Ariadne’s Notes: On October 10, calling in at 1:10 pm, PST, the incomparable Randall Stephen Hall from Ireland with a wonderful selection of poetry, music, and updates. There is a significant collection of songs and poetry uponSound Cloud/Randall Stephen Hall, Sound Cloud/Hugh Midden SpeakYouTube/ Randall Stephen Hall, two different channels. YouTube/Ragnall stiffen MacHalla. My songs are funny, sad or serious. Light and shade. Dappled light. 

 Also on the show with a worldwide birthday greeting for Davy Fidel  This is a new service for WP participants who have birthdays. Also, a new e-poem Search of Love, by Ram Mohan an artist and writer living in India who has been on the waitlist for a long time. Plus repeats of Peaceathon poets Vani Pradeep, Matilda Miraka, and Aida Roque from September 26^th. 

LISTEN TO THE SHOW NOW RIGHT HERE!

http://www.coopradio.org/content/world-poetry-caf%C3%A9-60.

 Randall writes: I grew up in North Belfast at the height of the Troubles. Born 1957. I grew up beyond many people’s context there and neither of my parents was from Belfast. These two experiences collided and reverberated with more for all my years since then, shaping much of my art and outlook.

I met my wife Ann at The College of Art and Design in Belfast. She did Fine Art and Teaching while I did a degree in Graphic Design. At the time I was playing in a few local groups and later writing songs with two friends. Here’s an example from 1983. “The Bread Song”. https://soundcloud.com/randall-stephen-hall/the-bread-song-circa-1980

I left college in 1980 and got a job in a small ad agency. That winter John Lennon was shot. I remember the news on the radio. It seemed to link with the shift, change, and conflict in Northern Ireland.

Ann and I got married in 1983. We had two girls in 1985 and 1987. We now have two grandchildren of six and two. Both girls.

I worked in local advertising for six years until 1988 when I became a freelance illustrator. My work, for a time, came from Belfast, Dublin and Glasgow. This carried on until 1998 then my work began to change again. www.earthnativeart.co.uk

In 1996 I self-published a book called THE GIANT’S CAUSEWAY. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnN5HQe1Fvk The advertising work began to diminish and I began to receive invites to visit schools to tell this story. A steep learning curve ensued from then until now. (I’ll keep this brief).

During this time I began to create new stories, illustrated for projection and began to shape way of doing storytelling that involved, hand drum, voice, interactive singing, song, poetry, and a main story, lasting about an hour.

All this has evolved slowly in a very natural way over a period of about 20 years.

Around  2009 I began to write and record songs a bit more seriously again. Luckily a local DJ called Gerry Anderson (now sadly passed) found some of my funnier songs interesting and began to play them on the radio. So, in a period of about 9 months, I created my first CD of poems and songs, using local themes, of identity, peace, conflict etc but doing it in an accessible way, with the addition of humour.

Here’s one of the interviews from 2010/2011. https://soundcloud.com/randall-stephen-hall/gerry-anderso-interview-24-9

This development threw me back into playing live again after a long hiatus of some years . . .

So from then until now I’ve been writing songs and poems, creating art and eventually getting involved in a small business with Natasha, my eldest daughter which sells some of my little illustrated books, T-Shirts, Tea-Towels, cards and music, on the web and, up until recently at St. George’s Market in Belfast.

www.ruftyroohah.com

As you can see I am stimulated by our local heritage, sounds, languages and see the potential connections between them.”