I had a warmup last week as sacrificial poet at the Cambridge Hammer & Tongue doing 5 poems in 3 minutes to an appreciative audience which included Hammer & Tongue founder Steve Larkin and headliner Tim Clare who laughed louder than anyone else.
You can listen to my reading for CB1 Poetry, a night that also featured Patrick Sheil. My next major gig is at The Hammer & Tongue final in London on June 8th. I'll be performing in the team slam in the afternoon with Fay Roberts, Leanne Moden and Hollie McNish. I had a warmup last week as sacrificial poet at the Cambridge Hammer & Tongue doing 5 poems in 3 minutes to an appreciative audience which included Hammer & Tongue founder Steve Larkin and headliner Tim Clare who laughed louder than anyone else.
2 Comments
February is proving a great month for gigs. Last Wednesday I had the honour of being sacrificial poet at the Hammer & Tongue Poetry Slam and what a slam it was! 8 slammers performed rap, witty rhymes, madcap surrealism and more but the winner was Cambridge newcomer Justina Kehinde Ogunseitan whose hard-hitting poem on female genital mutilation in Africa had the capacity crowd stunned into silence. Headline sets from Hollie McNish and Stephen Morrison-Burke added to one of the best Hammer & Tongue nights in Cambridge so far. For me it was just a gentle warmup for a couple of full on gigs later this month. On Sunday 17th the Rhythm Method Tour comes to The Fountain featuring the terrific Mark Niel and The Anti Poet along with support slots from Leanne Moden and myself. It's all hosted by Fay Roberts. Details and tickets are available here. On February 28th I will be reading at the Boathouse, the new venue for CB1 poetry. It'll be my fifth headline reading at CB1 - the last was in 2007 when the it was still held at CB1 Cafe. Over the years I have seen some of the most established, widely respected poets read at CB1. It is a terrific honour to be invited back. I'm delighted to be joined for the event by Patrick Sheil who describes himself on the CB1 site as 'the singer and occasional bassist of Cambridge indie group Moth Conspiracy. His publications include studies of Kierkegaard, Levinas and Merleau-Ponty. He is now employed by Cambridgeshire County Council as a web developer in Adult Social Care. This Patrick has often shared a platform with tonight's main Patrick, and together they have stood firm on a range of Patrick-related issues.' Two Patricks for the price of one can't be a bad deal. get full details from the CB1 website. Finally here's a song from Patrick's band Moth Conspiracy: You can stream or download a set I performed with electronic musician and composer Tom Adams recently at CB2 courtesy of Shallow Records. I recommend downloading it so you don't get gaps between the tracks. Check out many other fabulous recordings of Cambridge gigs on the label's Band Camp page: shallowrecords.co.uk I've been busy on various fronts recently. I've started a new blog for Headstand. The aim is to provide a source of music and spoken word which is updated regularly. The blog features music and spoken word news from Cambridge and features other artists that are on the show. If there is anything you would like included, or you have an idea for a peice you would like to write, please get in touch. You can view the blog here: headstandradio.blogspot.co.uk.
I interviewed John Hegley recently about his new book and upcoming appearance at Winter Wordfest on November 24th. You can read the article here. I have a couple of dates myself: 20.11.12 The Portland Arms, Details 11.12. 12 CB2, Details I hope to be joined at both these events by Tom Adams providing improvised electronic music to the poetry. |
NewsArchives
October 2015
Categories
All
|