Shatila Social and the Great Sponsored Poem Experiment

Shatila Social
The Cumberland Arms
Ouseburn, Byker
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE6 1LD,
Monday July 13th
Doors at 7.30 starts at 8.00
Admission £5.00
(All proceeds to the Shatila Project)

Special Guests: Ray Laidlaw and Billy Mitchell of Lindisfarne
Blues singer Annie Orwin
Comedian Steve Drayton
Plus, Plus, Plus, Scott Tyrrell, Kate Fox, Simma, Nikki Hawkins, Yvonne Young, Adam Fish, Catherine Graham, Kevin Cadwallender, Annie Moir, Richard Makepiece, Kyla Clay Fox are just a few of the other wonderful performers who have agreed to help us raise money.

The writer Peter Mortimer spent two months working in the Shatila Refugee Camp in Beirut. Peter spent time working with the children of the camp school to create, and for them then to perform on camp, a 30 minute play, which incorporated music, dance and physical theatre. Peter is bringing 10 young actors, (and four of their teachers) to perform the play in the autumn on Tyneside. However, in order to do this, funds are needed to help pay for the travel and accommodation for the performers, and to organise the performance itself.

If you can come and pay the £5.00 entrance fee (which is, I know, rather expensive to watch ex-Lindisfarne personnel but you do have to remember I’ll be there too, so on those grounds it’s a bargain), then great, if not, I’d love it if you’d contribute some money by contributing to

THE GREAT SPONSORED POEM EXPERIMENT !
GREAT SPONSORED POEM EXPERIMENT, YOU SAY? WHAT, PRAY TELL, IS THAT?

It’s an innovative, forward-facing, innovative, audience-focused, innovative, interactive and innovative method I’ve devised of getting people to sponsor me to perform at the Shatila Social gig. Obviously, with such a packed bill, I can only do one poem, and I can’t go on too long, so that rules out sponsorship ideas like, say, 50p per poem or a pound for every minute spent performing or whatever. So what I’ve came up with is this: I will write a new poem especially for the event, and if you contribute some sponsorship money I will mention one thing of your choosing. It might be a specific word you want me to use, it might be someone’s name, it might be a number, a concept, whatever. It could be your favourite football team, a line from a song, or a convoluted and embarrassing double entendre. Literally anything you want, if you sponsor me and pay me the money to mention it for the gig, I will mention it in the new poem.

By now, you’re probably saying ‘gee, Adam, this sounds swell, but how can I sign up to be a part of this incredible experiment?’, or you will be if you’re an American 1950s schoolboy anyway. Well, Timmy, it’s simple – simply comment below with details of what you'd like me to mention and how much you're willing to pay for it...