A brief notice (shouldn't be more, as I took part therein) of the Sub

Voicive Tribute to Richard Caddel Camden People's Theatre, London, 9 vi 2003

(I took no notes, and went to the pub afterwards, so this is all rather

impressionist...)

Unfortunately advertised readers Kelvin Corcoran and Roy Fisher were unable

to appear; but their absence was compensated for by a 15-minute video

recording of Richard reading.

Lawrence Upton, who compered, opened explaining the nature of the event.

Clive Bush opened by reading the Weardale section of "Caddel's "Fantasia on

the English Choral Tradition", setting a style in that he (as everyone else)

made no attempt to echo or shadow Caddel's quite distinctive reading manner.

The revoicing of a piece as seemingly specific to its author's voice as the

"Fantasia' I found exciting; the readings of Caddel's work alone would have

made the evening worthwhile. Clive went on to read a long poem, one of a

series to be published shortly, deriving from paintings by Poussin; a

reading of great clarity, with evident resonances.

John Seed followed, reading first a selection from Caddel's "Ice Berg Tip

Poems", as first published in the Grosseteste Review. I greatly enjoyed

hearing them voiced with a Northumbrian accent... John went on to read his

poem on the view from Ric Caddel's (Durham) kitchen window, along with a

couple of others from his first books published by Ric & Ann's Pig Press.

He concluded with a chance juxtaposition, a poem by John Riley, "Memoriam",

from the same issue of Grosseteste Review as the Ice Berg Tip Poems.

I read next opening with an Old Welsh adaptation from the JACKET 22 Tribute

edited by Peter Quartermain (<http://jacketmagazine.com/22/caddel.html>) and

then some sections from UNHEALED, a work-in-progress focussing on the Gulf

"War" likewise drawing on Old Welsh originals (an unlikely interest we

shared); and I finished with my favourite of Ric's "Rigmaroles", one indeed

of my favourite poems.

Peterjon Skelt's video of Caddel reading at the 1991 launch of PROSPECT INTO

BREATH was a delight, even taking into account the poor-quality sound -

early days for that technology. (I understand it may be possible to tidy it

up a little.) Richard-back-in-1991 spoke briefly about being interviewed,

read the "Rigmarole: Night-Driving in Correze", dedicated to Lucy Caddel

(she was in the audience for this reading), and concluded with the

theme-and-variation sequence "Ground".

This was followed into a break, and Ken Edwards opened the second half

reading Caddel's sequence "Baltic Coast". (Ken had once depped for Richard

at a festival in Lithuania...) Again it came across well in a "new" voice,

despite being tricky to read. Ken followed with a piece "Radio". from his

Pig Press book, INTENSIVE CARE. Perhaps it was just context, but I suddenly

heard shared formal concerns/structuring modes with some of Ric's work...

Ken concluded with the last part of his solo (or multi-voice) piece "Glory

Boxes", a fine book that seems to lack a publisher. A surprise encore was

Ric's pasquinade on anthologies.

Allan Fisher concluded, reading atmospherically from enlarged A3 sheets the

whole of Ric's early book "QUIET ALCHEMY". This was an intriguing choice;

certainly I never heard Ric read work this early in date. But Allan voiced

it very much in his own way - using different registers or speeds to

allocate multiple voicings or display other formal concerns. I enjoyed it

very much, and found it extremely illuminating. We should perform one

another's work more often than we do, if it can be this interesting.

Lawrence made the necessary closing remarks, and some of the assembled

company went round the corner to drink wishy-washy southern beer.

A good evening, I thought.

Harry