Acoustic Night

The nights are drawing in, the Christmas gifts are in the shops and Acoustic Night number 19 settles in for the evening with the usual mix of new faces, familiar performers and old hands. Andi Langford-Woods opens with a shout out for Rosemary Dun’s Big Mouth Masterclasses (lovely to see her in better health and back on the block. Catch her here Dec 4th.) then gives us a poem about love in Autumn (did I?) and then ‘Therapy’.

Phil Baber offered us a taster for later with ‘The Steppes’, his version of a Yatkha song and then ‘About That’ a slant on not being able to express emotion. Ian Sills then delved into tales of nights at the Clyde with ‘Watching Brief’ ( hen night ‘nurses’ and more setting out on their mission) and ‘Perchance to Dream’ a barmaids plight on being locked out by her sleeping friend. Sparkles Murphy said that this was her “second open mic ever and the first sober one”, it was certainly her first Acoustic Night, her songs were original and sweetly sung - ‘Let Me In’ written on arrival in Bristol.

Rupert Hopkins performed next and in ‘The Jazzman’ read a new section of his epic “Waste Warriors”, following refuse collectors around rural Gloucestershire and by contrast delivered, with spoken word and haunting sax breaks, ‘Umbrella Stand’ about a very urban Bristol underpass. Tom Mongomery, another new face and a really good voice, gave us ‘You’ about a girl he liked who didn’t like him and how he felt that day. He followed that with a happier piece with strong guitar, ‘Life’s Journey’. Richard Lawson read a poem about Halo and and Hang Gliding (a first, I suspect!) and then a political piece about the Lebanon.

Emma Harper is a another newcomer but as bar manager at The Eldon House and a seasoned performer in her own right she took the stage by storm. threading her characterful voice and adept guitar picking through ‘The Old Road’ and a song of feminine equality. Eldon House runs Sunday night Jams and on the last Sunday of the month Open House is hosted there by Caroline Sawyer. Check the fliers… Simon Leake took us to the break with his takes on leisure time and it’s meaning then a cleverly written piece on the way myths like Eden and Gaia conflate.

After the break our special guest was the bouncy Hazel Hammond, who had taken time to work out her set well in advance and even distributed sheets with thumbnail pictures illustrating the pieces she would be performing. She performed a confident and wide-ranging set starting with ‘Some Pleasures’ which evoked memories of the textures of foods. ‘Scent in the Heat’ (a story set in Spain with a poignant ending about loneliness). ‘Silver Wolf’ and ‘Scenes from the life of a Madwoman’ were about descent into madness and the pain and pleasure therein. She then performed ‘The Label Gun’ a piece about indentity and labelling others “like a First World War Mauser rattling out the price” and ‘Sweets’ (which recalled milk bottles, sherbet and long, long licorice and associated memories). two winter poems ‘Winter Apples’ and ‘Snow’ were otherwise quite different, the former reflecting a slight feeling of fragility and the latter re-calling a pre-Bristol friend. To finish Hazel gave us “Celibacy I” and “II” a single life observation. ‘Review’ which saw her prepare food for one of her “Healthy Concerts” and ‘The Mermaid’ an evocation of that beautiful mythical creature until Hazel enquired “exactly how would one …. ( I don’t intend to go any further - suffice to say that if I ever see a mermaid that will be the first question that occurs to me) It was wondeful to see her on such top form.

Unenviably, Phil Baber was down to follow (yeah we work the guy hard don’t we? but we love him) so it was just as well he had another piece of his magic for us. ‘L’Amoureuse’ is a poem written by Paul Eluard to his wife, (she subsequently ran off with Salvador Dali, showing that beautiful lyrics can’t compete with space-cake artists and Spanish hallucinogens) Phil set it to music, the delivery and his cool French accent sliding it into the minds of many of us present. This week we tell the story!! Phil is such a good guy and he shared his time by calling up Sparkles Murphy for another song which sadly we missed the title of but no doubt we will hear it again soon. Caroline Sawyer, Open House host at the Eldon House then gave us ‘the Tale of the Reluctant Lover and the Recalcitrant Fool’ (title of the night I think!) then ‘Chameleon’ and a piece on a Biddhist saying.

Mood Indigo came next, a surprise return of Roise and Livvy with new face Hattie accompanied by the much loved Everton Hartley on guitar underpinning their sweet voices. They gave us a selection of songs including ‘Go West’, ‘Falling’, ‘Pale Blue Eyes (?), and ‘Route 66′ Just keeps gettting better! make sure to catch them Nov 20th as our Special Guests.

Claudio made the long trip from Chile (well, the short trip from next door really) to perform two poems, ‘A Better Happiness’ about always seeking to improve and ‘Walking an old black dog’ who apparently never wags his tail. Claudio usually sings and plays guitar but it was great to hear his poetry and good to see him again.

Wilf Merttens quoted Pilate and then performed companion pieces: one urban and one rural in which each showed the worth of the other.

Emma Harper came back to perform ‘Feed Yourself’ and what she claimed was her only other love song!

Guy Herbert popped up with ‘Jack and Jill and bread’, ‘Barber Alibi’ (using the haircut process to prove absence), ‘Suicidal Snowman’ and ‘Devil’s Poem’ Brief, acute and to the point as ever.

Rounding up the night Derrick hit us with ‘Retrograde’ transfixed by the boob tube, ‘Reaper’ in three voices and ‘I Hate Rappers’ saying “stink ass rappers make me sick”. (at which a certain person tried hiding under the table)

Andi finished off, contrary as ever, with ‘Lovin’ which she described as ” a kind of rap I wrote fourteen years ago”

Great night again.

Photos to follow.

Thanks to Ian for review