Concerts
Brian Bilston & The Catenary Wires
Brian Bilston is one of the UK’s most popular poets. Having started out by sharing his poems online, Brian now has over half a million followers on social media and a raft of bestselling books. After a succession of sell-out live shows, Brian has just finished a 24 date UK tour (with longtime collaborator Henry Normal) in May 2025.
The Catenary Wires are a group comprising Amelia Fletcher, Rob Pursey and Ian Button. Their critically acclaimed third album ‘Birling Gap’ was released in 2021. Since then, they have been focusing on their other bands, playing around the world with Heavenly (icons of the 90s indiepop scene) and Swansea Sound.
A couple of years ago, word reached Rob and Amelia that Brian had been spotted wearing a Heavenly t-shirt at one of his shows, and was a big fan of their music. Given that they, in turn, were fans of Brian’s poetry, introductions were made, friendships were formed, and ‘Sounds Made By Humans’ took shape.
The album isn’t a set of readings with musical backdrops: it’s a collection of songs, where words and music have become completely intertwined.There are verses, and there are choruses. There is no ‘riffing’, no improvisation. In many ways, Brian’s poems are already like pop songs: brief, direct, and witty; sometimes poignant, sometimes biting and political; but always economical, and always accessible.
Rob took thirteen of Brian’s poems and created melodies and arrangements, which are then played by a full band, with Ian Button on drums and Fay Hallam on keyboard. Sometimes the words of the poems are sung by Amelia or Rob. Sometimes they are spoken by Brian. Sometimes both these things happen at once. This is a pop
record where the poetry and the music are equal partners: sounds made by humans in perfect artistic alignment.
Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires will be performing song-poems at selected UK venues in November 2025.
Socials:
FB/BS: @brianbilston | IG/X: @brian_bilston
FB/IG: @thecatenarywires | IG/FB/BS: @skepwax
skepwax.bandcamp.com | skepwax.com | info@skepwax.com
Shows
Dr. John Cooper Clarke
John Cooper Clarke shot to prominence in the 1970s as the original ‘people’s poet’.
IDEAL - THE AWARD-WINNING TV SHOW STARRING JOHNNY VEGAS
Johnny Vegas stars as Moz, as award-winning BBC TV series comes to the stage for very first time, celebrating 20 years since the show’s first broadcast.
Henry Normal
Henry is a writer, poet, TV & Film producer, founder of the Manchester Poetry Festival (now the Literature festival) and co-founder of the Nottingham Poetry Festival.
Brian Bilston
Brian Bilston has been described as the Banksy of poetry and Twitter’s unofficial Poet Laureate; with over 500,000 followers on social media, Brian has become truly beloved by the online community.
Nigel Planer
Nigel Planer was an original member of the comedy groups at the centre of the ‘Alternative Comedy’ movement in the 1980s and starred in the seminal TV series The Young Ones, and The Comic Strip Presents.
Julie Fowlis
Voted Musician of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards 2023, and with a career spanning several studio albums and numerous high profile collaborations, her ‘crystalline’ and ‘intoxicating’ vocals have enchanted audiences around the world.
Graham Nash
Graham Nash, two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Grammy award winner, will perform songs spanning his sixty-year career from The Hollies to Crosby, Stills and Nash, to CSNY and his beloved solo career.