BREAKING NEWS: A New Poetry Book Is Coming!

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It’s hardly front page news that catching up on the latest headlines can make us all feel a bit depressed.

However, every now and then something unusual, unexpected and undeniably silly cuts through all the doom and gloom. Often spread through the power of social media, sometimes a story will grip the world’s attention, travelling through national, political and social borders and for a brief moment mankind is united in awe of something truly extraordinary.

For example, remember the time that container ship got stuck sideways and blocked the world’s busiest trade route? Or when somebody tried to touch up that ancient painting but did such a bad job she completely ruined it? Or the time that farmer moved a rock which sparked a border war when he inadvertently stole a few feet off of France?

I think times like these are well worth celebrating. Moments when it seemed the entire world laughed, sighed or rolled our eyes as one. That’s why I’ve been quietly collecting these stories over the years and capturing them in poetic verse. Now, I’ve bundled them all together in my brand new poetry book!

“Also In The News” is available for pre-order from this morning!

This collection includes poems such as Bratwurst vs Cumberland, Fool Of The Nile, War Of The Flies, Silenced By The Lambs, The Curious Case Of A Sandwich In Space and Southend City as featured on BBC Essex, Phoenix FM and other radio stations around the world!

Drawing on all sorts of true events from that awkward moment when Brexit caused a raging sausage war to the Queen’s Jubilee, Rod Stewart filling pot holes and Will Smith at the Oscars to rogue pets and many, many more unbelievable times immortalised in rhyme.

Also In The News will be available to buy on Monday 5th September for £4 but is available to pre-order NOW for a special price of £3 to anyone subscribed to my mailing list! Just enter your details in the box below then click here to pre-order your copy.

Currently available for anyone to buy exclusively on the Amazon Kindle Store. (You don’t need a kindle though, just download the free Kindle app on your device!) Plus, Kindle Unlimited customers can now download this and all of my books for free as part of their subscription.

The first of a bumper release, I’ll be sharing news with you soon about another poetry collection and how you can help me celebrate this year’s national poetry day next month. Until then, I hope you enjoy “Also In The News” and please help me share it with the world! Thank you.

A Whole New Drive

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The last few weeks and months have been a busy time at The Pink House and as the world takes the first cautious steps back towards “normality” (whatever that is) I’m excited to be leaving the house once again!

As I’m sure you already know, since the start of the pandemic I’ve been broadcasting from The Pink House Studios (my bedroom) and although living la vida lockdown has been a long and bizarre journey it has lead to a few extra little twists. My dreams of a standup comedy tour were sidelined but I found new ways of making people laugh with a weekly witty ditty. Interviewing backstage at venues and festivals paused but I’ve Zoomed, WhatsApped and FaceTimed with hundreds of great guests and met some amazing new friends without even leaving the house. I even Zoomed onto BBC Essex to chat about my poetry and when I look back over the past 18 months or so, I can proudly say that I never missed a show, learned a bunch of new skills and quite literally wrote the book on pandemic life… and then it became a bestseller!

However, as we progress further down the road to recovery / highway to hell we’re all keeping a close eye on the signals and hoping the road ahead doesn’t lead us into a six-lane pile-up! With that in mind, I’m hugely excited to tell you about a whole new drive…

Click to play the trailer

Starting from Monday 21st June I’ll be presenting Phoenix FM’s Drivetime Show, broadcasting live every weekday from 3-6pm on 98FM to Essex and to the whole world on your smart speaker, TunIn, Sonos Radio, Mixcloud, the Phoenix FM app and at PhoenixFM.com! Join in the fun with our never ending story, get yourself or someone you know a high five on drive, be our local hero of the day and enjoy a tonne of great music, top guests, sarcastic weather reports and a whole new take on traffic updates guaranteed to make you smile. I’ll be bringing my poetry podcast with me and sharing a weekly witty ditty every Thursday plus Mark Searby’s film reviews will continue every Friday. Whether you’re staying in or going out, I hope you’ll be able to join me from time-to-time for some live fun in the studio and if you are tuned in, do get in touch – shoutouts are the best part!

Meanwhile, I’ll still be presenting The As Yet Untitled Rock Show every Saturday night from 10pm, showcasing the latest and greatest in rock.

Surfing the radio airwaves 6 days a week will certainly keep me busy but with great content comes great podcasts. So if you do miss the live shows, you’ll be able to catch up on all of the interviews, poems and film reviews on my website plus checkout the latest tunes I’m spinning in my playlists. You’ll also find your weekly dose of The As Yet Untitled Rock Show available on demand here.

Things have certainly gone radio gaga lately but writing continues too and I’ve started work on my next two poetry anthologies with another release in the pipeline sometime in the next 6-9 months plus my first short story is now available to pre-order here.

I hope that over the next few weeks you’ll find time to hop in the passenger seat and join in the fun live on drive. Heck, bring your friends and we’ll make it a mass-gathering! In-between, don’t forget that everything I’ve ever done is always available on-demand at the click of a button at www.stewartpink.com.

Enjoy, rock on and talk to you soon

Stew

A Conga… And The Third Wave

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It’s just over 6 weeks since I last wrote to you about my first literary adventure and I wanted to share a few updates from The Pink House.

Before I do, I’d like to share a little video with you. A few thoughts on the forgotten victim of social distancing and the ultimate wedding dance; the conga!

Enjoy.

Oh How I Long To Be In A Conga

The Brentwood Gazette and InYourArea.co.uk

The last few weeks have been an exciting time doing my best to become a super-spreader of poems. With the release of Pandemic Poetry: The Covid Collection I was invited to be a guest on Michelle Ward’s radio show, shared a few witty ditties and had some fun being on the receiving end of the questions for a change. Thanks to all of your support, sales rocketed and my “R rate” went up after a surge in downloads and even a few international variants sold as far away as Russia and Brazil!

At the peak of the second wave we went truly viral and my first little book ranked 20th in Amazon Kindle Store’s list of bestselling British Poetry and 25th in Amazon’s Bestselling Poetry Anthologies! Then, I was delighted to see a lovely full-page feature in The Brentwood Gazette reporting on the good news and an article on InYourArea.co.uk too.

Now, in the latest twist of a whirlwind of excitement, Pandemic Poetry: The Covid Collection has been selected as part of Amazon Kindle Unlimited and is hopefully about to reach a third wave of new readers who’ve signed up for Amazon’s unlimited subscription. My eternal thanks to all of you who have downloaded, shared and read the book, your support has been amazing and hugely appreciated. If you haven’t got your copy yet you can download it here. I can’t wait to bring you my next witty poetry collection later this year!

Speaking of which, I recently upgraded my website to stewartpink.com and it’s never been easier to keep up with all the latest content from my radio studio and writing desk. The website now hosts all my latest podcast episodes and you can play or download them there with one click. The latest radio shows, poems, interviews, film reviews and videos are all there plus a new Spotify playlists page featuring great new music from my radio guests. There’s even a page where you can support my work with donations; a bit like a virtual tip jar.

To explore my new website, click on my new logo!

Lastly, and most exciting, you can now see a sneak preview of my first short story available to preorder now! Visit stewartpink.com/books for all the details.

Thanks, as always, for being in my corner and according to government guidelines I should be able to hug you all very soon.

Stew

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OUT NOW! Pandemic Poetry: The Covid Collection

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It’s official: one year since lockdown… doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun?

Alright, so it’s been a bit rubbish but amidst all the things we’d rather forget there have been some unbelievable moments and ridiculous events that I thoroughly enjoyed ripping to shreds in poetic verse every week on my radio show.

Alas, driven by the data and guided by the science, I’ve compiled a world-beating, mass gathering of these witty ditties I’ve called Pandemic Poetry: The Covid Collection. My first ever ebook, my debut as an author and published poet and my little contribution to the great verse of life.

This collection of silly little poems began as a way of making light of whatever dark we woke up in on any given week but as all the events of the past year unfolded, and I continued to weave them all into funny little rhymes, they’ve become a genuine piece of history. Reflections on the craziness of our times within a few witty words, immortalised forever.

If you’ve been a regular listener of my Friday afternoon radio show on Phoenix FM or if you subscribe to my poetry podcast then you’ll hear some of them performed in all their glory. However, the book also contains some originals you’ll never hear on the radio or on the podcast!

To celebrate the launch of my first ebook and commemorate/commiserate our one year lockdown anniversary my #One2ThreeShow on Phoenix FM last week featured a few of my favourite pandemic poems amidst an isolation playlist.

To listen to the show which includes my rendition of “A Whitty Ditty”, “He Said” and “Oh How I Long To Be In A Conga” read from Pandemic Poetry: The Covid Collection click here.

The ebook features illustrations by my illustratively ingenious sister, Maddie and is available to download on the Amazon Kindle Store. It is dedicated to everyone who stayed at home to protect the lives of others, the key workers who kept the wheels turning, the healthcare professionals, scientists and everybody else who deserves far more than a round of applause on a Tuesday evening.

It certainly is not dedicated to Dominic Cummings.

To support my poetry and get your copy of Pandemic Poetry: The Covid Collection click here.

To listen and/or subscribe to Stewart On The Poetry Podcast click here.

For everything else from The Pink House including videos, radio shows, podcasts, books, reviews, poetry, interviews and all the latest from Stew HQ click here to visit my freshly revamped website.

Pandemic Poetry: Available to pre-order!

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Next week, Tuesday 23rd March, is a big day in all of our calendars; a whole year since we first went into a UK wide lockdown. A lot has changed since we’ve been living la vida lockdown, we’ve learned some lovely new words like “furloughed” and anyone who had shares in Zoom is now richer than the entire travel industry. We’ve been guided by the science and driven by the data, worn more face coverings than a stormtrooper and at one point it was cheaper to fill your car with petrol than it was to fill a bottle with sanitiser. To put it mildly; it’s all been a bit silly and, like many people, I haven’t been out much. As you know, for over a year I’ve been broadcasting from The Pink House Studios (my bedroom) on Brentwood’s Phoenix FM and to help lift the spirits of my listeners I’ve been sharing a weekly witty ditty. A short poem based on the events of the week and unsurprisingly, Coronavirus featured heavily!

Alas, to celebrate (or commiserate) a whole year of madness, I’ve bundled together a mass-gathering of pandemic poetry featuring a few witty ditties that encapsulate and reflect on some of the bits the history books will probably leave out when the story of Coronavirus is written. We won’t want to remember everything that happened but when Covid-19 is old news, these silly little poems will always remind us of the moments that made us laugh when we needed it most. With titles like “Tiers Of A Town”, “A Whitty Ditty”, “The Going Of Cummings” and “Oh How I Long To Be In A Conga” you’ll find these jolly jabs of wit just the tonic to remedy this peculiar moment in our lives.

Despite sharing a weekly witty ditty on my radio show for over a year now, this is the first time I’ve ever dipped my little toe cautiously into publishing and I’m hugely excited to make my debut as a fully-fledged author with “Pandemic Poetry: The Covid Collection”. The ebook is available to pre-order now on Amazon and as subscribers to my mailing list, my most loyal and wonderful supporters, you’re the first to see what it looks like!

The cover is illustrated by my artistically gifted sister, Maddie and features a page full of clues as to the subjects of the poems inside.

To pre-order Pandemic Poetry: The Covid Collection for an incredibly reasonable 99p click here.

In addition to poetry I have a number of short stories to share in the coming months ranging from ghostly tales to comedic swashbuckling and murderous whodunnits. The next of which will be entirely free and you’ll only hear about it if you’re subscribed to this mailing list (#exclusive) so keep an eye out for my next email!

You can also keep up with all my latest publishing news on my newly refurbished website. If you haven’t visited for a while www.stewartpink.com is now home to everything from podcasts and videos to interviews, books and reviews all easily accessible at the click of a button. Please do stop by and have a poke around.

I hope you’ll enjoy my first ebook and if you do, I hope that you’ll give it a 5-star review on Amazon – every little helps!

Thanks as always for your support of my creative endeavours and I look forward to sharing even more with you soon.

Stew

Important Briefing

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Hello! I hope this briefing finds you well and that your 2021 has got off to a good start, with positive vibes and negative swab results.

I wanted to share a few bits of good news from Stew HQ and The Pink House Studios… (next slide please.)

Today, one of my poetry videos “Love Is Blind” has been selected as a UK entry to part of Jermyn Street Theatre’s “Butter Wouldn’t Melt” project closing a 28 day celebration of European poetry across their YouTube channel. Think Eurovision for poetry… and I’ve gone full Bucks Fizz. There are some fantastic entries and it’s a total dream to be involved – let’s hope Brexit won’t affect the votes! The poem is an (almost) true story about the time I accidentally asked my optician on a date – click here to watch it if you’ve got a spare few minutes. Every view counts!

In impeccable timing I also hit a milestone 1,000 plays of my new poetry podcast. It’s not about the numbers and they’re just a bit of fun but knowing so many of you are enjoying them really means a lot. If you haven’t tried them yet click here to listen to the podcast for free – I’d love to hear your thoughts and some of your poems too!

In other news there’s a lovely new website on t’interweb that my super talented sister, Maddie has designed. In October we launched #Bushtus 🌵 where we’ve been posting music, film, tv and book reviews. It’s been a really exciting startup with a Queen album review that practically went viral amongst Adam Lambert fans, a TV review that Game of Thrones star Brigitte Hjorte Sørensen loved and shared with her fans, a book review that author Stuart Turton was proud of and there’s even a few interviews with the likes of Foo Fighters and AC/DC! With loads of reviews, monthly playlists and a new “what’s on” streaming guide you’re bound to discover something you’ll enjoy – click here to check it out.

On your radio we’ve been having all the usual fun with music, guests, poems and laughs on a Friday lunchtime plus a good rock-out every Saturday night. I’m about to celebrate my second radio birthday and my 250th show on Phoenix FM; if you fancy tuning in live or listening back on-demand, click here for all of it.

Very soon I’ll be publishing my first ever e-book, Pandemic Poetry: The Covid Collection featuring Maddie’s illustrations and a whole bunch of my poems that reflect the silliness of a year in lockdown with titles like “Tiers Of A Town”, “A Whitty Ditty”, “Oh How I Long To Be In A Conga” and lots of others that capture this peculiar moment in our lives. As soon as it’s ready I’ll let you know!

In the meantime, stay safe, be good and if you can’t be good be careful.

With much love, many thanks and a new post-lockdown beard

Stew

Post-Apocalypse Update

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Due to unforeseen circumstances (slight understatement) the untimely demise of humanity has been brought forward to 2020 and therefore ruined most people’s plans for world domination. However, it’s been a while since my last update and I wanted to let you know that so far as I’m aware I am still alive. Hopefully you are too and if you’re not then please do let me know if there is anything I can do to bring you back.

Since March, the grassroots of standup comedy seems to have virtually disappeared but while the theatres and stages are empty I’ve got lots of fond memories gigging all over London at some of the best (and worst) pubs imaginable. From the classiest basement in Croydon to an old brewery turned art centre in Hertfordshire I’d been steadily crafting my routines. I’d had a go at MCing my first comedy night and even dabbled in a little live poetry. My last gig was one of my favourites, a charity fundraiser for Shelter performing a full set alongside my comedy mentor with a brilliant crowd. Dad even captured it on video (finally!) and you can watch the whole thing on YouTube if you click here.

When lockdown came and the world bunkered down for the apocalypse I started work on building my own home studio and when I eventually emerged from a mountain of cables and Lego I started broadcasting my weekly radio shows from my bedroom (AKA The Pink House Studios!) It’s been quite a challenge but I never missed a show and over the past few months I’ve even managed to incorporate some extra “on brand” features whilst recording from home – I’ve commentated on a FIFA Xbox game, played guitar in the air guitar special and even got Mum & Dad doing the weather. If you haven’t tuned in for a while, I’m still broadcasting on Phoenix FM every Friday afternoon from 1pm and every Saturday night from 10pm.

Unfortunately my radio highlights podcast has been lying dormant for a while (ongoing dispute, I won’t bore you with the details) but thanks to a little hard work and wizardry you can now listen to all of my shows in full on the Phoenix FM website if you click here. You can also enjoy our weekly film reviews with my movie mate Mark Searby. The feature has a surprisingly large following in Iceland where we recently hosted the first singalong to Jaja Ding Dong (from Eurovision: The Story of Fire Saga) at the Jaja Ding Dong Café in Húsavic – click here to see it!

My “Now You’re Talking” podcast which features guest interviews is still going great guns and on course to surpass 100 guests by the end of 2020. The wide range of random guests is always surprising with famous faces like Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, Nigel Planer of The Young Ones, Steve H of Marillion, Saffron of Republica and punk/folk rockstar Frank Turner amongst some of my most star-struck moments. Amidst the all-star lineup are some genuinely great people too with all sorts of stories to tell, from 104 year old Greta with all the life advice you could ever need to writing tips from Chris Wade, a conversation on boobs with Dorothy and community/charity projects like Cool To Be Kind and Essex Community Foundation Trust. A few of my interviews have even featured in the Brentwood Gazette with my face in the papers. (Sadly I’m still waiting to hear back about my modelling career.)

For obvious reasons it’s a little tricky to see what’s next in the life and times of a budding comedian right now but while I’ve parked the standup comedy for a while I’m looking to focus a little more on writing with a couple of short stories in the pipeline. I’ve also got plans for a YouTube poetry series, an exciting musical venture on the way, my own Lego movie and I’ve just set myself up as a voiceover artist so I’ll let you know when Morgan Freeman gets bored with it!

Until then I’ll be on your radio, all over social media and on the odd podcast and YouTube video too. If you fancy catching up on any of it then you’ll find links to everything in the “on demand” section of my website. (click here)

And that’s it, apart from that I’m just as confused as you are and hoping to see it all through – best of luck with it! Thanks for rooting for me and being my chum. Take care and in the words of Queen “keep yourself alive!”

One Year Later…

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The end of September marked a year since I quit my day job in search of something different and without spending too much time dwelling on the changes, I’m certain that “different” is what I’ve found! I recently met with some former colleagues and after a long and lovely catch up it was impossible not to reflect on the last year. If I can pass on one piece of advice from it then it’d be to open yourself up to change, embrace what comes your way and follow the opportunities that present themselves – like me, you’ll be surprised where they might lead you!

My journey started with standup comedy and I’m pleased to say that I’m still gigging most weeks. If you’ve yet to see me in action then now would be a great time to get yourself along to a gig while I’m working on new material – my gig list can be found here and it’s looking fairly healthy. The new stuff is going down well and I recently met the legendary Barry Cryer! I asked him for his tips on staying in comedy for the long-haul and his advice was to get rejected often early in your career… so I’m looking forward to a year of rejections!

Since I last wrote to you I’ve reached a few milestones in radio, completing my 75th show, surpassing 150 hours of broadcasting and surviving my first ever full scale system breakdown! (The playout PC crashed so I had to keep talking live on air until it rebooted – TERRIFYING!)

I spent the summer earning my stripes as a chat show host, interviewing acts at Latitude Festival and Standon Calling Festival. I made full use of my first backstage press pass and shortly afterwards launched a new podcast “Now You’re Talking” where you can hear me chatting to all sorts of bands, artists, comedians and actors. It was a surreal experience interviewing some comedy icons; Tez Ilyas, Maisie Adam, Cally Beaton, Johnny Cochrane and Jonathan Pie and you can see my awkward TV debut chatting to Flamingods backstage after their set here. After July’s field experience, I conducted a live phone-in back at the studio throughout august for comedians at the Camden & Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, interviewing 23 comedians in the world’s first ever #FringePhoneIn.

I’ve now taken on hosting the weekly fixture of Phoenix FM’s film reviews with Mark Searby so you can hear me chipping in light-hearted banter and vaguely relevant comments as he reviews all the latest cinema and DVD releases. You can listen to the chat live on Phoenix FM every Friday from 1:30pm or catch up here.

My plans to become a writer have been a little overshadowed by the comedy and radio breakthroughs of late but I’m still hoping to publish a children’s story in time for Christmas this year. I’m also working on a short story and will be offering exclusive “mates rates” to everyone subscribed to my website! Plans are also afoot to co-write a few comedy sketches based on my time in radio, I’ll be sure to keep you up to date on all of the above.

In the meantime, you can catch me on the radio every Thursday and Friday afternoon 1pm-3pm and every Saturday night from 10pm on Phoenix FM. I’ll also be covering the Breakfast show for a whole week starting 28th October including the absolute honour of waking up the world at the dawn of a post-brexit apocolypse on 1st November! If you’re an early riser then tune in from 7am (yes, that is too early – I’ll be up at 5am!)

Just a quick reminder that you can enjoy all of my “on demand” radio/tv content here and that you can see a full list of my comedy gigs here all courtesy of my website – freshly revamped.

Thanks again for your support/fandom/cheerleading – you’re awesome.

Catch up soon

Stew

What’s Occurring?

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Last time I wrote to you I was the fresh-faced newbie on your radio. Now, I’m still a newbie – probably less fresh but not quite “stale” yet. Sort of like a banana… I’ve passed the early stage where it’s a bit too soon to enjoy it and now I’m softening up, developing my own flavour. Also, I’m part of the “bunch”, bruise easily and you can’t leave me out in the sun. Alright, I’m out of comparisons now but you get the idea!

I’ve racked up over 50 hours of airtime as a presenter on Phoenix FM with my One2Three show on Friday afternoons, The As Yet Untitled Rock Show every Tuesday night, a whole week of DriveTime cover and a couple of spots covering Brunch. If you haven’t tuned in yet then don’t worry, you’ve missed all the rubbish bits and I’ve really got the hang of it now! If you check out my radio page you’ll find all the details of where/when/how to listen, you can join me for the live show or catch up on the “best bits” in my podcast. So far we’ve covered all sorts; debunked myths, built a remote control for life, solved the world’s environmental issues, assembled a celebrity cabinet and hosted the One Hit Wonder World Cup (Chesney Hawkes for LIFE!) all mixed in with great music and some extremely subtle/obvious post-news trolling.

It’s going to be a busy summer as part of a small team of presenters reporting from Standon Calling and Latitude Festival – I’ll be interviewing a whole host of musicians and comedians and you’ll hear them all on my radio blog. Of course, I’ll also upload some highlights to my podcast when I’ve finished enjoying the festivities and rocking my wellies off!

In other news, I’ve joined the team at Amused Moose Comedy so you’ll see my name at the bottom of their emails and my face is a regular in Soho. It’s great to be a part of where my comedy journey began and doing this means I get to meet and work with new comedians trying standup for the first time as well as some of the best on the circuit. Plus I’ve added Mark Dolan to my list of comedy connections!

My standup comedy routine has had a load of updates and I’m starting to piece together a story arc to tie in all my short “bits”. I’ve also been working with Lee Nelson‘s co-writer/producer and I’m hoping to get another video clip out this summer.

As always, it’d be great to see you at one of my gigs and I’d love for you to join me for some quality chat and tunes on the radio. I’m also on the lookout for interesting guests so if there’s anything you, or someone you know, would like to share or promote then do get in touch.

Stay cool, stay classy and stay dry!