MALVERN composer David Lowe and Liverpudlian poet Roger McGough have recorded a new CD of music and poetry, which is released today (Friday)

Recorded at a gig in Colwall Village Hall during the summer, Roger's words were mixed with music from the pen of David after the two were introduced through Adrian Mealing, Roger's agent. Adrian lives in Colwall and is a friend of David's.

"Adrian was talking to me about Roger wanting to do a CD of his live show," said David.

"He's never done a CD, he's just gone out on the road and done his thing."

Having worked on music for two BBC2 series on poetry, David agreed to work with the poet.

"Speech CDs you can't listen to more than two or three times without getting bored of it. You can listen to music over and over again," he said.

"Music and poetry have been combined in the past, usually it's a straight read of the poem over some music in the background. My idea was to integrate the poems much more by using the technology we had. The whole thing actually sounds like one coherent piece of music.

"Roger has got such a fantastic recording voice and he's such a really nice guy and I just love his poetry."

David has written a great deal of music for television, including the theme music for the BBC News, Wildlife on One and Horizon.

In 1998 his record Would You?, released under the name Touch and Go, reached number three in the singles charts.

He is currently working on a new mix of music for the BBC News 24 channel.

The CD, entitled Lively, is available on www.roger mcgough.co uk.