAY 11TH OCTOBER tickets are Free, but you will need to reserve. It’s been a joy to work on the show this last year, I wrote the script and produced all the music.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/what-we-do-when-we-cant-dance-by-dreamarts-rep-company-tickets-1999376601236

AND finally, Thursday 1st October, the legendary POETRY UNPLUGGED at the Poetry Cafe will be returning for one night only. Get involved. Me and many others involved cut our teeth here so I’m chuffed it’s coming back

https://poetrysociety.org.uk/event/poetry-unplugged/

That’s all for now, I’ll be back soon

Big game tomorrow of course, COME ON YOU LIONNNNNS! MILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Peas and ‘taters

Paul

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cree.substack.com

Greetings, bonjour, what’s happening?

Welcome to Lager Time.

No podcast last week, soz, was a bit too hot and busy.

This week, I’ve picked up where I left off with the audio book project I’m recording for The Suburban, which was my first book of poems and stories, I put out back in 2018. This week’s offering is 4 short poems:

A Pale Shade of White

The 12 (which is a haiku poem)

She Says and another haiku to finish, called embankment.

Poems below for those subscribed on Substack - www.Cree.substack.com for those that aren’t.

I’ve been beavering away, trying to sort out some work for the next few months; got some bits in the bag. Aside from that, there’s a couple of ideas which have been slowly fermenting in the back of my mind which are starting to take shape. This week I started scribbling some bits for a new story project, involving Reece and New Town and a new solo show idea, which will be for a younger audience, loosely inspired by Plato’s Allegory of the cave. As part of some research, I’ve been reading Plato’s Republic, amongst other things.

That’ll do for now

Enjoy the milder weather, I know I am!

Peas and taters

Paul

LINKS

In these Times, produced by KMBR (OUT NOW)

The Suburban BOOK

More 64s of Boredom EP

www.paulcree.co.uk for everything else

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cree.substack.com

Greetings, bonjour, what’s happening

Welcome to Lager Time!

This week I run through a few short poems that I’m potentially going to read at tonight’s gig – Adult Entertainment – over at Café Oto, in Dalston, East London. Tickets are free but I’m told is booked-out, but maybe try your luck on the website. They’ll be links below Seems to be a popular gig so I’m looking forward to getting back on stage again.

Had some very exciting news today – Bristol Drum and Bass producer KIMBR’s new EP – Becoming The Sound Vol 1 – has been released on Architecture Recordings. Heavy breaks and deep soundscapes – the track In These Times features a verse from me on there; so I’m super chuffed.

The EP is available on Bandcamp, plus all the regular streamers etc

And while you’re there, my EP I put out earlier this year – More 64s of Boredom – is available to stream on all platforms.

That’ll do for now

Hope you all have an enjoyable weekend

Peas and taters

Paul

LINKS

Adult Entertainment – over at Café Oto

Becoming The Sound Vol 1

MY WEBSITE

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cree.substack.com

Greetings, bonjour, what’s happening

Welcome to Lager Time

Couple more poems this week from my first book – The Suburban – The 2100 to No Where To Nowhere and Montage as part of the ongoing recording, to make into an audio book.

2100 was published in the Rhyming Thunder Anthology from Burning Eye Books back in 2011 or 12 I think. Montage I rarely performed by we shot a video for it, at my mate Steve’s old gaff in Kilburn, with the mighty Peter Hayhoe and his Muddy Feet Gang

Hope you all enjoy the cooler weather

Peas and taters

Paul

LINKS

The Suburban book

Montage Video

Rhyming Thunder Anthology

Adult Entertainment Poetry gig on Friday 7th August @ Café Oto – 7PM – Dalston Junction

What We Do When We Can’t Dance @ Theatre Royal Plymouth – 11th August @ Theatre Royal Plymouth – 5pm

The 21.00 to Nowhere

One of several large flat-screen TVs blinks silently, rotating an incessant stream of updating information from the world of football and a few other sports which fight like pigeons over the remaining crumbs of coverage, muted to a theme tune of songs played over the PA, mostly belonging to a decade before. Lip-syncing Sky Sports newsreaders with Snow Patrol or Oasis becomes a game in itself. The many pillars of unofficial knowledge that often populate pubs, normally stood like dusty ornaments at the bar, will tell you the breweries pay less to PRS for the older songs, like it’s some grand racket that none of us are supposed to be in on.

This is no normal pub. Establishments like this one, with its sports screens, high bar stools and signed shirts in frames, will rarely produce such loyal patrons, due to the nature of the clientele they serve on a daily basis, for they belong in train stations. Suspending animation between places as people revolve as fast as turnstile gates on packed match days.

Located conveniently between A and B, these are the types of bars which I never remember the name of, but chances are I’ll know what beers they sell, how much they charge, and I’ll quietly tut when I receive my change on a shiny silver tray with a receipt including the VAT breakdown and the bartender’s name, which in this case is Pascal, not that we’re on a first-name basis, and it’s that lack of familiarity which appeals to me.

With décor and furniture normally generic enough that even the most eccentric amongst us can blend in and become anonymous, it’s in here I can quietly sip my beer and disappear. In here I don’t exist, trapped between time zones for when I have no place to go. This soulless sports bar is a waiting room, where reason can consult my heart and pick apart my brain, or simply sit, sip and switch off.

I watch as commuters come and go for a post-work drink. Some look as if they’re biding their time before the big squeeze back to the provinces, towns of the type I grew up in. Tourists browse the expensive food menus in which oven-heated ready meals appear at the blink of an eye. Groups of lads and girls break journeys, downing booze at breakneck speed before they leave to presumably go on elsewhere to drink even more.

If I sit here long enough, the merry-go-round of sports updates will produce a new piece of news. I might even hear a song I once liked. The few pound coins in the tray, the residue of a £10 note used to pay for a pint, may not even see the dark cotton cushion of my pocket, and may just be popped into the slot of a fruit machine, depending on how low I sink.

Today I’m sat, about three feet off the ground, on this high stool, nursing an expensive pint poured by Pascal, and I will take my time. This bar is my camo-pattern jacket hidden amongst the leaves and, when I’m ready, I’ll slowly slip off my stool and go locate my train.

Montage

You wake up,

you walk into the bathroom,

you’re wondering what’s happened to your mate,

your best mate.

What’s changed?

You ain’t seen him in days.

You look in the mirror and wonder what’s happened to your face.

What’s changed?

You ain’t shaved in days.

Another line in your forehead appears,

the gears in your imagination begin to grind,

the light in your mind flickers and the film reels begin to rotate.

Cue montage.

Coldplay plays,

your mate and his girl,

arm-in-arm walks in the park kicking up leaves,

feeding ducks in the pond,

trips to the sea,

trips to art galleries,

joint shopping trips to Gap and H&M,

his and hers, hers and his,

sharing friends over drinks,

mates are now friends, friends are now

ours, ours ain’t his, ours ain’t you,

dinner parties, dinner parties using

recipes taken from celebrity chefs, expensive

A4 hardback conveniently rests on the clinically clean

kitchen surface, strategically placed to make it look like it

wasn’t placed to imply taste,

Sunday afternoons in gastropubs or in Starbucks, drinking

from huge coffee mugs held with two hands, then taking selfies,

cheesy trinkets and cutlery,

amalgamating diaries,

middle-ground CDs,

middle-ground DVDs,

middle-ground being,

feeling like carpet under your feet, hiding the

cold hard damp scarred floorboards underneath where

skeletons of single ex-friends lie recluse

for choosing to refuse to wear shoes in place of trainers

in order to gain entry into cheesy nightclub venues,

continuing to smoke weed, consume lager, watch

football and smash kebabs,

still listening to hip-hop and underground dance music,

still rebelling against chart music,

still laughing when farting,

still openly honest about porn use,

still treading water in an ocean of self-loathing where the

only humane feeling that remains is the pain from

getting salt in the wounds,

still complaining about the day-to-day pursuit of pay and

feeling unfulfilled, that grates like an itch you can never

quite reach between the shoulder blades,

lacking the kind of companion that will scratch it and

relieve it, then embrace you for all your insecurities,

idiosyncrasies and imperfections and tell you that it will all be OK,

chuckling in your ear, stroking your hair, kissing you

on the cheek, then walking away, leaving her sweet

perfume in the airspace as you look in the mirror, see

your face, think of her and think, Shit,

life’s alright.

Instead you see your face,

your muggy unshaven face,

and you think of your mate

and you hope the prick is happy.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cree.substack.com

Greetings, bonjour, what’s happening?

Hope you’re all well out there.

This week, I pick back up from where I left two weeks ago; with the audio version of my first book, The Suburban.

The poems featured this week are Whoever Said It Was Easy and London Calling. Twp pieces I’ve performed a lot over the years.

Apologies for the lack of an episode last week, I was dealing some family stuff; it was tough old few days.

However, back at it this week with a couple bits of good news.

The Dream Arts REP show – What We Do When We Can’t Dance – has received a whopping 5-star REVIEW, for the recent performance at Litchfield Garrick.

A track I did a vocal for, called In These Times, is coming out on an EP by super sick Bristol Drum and Bass Producer, KIMBR. It’s part of an EP called Becoming The Sound and will be coming out on DJ Ink’s Architecture Recordings; super chuffed with that.

I also put a little video of me performing my track Gob-Shy off the More 64s of Boredom. It’s all done in Lager HQ, down here at the bottom of the garden in South East London.

That’s it for now

Have a banging weekend

Links and poems below

Paul

LINKS –

Dream Arts Rep – What We Do When We Can’t REVIEW

KIMBR

Architecture Recordings

The Suburban Book

More 64’s of Boredom EP - BANDCAMP / SPOTIFY / APPLE / QOBUZ / AMAZON / YOUTUBE

Gob-Shy Live from Lager HQ

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cree.substack.com

Greetings, bonjour, what’s happening?

Welcome to Lager Time.

This week, I read another three poems from my first book – The Suburban.

Listen, since last week, I got lively in the booth and have started recording the audio version.

I’ve also done a full edit now on Way of the Kip. Cracking on, mate. If you’ve listened / read to any of these, many thanks. It all helps

The poems are below for those on Substack,

for those that aren’t.

Links also below for the projects I mention

Have a banging England

COME ON ENGLAND!

Paul

LINKS

Dream Arts Rep: What We Do When We Can’t Dance @ Ventnor Fringe, Isle of Wight

21st July - 1PM – TICKETS

https://purchase.vfringe.co.uk/EventAvailability?EventId=57801

CALIBRE AUDIO – Audiobooks Charity

https://my.calibre.org.uk

MORE 64s of BOREDOM My 5-track rap EP

BANDCAMP / SPOTIFY / APPLE / QOBUZ / AMAZON / YOUTUBE

THE SUBURBAN – My first book of Poems and Stories

https://paulcree.co.uk/shop/thesuburban

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cree.substack.com