INFO

Ian Whiteley was born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire but now lives in Wigan, Lancashire. He's been writing poetry since way back at school in the late seventies. In 2012 he was made redundant and decided to spend time developing the art of poetry writing.

 

In June 2013 he published his first collected book of poems entitled 'A STEP TOWARDS WINTER' - 60 poems over 60 pages.

 

Later in 2013 he went in to THE MUSIC PROJECTS in Pemberton, Wigan, to record some musical versions of his poems under the music project title THE CROWS OF ALBION. 'POETIC JUSTICE' was produced and co-written by Martin Heaton, who also played all instrumenats on the resulting 18 track CD.

 

He also took the opportunity to record instrumental backing tracks to this selection of titles, for use in live performances at selected venues.

 

In October 2014 THE CROWS OF ALBION released a second CD of Ian's poetry set to music entitled 'STILL IN THE WAR, BOYS!' a 21 track collection that covers the first world war period 1914-18.

 

In October 2015 the 3rd CROWS OF ALBION CD, 'HERE THERE BE DEMONS' was released - 18 tracks lasting nearly 80 minutes in playing time.

 

In March 2016 his second book collection of poetry, 'THE CYCLE OF THE SCARECROW' was published by Currock Press - 124 pages split into 4 Quartets: 'Winter Of Discontent - The Protest Poems', 'Spring Offensive - The War Poems', 'Summer Collection - The Reflective Poems' and 'Autumn Of Terror - The Supernatural Poems'.

​

Ian co-formed a performance poetry group, BARD COMPANY, with fellow performance poets Jefferama!, Gordon Zola & Tony Kinsella and also performs in a poetry/music/political duo as BARD 2 THE BONE with Jefferama!.

BARD COMPANY released their first CD of music and poetry in August 2017 titled 'ALL SYSTEMS GO!'

​

In September 2018 a fourth music CD was produced - co-written and produced by MERRY HELL guitarist John Kettle - 'SCREAMING BLUE MURDER' is 16 tracks of folk/punk/rock politically influenced material.

​

On 1st January 2019, Ian released a 44 track album of spoken/word poetry entitled 'BLACK & WHITE & READ ALL OVER' - covering material he has written over the previous 5 years - some of which has been used in both his spoken word and music sets - but also including new and unreleased material.

 

Ian became host of the Write Out Loud poetry open mic event at the Old Courts in Wigan on the second Thursday of each month with effect from Thursday 14th March 2019. He has also started hosting a new poetry/comedy open mic night called 'Getting Gobby In The Lobby' from February 2020 at Lobby 1867 in Wakefield.

 

BARD COMPANY released their 2nd album of music in November 2019 titled 'RAISING THE STANDARDS' and a book of comedy, poetry and satire entitled 'BARD COMPANY'S LITTLE READ BOOK' in June 2020

​

On 1st January 2021 the new CROWS OF ALBION CD album was released - entitled 'CROWLORE'

Followed by an illustrated book of the poems used in the lyrics of the album, also entitled 'CROW LORE' released on 1st November 2021

​

On July 28th 2022 BARD COMPANY released their 3rd album 'NORTHERN POWERHOUSE'

​

On November  21st November  BARD COMPANY released their 4th album 'WE'RE REVOLTING!'

 

Ian has performed solidly across the North of England at over 200 slams,  music gigs and guest poetry sessions as well as hundreds of open mic performances.

​

 

​