Acoustic Night

MCs Julian Ramsay-Wade & Catharine Stott

There was a real sense of anticipation before the night kicked off. Andi had acquired a black backcloth to bring back memories of the gothic gloom of the Croft to those ancient enough in Acoustic Night history. This was combined with a Chinese lantern and other adjustments to radically improve the stage area for performers and audience. Now all we needed were performers and audience! Fortunately they both arrived in number.

Julian and Catharine

Julian Ramsay-Wade started proceedings with his poem for his newborn son Eric Henry (both names meaning king) for the little chap’s visiting grandparents (but we all enjoyed hearing it as well!).

Then Dan returned after a spell away with two new songs – firstly Start Out Easy, telling the tale of a relationship with hard-plucked strings and secondly an untitled piece from a newcomer to the city. He had to disappear soon after but will hopefully be back to entertain us soon. Craig Wilson performed biographical pieces about Jim Morrison and Gilles Villeneuve, the latter (entitled “27”) being the title piece of his new collection of poems. John Alderson then made his debut on our stage (although clearly not his first performance anywhere!) with “Sign of the Times” (about black Confederate soldiers rather than Prince as his bandmates believe) and “Ventilator Blues” a Rolling Stones track which he covered “to teach himself slide guitar” (it definitely worked!).

John Terry caught the mood set by Julian and read “For Ella” a piece he wrote for someone else’s granddaughter. He then tackled a mythic/historic figure in “Bluebeard’s Castle” which he described as “perched on the cast-iron slopes of an Edwardian mountain”. Stefan and Joe then stepped forward: both first-timers, Stefan played a solo guitar piece and then the two sang “Everywhere” to guitar accompaniment. Yet another act new to us but clearly not novices!.

Alana Farrell changed the pace of the night by reading a story – she is promoter of a storytelling night once a month at (I think) La Ruca a few doors down from Halo and is always interesting to listen to.

Alana

Phil Baber (who is convinced that as the opposite of an Acoustic Night virgin he must be “a right slapper”) sang “One last cold kiss” and overcame a couple of minor slips very well; he then sang a song heard at Cambridge Folk Festival (“Who’s gonna build your wall, boys?) about the proposal to seal off the USA/Mexico border. A great song that would not have crossed my radar otherwise. Gina Briganti exposed her poetic muse this evening with a triptych of Dawn, Midday and Dusk to lead us happily into…

THE BREAK

Brendan McLeod

Our returning guest star was Brendan McLeod. He joined in with the theme of newborn babies with a tale of his best friend becoming a father. He checked whether we knew of/liked David Blaine (we did/didn’t!) before singing a song about him, followed by a poem about his two best friends from High School (“always knew I would be uncle to their children”). He then performed a piece entitled “she eats each of her meals with a spoon” – a disturbing description of a mother mortally afraid of harming her child and a poem written in response to a challenge to “write the poem that you are most afraid to write”. (It must be a Canadian thing!!). He then sang a rock song: “Humanity is Awesome” which he described as “The most optimistic song in the whole universe” and encored with an inspiring poem about young, overexcited love. We haven’t asked anyone else to return as a star guest, and Brendan did not disappoint the packed room. Wonderful!!

Unfortunate to have to follow that, Livvy, Rose and Hattie (now known as Mood Indigo) sang acapella in the absence of their guru Everton Hartley (he’ll hate that!!). They were nevertheless as tuneful and refreshing as ever, catch them on November 20 as our Guest Artists. Marc Walton debuted a couple of pieces: one resenting the separation of arts and sciences (“The Royal Academy”) and one about real life on a council estate.

Derry made a solo debut as he was suffering from “ill flautist syndrome” and played two Spanish sounding acoustic pieces on his guitar. Can’t wait to hear how the flute fits in, but it was fine to hear. David Johnson hijacked the mic in the role of MC to Pete Hunter and performed a couple of nature-influenced pieces (about Loch Lomond and worms respectively) and introduced Pete, who read an email in appalling English asking for bank details (not real!!) and a nostalgic poem about his father taking the family Scottish country dancing (whirling her, whirling her.) Julian then chipped in with “Advice to a new man” (never iron naked!!)

Andi Langford-Woods paid tribute to IKEA for the “slightly sagging curtains” in the only way possible with Insects and then followed with a new piece Nerve Ends, a treatise on the confusion of animal magnetism and social stereotyping throughout history, and Not Tonight, curious eyes across a crowded bar. Helen Gregory returned from her American trip with She’s a Cleaner (about pigeonholing someone by their job) and a new piece Lucid Eyes (“when I was young and wise … I thought willies were a funny shape”). Wilf Merttens followed her up with Give Me a Wife Made of Leaves (very autumnal) and The Skyline Looks Beautiful.

On a run of poets (where are the musicians?) Ian Sills debuted two new pieces: England’s Gloomy (following the enormous national overreaction to defeat in a football match) and Re-freshing (having encountered freshers’ week in all its glory). Guy Herbert gave us Contrived (namechecking Mr & Mrs Paul Daniels), and six other snippets, which ended the show.

The kit was packed away in record time and everyone wandered homewards, tired but happy!