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In 2003 I was commissioned by Birmingham Jazz to write a large-scale work of my own choice. The resulting work, Howl – a musical setting of the poetry of Allen Ginsberg, was premiered in January 2004 in front of a near-capacity audience at Birmingham’s CBSO Centre. The success of this work and its cross-genre appeal gave me the idea to tour the work around the UK in 2005 and 2006 to mark the 50th Anniversaries of both its first public reading and its first publication by City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco.

This work has since been performed a total of 7 times around the UK:

StAnza Poetry Festival, St Andrews in February 2005
Cheltenham International Jazz Festival in May 2005
Glastonbury Festival in June 2005
The Vortex, London in October 2005
Rooty Frooty, Birmingham on October 7th 2005 - a special performance of parts I and II in Birmingham to mark the actual 50th anniversary of the first public reading by Ginsberg in 1955
Aldeburgh Poetry Festival in November 2005
Between the Lines Literary Festival in Belfast in April 2006

Throughout this time, I have been in close contact with the Allen Ginsberg Trust in New York, who have been extremely helpful and supportive with regard to permission to use the work and also moral support and encouragement.