Roy Stannard's Blog

When you think you know it all, ask the next question

  • Roy Stannard’s Top 15 Albums of the Year 2011

    OK here it is, the definitive Top 15 List of the albums that rocked your world in 2011 – compiled lovingly with notes for your delectation and musical appreciation. Check it out. Read more

  • God Speed

    A poem in tribute to Gary Speed who died on the 27th November 2011. Read more

  • Alfriston

    A poem about Alfriston, East Sussex for National Poetry Day, with apologies to Jim Webb and Glen Campbell. Read more

  • Southend Pier – still standing, but not standing still.

    When I was a boy I spent hours upon hours on Southend Pier, walking its length, feeling its girth, teasing its claim to be the longest in the world at 1.25 miles.  Its slot machine alleys whispered to me alluringly. Cheap, trashy items like tin rings and shoddy pen knives (that I would have left… Read more

  • Getting the Business Edge

    When I arrived at ad agency Zerofiftyone on the 4th January I embarked upon an audit of the affiliations, memberships, connections and outbound communications used by the agency. Many of the memberships including Sussex Enterprise, Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce, CADIA (Crawley & District Industry Association) and Wired Sussex were in the name of… Read more

  • The tracks that changed my life

    I recently took part in a pilot with Patrick Woodward called Memory Box that my sister-in-law Lynne (Angel) Kerr is initiating in which you pick your nine most influential tracks from childhood to the present day – which is then recorded as a kind of podcast and copied onto CD. You can hear the resulting… Read more

  • The end of the Pier doesn’t mean the end of the road

    Out of 55 remaining piers in the UK only six are offering traditional Summer seaside entertainment. One of those is Worthing. The end of the pier show has been part of the English seaside landscape for as long as Punch has been altercating with Judy and candyfloss has been blown away by stiff north easterly… Read more

  • South Pacific at the Connaught – another reason why we have to save the theatres..

    ‘South Pacific’ by Worthing Musical Comedy Society at The Connaught Theatre 16-21st May 2011 is a perfect reason why the work by the Worthing Theatres Trust to keep all three performance spaces open must succeed. A community show for all in a much loved community theatre. Read more

  • Mean Time

    Where the you meets the me Someone has drawn a line Like a monstrous meridian Snatching mean time from a perfect eternity. Read more

  • A Southend boy visits the Turner Contemporary Gallery at Margate

    The Turner Contemporary, opened on the 16th April this year with the declared intention of re-awakening the faded Victorian splendour of Margate. The Gallery, designed by award-winning British architect David Chipperfield, is spacious with exhibition rooms lit by soft northern light and by super porthole style windows overlooking magnicent Estuary views that drew JMW Turner… Read more