Ex-Salford neighbourhood manager to star at Glastonbury

With so many colleagues currently facing uncertain futures, it’s nice to hear of someone making a positive career choice and successfully pursuing their dream. One such story is that of Tony Walsh, a former Neighbourhood Manager with Salford MBC who will be Poet-In Residence at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. Tony is 6 feet 5 inches tall and is also known as Longfella!

Tony, formerly worked in management roles in housing and community regeneration in some of Salford and Manchester’s most deprived wards, recently took voluntary severance after 18 years service and is now freelancing full-time as a poet and writer.

Tony had been working for Salford for four days per week for the last three years whilst building up his poetry CV to the point where he is now billed as “one of the Uk’s most renowned performance poets.” His role as website poet-in-residence at the world renowned Glastonbury Festival will be followed, a week later, with a co-headlining slot on the opening night at the prestigious Ledbury Poetry Festival. Tony’s down-to-earth poetry has been published on both sides of the Atlantic alongside poets including Adrian Mitchell, Simon Armitage, Roger McGough and Benjamin Zephaniah.

His impressive performance CV includes hundred of gigs around the UK, in Ireland, Berlin and at The Palace of Science and Culture in Warsaw, Poland for The British Council. Along the way he has shared the billing with numerous poetry greats including John Cooper Clarke, Patti Smith and the new poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy who is expected to be in the audience for his Ledbury performance. Tony is a multiple winner of many high octane poetry “slam” competitions and is the reigning Manchester Literature Festival Comedy Slam Champion, and former runner-up at “The Times” UK Allstars Slam Championship.

Tony told us: “I’m thrilled to have made this move after several years of wondering how far I could take my writing and performing. I’ll be free now to bring out my debut book and cd and the diary is filling up nicely with conferences and performances, workshops in schools, colleges, universities and prisons, with commissions in community and regeneration settings and promotions for ethical organisations including the excellent charity, Forever Manchester. I’ll be performing at several big festivals again this summer and on the Edinburgh Free Fringe in August. It’s an exciting time - as long as I can keep my nerve! I was a council house kid myself and with almost 20 years of wide-ranging public service and partnership working alongside my poetry cv, I’m confident that I bring a unique package to the table as a freelance community artist, creative consultant and project manager.”

“I’m available for work nationally and beyond and would love to hear from anyone with project ideas via the links at my website. I learned a great deal during my public service and I’m really appreciative of the challenges which former colleagues are still facing and I wish everyone the very best of luck. I remain convinced that community arts can make a massive contribution to changing lives, improving cohesion and regenerating communities and I’d love to discuss any opportunities for us to work together. If colleagues could help to spread the word please then that would also be great!”

You can find out more or contact Tony in the following ways: - www.longfella.co.uk - Tel: 07811 434061 - Email: tony@longfella.co.uk - Twitter@ LongfellaPoet
- LinkedIn: TonyWalshLongfella