‘It’s all about music and the arts, and you can’t have one without the other’

Chuck Middleton explains to Julia Thorley how the creative threads in his life are connected.

Chuck Middleton is widely known around the county as Chuck The Poet, but he’s also a radio presenter and broadcaster, actor, standup performer and photographer. However, the thread running through his life is music.

“In the 1980s, I was the singer in a band called BS3704, but when the guitarist left I was left thinking ‘What do I do now?’ I knew I needed to be on stage, so Chuck the Poet was born. I’d written a couple of pieces and I took part in a talent contest in Dexters, which was under the railway station in Kettering. I came second and won £25, a princely sum for the time. From there, whenever there was a band playing locally I would turn up beforehand, do a couple of poems and then go. Then it got a bit more serious.”

This transition to performance poet led to Chuck becoming a radio presenter. He covers every Corby Town football match, home and away, and hosts The Indie and Alternative Show on Corby Radio.

“Because I was a poet, someone at KCBC, the old radio station, said, ‘If you can do that on stage, surely you can talk down a microphone about football.’ Then other poetry opportunities came up on the back of that.

“Most of what I do is punchline poetry with a cheesy pun on the end. I’m not really into self-reflective poetry, but there is a need for it. I’ve seen some really angry poets that still have a loving poem at heart, but it’s pushed the boundaries.

“There seems to be more poetry around now. I think people have understood that if you just write things down and let them out, it’s a release. Then maybe you can look at it again, and put it together in some sort of way so you can perform it. It’s a big step and it’s not easy, but once you’ve done it you can feel proud of yourself.”

Chuck has also spent time as gallery coordinator at Rooftop Arts in Corby and, more recently has worked with Yardley Arts in Yardley Hastings.

“This has got me into working with and meeting people of a similar mindset. We’re all kind of artistic and thinking along those lines of creating art and wanting to be in the public eye. Being a poet has put me in some wonderful places, and I’ve played at some pretty amazing venues and festivals, and this has allowed me to be on stage with lots of likeminded people.”

Music has played a big part in Chuck’s life, despite him having no formal training in either music or performance. His mother, though, was a chorister.

“I heard on TV the other day that if you’re brought up with music from a young age, it will filter through. You don’t need training, but if you’ve got an ear you’ll hear it. I was in Corby Amateur Theatrical Society and Eclipse, which was a branch off from CATS, and I joined Kettering Operatic Society for one show – Mack and Mabel at the Lighthouse. I’ve also played the dentist in Little Shop of Horrors and Captain Tempest in Return to the Forbidden Planet, and had a small, serious part in South Pacific.

“I’ve always been around music; it’s the thread that’s led me through everything. If it wasn’t for the fact that I was in a band, I wouldn’t have been a poet, and if it wasn’t for the fact that all my mates were in local bands I wouldn’t have gone out and met the Corby generation who would hang around at gigs.”

The rise of free festivals in the area, such as those at the Corby boating lake and West Glebe, broadened Chuck’s horizons and led to him attending and performing at bigger festivals. He went to Glastonbury 18 times and also performed there as a poet, and since 1989 he’s been to a music festival every year. He loves a wide range of music, reflected not only in his radio show but also in the number of gigs he goes to.

“I have a huge music collection and I’m still buying it, and I try and get to see a band a month. There are some cracking songs in musical theatre, but I also like some really dark stuff from, say, The Cure, or new stuff from Abdoujaparov. One thing I don’t like is swearing in songs. If you can’t manufacture your songs without swearing – to be played on radio, which is where you want them to be – then either change the words, or make sure there’s an edit available that can be played on radio.”

Chuck’s pride in his Corby home is evident, not just in his unbridled support of its football team, but also in the breadth of knowledge he displays about its history. He wrote a poem for the Corby Pole Fair in 2022, which was broadcast by the BBC across the eastern network. So how does he feel about the cutting of funding to the arts in our area?

“It’s incredibly sad and frustrating. The arts are important and I think Corby, because of its heritage and its history, has never had a lot of art thrown at it. There’s only one statue in the whole town, The Steel Man, although there are some objets d’art around the place, such as the Spirit of Corby and pieces in Coronation Park, which I think look fantastic. There’s a ‘green man’ in the wood made out of a tree, but we need more.”

His first book was called Beer, Bread and Biscuits – “because these are the first three things I write on my shopping list” – followed by Jelly Toffee and Large Fromage.

“I can see that there’s another book coming and I think it could be an amalgamation of some of the poems that were in the earlier books, with some updating because time has moved some of the poems on a little bit.”

Chuck enjoys having a foot in so many different areas.

“It keeps me busy and I think you meet lots of different people. If I were to draw a Venn diagram of my life, the middle bit would be a collection of five or six mates, and everything else would be a globe around it. It’s all about music and the arts, and you can’t have one without the other.”

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