Sparkling for Les Dawson, standing up to Thatcher, Tasmanian hitching, a love song, welsh medium education and a play called Deep Cut

On a wild & windy night with the red Christmas lights of the Millenium Centre reflecting in ever growing puddles we settled down at Kemi’s Cafe for the first story of the evening.

It began with a black bakelite telephone. Amanda was a young woman recently arrived in London pursuing her dream. She dashed up and down the stairs between the phone and her top floor bedsit hoping for news of her first job. Eventually with an A to Z in one hand and a vanity case in the other she found her way to Television Centre and onto the nations screens as an “sparkling” extra on the Les Dawson show (we thought she looked familiar!)

A miner’s wife with no interest in politics Glynis’ voyage of self discovery was provoked not by an urge to act but by a need to survive. During the 1983/84 miners strike she found her house populated by activists,
strikers and hungry children. Politically awakened and verbally gifted she was soon traveling the country (and Europe) speaking in support of the workers’ cause. Anyone who regards the 83/84 strike as an unqualified failure needs to meet Glynis.

Darian’s tale of hitch hiking in Tazmania was punctuated by full throated singing and included a cautionary note about battery acid and underwear. He also told of an unexpected and hair raising trip on a light aircraft, a treacherous and nauseating ferry crossing and a less than delightful Christmas dinner bought at a petrol station. Hitching never sounded so little fun.

We started the second half with a beautiful love song beautifully sung by Hannah accompanied on guitar by her dad Kieran.

Dan then gave a hilarious account of the introduction of Welsh medium education in 1970s Cardiff. it seems he was at the heart of an experiment which provoked a strong reaction. In particular he recalled protesters outside his primary school brandishing puzzling placards which read ‘Go back to where you came from.’ It all turned out well in the end though as he now finds himself part of Cardiff’s welsh speaking elite.

The last story of the evening was Phil’s. After receiving a writing commission in 2005, he happened across the story of Deepcut Barracks where several young recruits had died in suspicious circumstances. His account of meeting with the parents of one of the young soldiers and the relationship he forged with them was profound and moving.

Once again thanks to all the story tellers for their generosity and to the audience for braving the weather and listening so carefully. If you have a story to tell please contact steve on 07976 312055. We hope to be back in February – keep spreading the word. Have a good Christmas and New Year.

All the best Maria, Steven and Andrew.

Cape Cod 1959, art and love, a surreal fish (out of water), a life of cross dressing, rampaging Amazonian spiders and a good man misjudged

In 1959 Jane left her job at Boots and sailed to America to work as a “baby sitter”. She was 19 and a little stunned to be left alone with four kids whilst their parents went golfing in Mexico. She was horrified by the children’s table manners but on the plus side the local boys were much taken with her refined British accent. The resulting culture shock made a funny and touching tale.

Phil took us on a journey of a life in four colours, stretching over decades. Yellow = wearing his sisters petty coat, aged 7, the sun streaming in through the bedroom window. Blue = age 19, cross dressing, looking for understanding and acceptance. The psychiatrist said “if you are still doing it in 10 years, then come back and see me”. Phil never went back to see him. Instead, he was married, with children and having his toe nails painted in Spain, = green for the nail varnish. The last period = Red, for an expensive, but not well fitting pair of shoes, which he gifted to his son’s girlfriend. A great story of knowing yourself and being comfortable with that.

We closed the first part of the evening with Gareth (aka The Gentle Good) telling a true story and singing a surreal song about a huge Venezuelan tuna. How may of those can there be? (songs not tuna) I hear you ask.

After the break Betty told of two youthful loves (three if you include art) one of whom possessed the complete works of Proust and Sartre and shared his room with a pet centipede; the other of whom possessed a false leg and a very seductive record collection. With great wit and poise Betty fleshed out their characters and hers as a young woman artist in London in the 60s.

Paul then asked us,”Where does a story begin?” For Paul it began on a broken down boat, on a river, in the middle of the Peruvian jungle. After hours of attempted repairs they gave up and decided to camp for the night on the riverbank. They built a fire to keep warm and all seemed as good as it could be until dozens of spiders came. Attracted by the fire and big as plates they made their way up the banks of the river to settle on the travelers. Now safe and sound and back in the UK, Paul isn’t as frightened of the commonly Welsh spiders anymore.

Iolo rounded off the evening with a heart-felt self-penned song about a friend who many people had lost faith in. After a fatal accident, stories came forward of his friend’s herioc act to save his step-daughter. Our audience were spellbound.

We hope to be back at Kemi’s in December. Keep spreading the word and if you have a story to tell, get in touch!

all the best
Steve, Andrew & Maria

From silence to performance poetry; an infinity of tea ceremonies, feigned deafness and art sales; a little white dress, Yoko Ono’s mystery guest and a heartbreaking love Story.

Upstairs at Kemi’s Cafe was packed for our last night before the summer break

We began with contradictions. Raised on an estate in Ely but, thanks to her mum’s efforts, educated at Howell’s exclusive private school Mab told how she was afflicted by selective mutism until she found her voice as a performance poet.
Mike took a job teaching English in Japan and after a magical mystery train tour found himself smothered by an almost absurd level of courteous attention.
After deciding to travel the world Phil needed cash to escape Sydney. Door to door sales of mass produced landscape paintings proved fruitless until he shaved off his eyebrows dyed his hair red and modified his sales pitch by pretending to be deaf (you couldn’t make this stuff up).
Norma painted a vivid and touching picture of the annual Corpus Christie parade (a fixture on the Cardiff calender until the 1980s) and it’s significance in the life of a young catholic girl.
Peter Cox told of his 60s encounters with struggling artist Yoko Ono in Birmingham and the mystery man who accompanied her (he was the Walrus) and we ended the evening with Sian’s searingly honest and heartbreaking account of her mostly unrequited love for Sam the boy of her dreams. We listened, we laughed and we cried. Then there were cheers and applause.

Once again we would like to thank our storytellers for their wonderful stories and the audience for their attentiveness.
We will be back in September, hope to see you then

Spread the word

Steve & Maria

July 11th all set – tweet if you can!

The next event is ready to go. See you upstairs at Kemi’s Cafe, Craft In The Bay from 7:00 onwards. Stories start around 7:30. This is our last evening before the summer break so it would be good to see it packed, bring a friend! Oh and if you tweet take this and do your best to spread the word:

True Stories Told Live Cardiff, Mon 11 July Kemi’s Cafe in the Bay. Doors 7:00. Stories 7:30. Please RT and spread the word. Free event.

all the best

Steve and Maria

Gun-chester, Potential Popes, Paranoia and Leopard Skin Spandex

Another great turn out at Kemi’s Cafe last night and an incredibly diverse set of stories.
We started with Bell Roberts who took us on a humorous romp through her life as a robust and independent child in 1940s Wales, a teacher in 1960s London and more recently an award winning author. Next David Norton recalled his time as a DJ in Manchester (aka Gun-chester) in the 1990s. After setting the scene and evoking the times brilliantly he told of an encounter with an insistent Salford lad who requested tunes whilst wielding a telescopic baton, an Aeries, he apparently had to have things his way!
We finished the first half of our evening on a more peaceful note with veteran folk singer and peace activist Frankie Armstrong telling how she won over a gaggle of noisy anarchists at a CND protest with her song Shall There Be Womanly Times or Shall We Die? She then performed the song with the assembled audiences enthusiastic participation.

After the break Billy Hardy took us to the heart of his devoutly Catholic family in Scotland and conveyed the excitement and annoyance caused by his mother’s cousin’s ascent through the ranks of the Church. First Parish priest then BIshop then Cardinal and, so they thought, potential Pope. Unfortunately unbeknownst to them the estranged Cardinal had died five years before the vacancy in the Vatican arose.
Huw Evans then told us of a disastrous inter-railing trip with his then girlfriend which seemed to involve being mugged on an hourly basis and culminated in near psychotic paranoia on Huw’s part, false accusations of theft and eviction from an idyllic campsite. Partly as an antidote Huw then treated us to a song about love and friendship.
Our final story came from John Williams who’s early career as a writer involved scouring America for interesting tales he could sell to UK newspapers. Through a series of wallet shrinking mishaps our hero eventually found himself in a Jacksonville diner at 3 in the morning with a middle aged woman who despite the fact she was wearing leopard skin spandex apparently “looked very much like a man”. A befriender of death row inmates his interviewee had recently wed a serial killer and was determined to tell John every gory detail. His eventual escape came as a great relief to everyone present.

Once again we’d like to thank all of the tellers for their generosity and their wonderful stories and the audience for being so supportive (and for joining in with the song when asked).

Watch this space for the next event and if you’d like to tell a story get in touch with us on 07976 312 055

thanks again

Steve and Maria

A school boy error; a man, a van and a bag of chips; being the best you can be; faith over the River Liffey and half a pie on a plate

The rules are simple: the story must be true and belong to the teller, it must last no more than 15 minutes and it must be told from memory.

So, all eyes fixed on the standard lamp and the accompanying chair, waiting waiting for the stories to begin…
Firstly, we travelled back to 1974 as Steve told his story of schoolboy chants and chivalrous revenge escalating into a veritable class war, only to have his bacon saved by his own slipper-wielding headmaster. Then we travelled with Glen from gig to gig across Holland with a van load of revelling (read drunken) musicians, in his search for an honest meal and encounters with a chip-thieving Hell’s Angel. Meilir carried us into battle with a beautiful song and a call to be the the greatest you can be, armed with only a karimba and a tray of gravel. After a brief pause, Kieran took us over the River Liffey and back again as a man and boy in conversations with his dad as they made their way to church and to home for the best christmas breakfast. Finally, Ceri ended the evening with a story of leaving Cardiff and his 6th form band (Haneer Pei) behind to go to medical school in London and a brief, but profitable, encounter with a namesake musician who had been inadvertently collecting his royalty cheques for his song, Petula.
So that’s it, another very successful Truestories night at Kemi’s Cafe (http://www.kemis.co.uk)

Sometimes you will be surprised, other times enchanted, other times mesmerised, other times captured, enthralled, struck, moved.
The rules (above) are simple, but who would have thought that the basic ingredients could take you all these different places. That’s the magic of true stories.

We are looking for contributors to our May event. Drop us a line here or call Steve on 07976 312 055.

Spread the word and we hope to see you at Kemi’s next month.

The Guardian Blog

sorry the link didn’t seem to work so here it is in full…

Spotlight: True Stories Told Live Cardiff celebrates first birthday
One year one from the launch of the Cardiff True Stories group, founder Steve Shepherd looks into the appeal of hearing a ‘real life’ tale

I started True Stories Told Live Cardiff in April 2010 with my wife Maria and our friend Andrew. The idea for the event started forming two years ago when I happened across a podcast from a club in New York called The Moth. People were recounting episodes from their lives and almost without exception they were fascinating. These were real people telling others about the most exciting, or saddest, or strangest or most beautiful thing that had ever happened to them. Importantly they were not making it up, these things actually happened (or at least the individuals believe they happened).

Shortly after I discovered The Moth a good friend was in touch to say that he had just told a story at a new club in London called True Stories Told Live. His story concerned an attempt to conduct a humanist funeral for his mother in Ireland – an attempt thwarted by his devout uncles and aunts who protested with a coordinated and prolonged recitation of the rosary. You couldn’t make this stuff up (nor are you allowed to at True Stories Told Live). Realising that this was exactly what we wanted to do in Cardiff I went to London to meet the club’s founder and explained my interest in the idea. He gave me some tips and suggested we go with the same name, which we did.

True Stories Told Live Cardiff is now a year old and so far around 50 people have been prepared to sit on a chair under a red lampshade and tell a story about their lives to an audience of strangers. The rules are simple: the story must be true and belong to the teller, it must last no more than 15 minutes and it must be told from memory.

I got the ball rolling on our first night with a story about Death’s Head Hawk Moth’s, near divorce and global warming. Others have told of meetings with Saddam Hussein, a South American Shaman and Woody Allen. We’ve had heartbreaking stories: a child gone too early, another found after decades. Stories of faded friendships, cultural clashes and war zone escapades. We’ve had danger on the high seas, hauntings and hapless hitchers. We’ve also had beautiful songs from the likes of Lyndon Morgan and Charlotte Grieg.

On any given night we have five stories (and sometimes a song). The audience never know what’s coming next and to be honest we only have a vague idea. I do ask prospective story tellers to outline their piece and I may ask a couple of questions to reassure myself but I have developed a belief that everyone has at least one good story in them. I also believe that if they are motivated to tell it they’ll do a good job (I am happy to talk through stories with people who would like to take part but are unsure how to structure their story).

Over the last year the biggest surprise to me has been the atmosphere generated by true stories in a room. This is not a combative stand-up comedy atmosphere, nor is it a theatrical atmosphere. Our audiences seem to radiate generosity and support for the storytellers. They are, after all, being allowed a glimpse into someone else’s private world. The fact that what you are hearing is true and that it happened to the person telling you about it cannot be underestimated. There is a palpable and unique sense that it is a privilege both to tell and to listen.

The next True Stories Told Live Cardiff will take place this coming Monday
Anyone who has been to one of our nights will know that I like to describe True Stories Told Live as pre-industrial entertainment. Telling each other stories is perhaps the first group entertainment humans indulged in. It’s been neglected for a while, many of us forgot how powerful a form it was, but with clubs in Cardiff, London, Brighton, Stroud, Hebdon Bridge, it seems true story telling is back with a vengeance. Long may it continue.

The next True Stories Told Live, Cardiff is on 11 April upstairs at Kemi’s Cafe, Craft in The Bay. Stories start at 7.30pm, entrance is free. Follow the True Stories Told Live in Cardiff on the blog here.

Mountainous waves, a night visiting song, perilous hitchhiking, the Pont Neuf and the six times table set to music

What could possibly link these things ? I hear you ask
and the answer of course is True Stories Told Live Cardiff.
We started our evening looking for more chairs to accommodate the 60 or so people crammed into Kemi’s Cafe. It seems word is out about the wonders of pre-industrial entertainment.

Chairs in place it was on with the stories…

Cynthia had travelled all the way from Stroud to tell us a terrifying tale of being on midnight watch sailing through mountainous waves in the north sea. Her mix of physicality and poetry, with the captain shouting to be heard above howling winds as oil rigs loomed out of the darkness was mesmerizing. Allison’s journey, hitchhiking with her friend Belsen across ireland made for a hilarious but edgy story as their manic driver revealed more and more of himself hour after hour before screeching to a halt, presenting them with giant bunches of spring onions and abandoning them on a dark lane. Strange but true.
Charlotte Greig told a beautiful story of love at first sight, a sad parting and a deathbed reunion. She then sang her song Vine Leaves about a strange revelatory dream featuring her former love (Charlotte’s music is available here http://www.charlottegreig.com/)
After a short break Andrew took us inter-railing to Paris (with his 21 yr old student self) where a chance encounter with a beautiful Norwegian woman lead to light petting, romantic comedy sightseeing montages and a partial re-enactment of Les Amants du Pont Neuf. As if that wasn’t enough he even ended with a joke!
Our evening was brought to a close by Wally an enthusiastic young teacher brought low by the drudgery of rigid lesson plans and form filling. Imagine if your primary school teacher had set times tables to Michael Jackson’s Beat It, split the class into opposing gangs and encouraged you to go head to head in a musical multiplication rumble. If only all teachers could be as hilarious and inspirational.

Upstairs at Kemi’s was buzzing long after the stories ended and once again we traveled home feeling we’d done a good thing. Five great true stories that may never have been told are now out there hopefully being retold by our enthusiastic and attentive audience. Thanks to all of them (you), to our story tellers and to Kemi for a perfect venue.

Hope to see you on April 11 same time and place

Steve

I’ve done all I can to spread the word …

Hope to see you all at Kemi’s tomorrow night, stories start at 7:30, get there a bit earlier for some if Kemi’s great coffee and cake, and bring a friend.

Be in the bay on Monday 14 March, 7:30@Kemi’s

The posters are up and the leaflets are in my bag awaiting random distribution around Cardiff. More importantly we have five stories (and a song) waiting to be told (and sung).
Andew, Allison, Wally, Charlotte and Cynthia have all agreed to give us 10 minute insights into the worlds they inhabit and Kemi has agreed to stay late and serve food and drinks at her cafe in the bay. Hope to see you and some friends there, stories start at 7:30.

cheers steve