Ian Henery, who was the Mayor of Walsall`s Poet Laureate for 4 Mayors of Walsall,  was also Poet in Residence for Walsall Parish Church`s 800th Anniversary (2014 - 2015) and two radio stations namely Hope FM in Birmingham (2020 - 2021) and WCR FM in Wolverhampton (2022 - 2023).

"I was invited to be part of a 48 hour spoken word event at the Cave Community Hub in Redditch" said Ian Henery "and recruit a team of wordsmiths.  So that`s exactly what I did".

Ian Henery, who is a solicitor, is also a presenter on Black Country Radio and hosts The Ian Henery Show on Black Country Xtra twice a week.

"Two other Black Country Radio presenters are also joining me on stage" said Ian "namely Lee Benson, who hosts "Listen With Lee" and jay Lewis who hosts "Cinematic" on Black Country Xtra."

Ian`s latest poetry collection, "Double Act", is with photographer David Moore and was part of The Grid project in Halifax and Birmingham between 2023 - 2025 called "In Search of Urban Happiness".  The project chronicled the social life, culture, people and buildings of these two cities in West Yorkshire and the West midlands.  The resulting body of work for Birmingham saw a 3 month exhibition between January - April 2025 in the Birmingham Central Library.  

"It was a challenge" said Ian Henery.  "I respect David Moore and we had worked on projects before.  He is an excellent photographer and wonderful human being.  He would email me photographs and my job was to transform the images into words.  The task required a certain skill set and I wrote in a variety of styles and poetic forms.  I imagined myself following David around and turning his art on the anvil of poetry into poems".

The project began in Moseley, Birmingham where david sent ian the first photograph.  It was a photograph of Moseley Road for a segment of the project entitled "Paths".  David had chosen to begin the project by weaving his pathway through Moseley and would be sending Ian his photoraphs for poetic interpretation.

"What on earth" said Ian.  "A road sign?  Moseley Road?  But a commission is a commission.  I needed inspiration and it came from the British rock group Ocean Colour Scene`s album "Moseley Shoals" released in 1996 during thje Brit Pop era.  The album reached Number 2 in the UK charts and amassed 92 weeks on the charts. making it the band`s most successful almbum in terms of weeks on chart.  

"There`s a song on that album called "The Riverboat Song"" said Ian "and it references one friend following the other up the road.  This was the entry point for me into The Grid Project and "In Search Of Urban Happiness".  I was following David around The Grid Project and his choice of paths, nodes, edges,  landmarks and districts.  I used every song title of "Moseley Shoals" in the poem, gave it metre and a rhyming structure and it`s in the book with apologies to Ocean Colour Scene."

Ian met Ocean Colour Scene`s songwriter and vocalist Simon Fowler at The Midlands Arts centre during one of his solo tours.

"He loved it", said Ian "and we had a good laugh.  I thanked him for the music and the inspiration."

Ian is launching Double Act during the 48 hour spoken word event on Saturday 1st November 3pm

At The Cave Community Hub

11 Kingfisher Square, Redditch