Poetry and Pop

By Henry Lipput

Being a writer can be a lonely business. Whether you sit at a desk in a fancy side room in a house or with a pad on your lap in a garret, you’re by yourself as you work to find the right words.

Brian Bilston may have started out in one of those situations but he’s now one of the most popular poets in England with half a million followers on social media, a bunch of best-selling books, and sold-out live shows.

But for all his success he’s never fronted a pop band. Until now. Word reached Rob Pursey and Amelia Fletcher of The Catenary Wires band (who also run the Skep Wax label) that Bilston had been seen wearing a Heavenly (also a Skep Wax band) T- shirt and they got in touch.

The result is Sounds Made By Humans (Skep Wax), a unique collaboration between the poet’s own voice and the pop sounds of a band to produce an album of “song-poems.” Pursey selected thirteen of Bilston’s poems and created melodies and arrangements.

Some of the songs are performed by The Catenary Wires, sung by Pursey or Fletcher and joined by Ian Button and Fay Hallam of the band.

Some of the tracks are spoken by Bilston.

And sometimes both things happen together and become songs by humans in perfect alignment, poetry and pop in a perfect collaboration.