Acoustic Night

Starting off the New Year at Halo, a downbeat note was struck for those of us learning of the premature death of the wonderful Dike Omeje, who had brought his individual, rhythmic, emotive poetry to Bristol on numerous occasions. Andi introduced Pete Hunter to present a tribute on CD but (technology having failed) Pete instead read the piece himself. “Trademark” is an examination of what poets are and why we do it and was a highly appropriate epitaph for the man who wrote it – “We are poets for the love of it”.

Hazel then took over and introduced Yasmin – an ‘Acoustic Night virgin’ (by the way, if you object to being referred to as a virgin, don’t worry, we promise it won’t happen again!!!). She presented “A psychedelic life (“my perception’s playing Call My Bluff”) (sound familiar???) and “Behind glossy finishes”, a critique of the cosmetics trade, and during both pieces sounded too experienced and able to be the virgin she will not be again.

YASMIN

Then The Kindly Ones, a female trio comprising guitar, flute and voices, performed a relatively straightforward love song with someone “secretly waiting for me”, followed by a twist on the theme of adulterous thoughts: “leave him – lazy f***ing husband – the girl next door is much more fun” which the late great Kirsty MacColl could have written and sung.

THE KINDLY ONES
John Terry descended from his lofty perch to amaze we mortals with twin pieces “Before Glass” and “Behind Glass” which spanned twenty years in a gradually stranger relationship involving man and machine. Pat Reid commemorated another recently deceased poet (a bit morbid, this week!) in John Heath Stubbs and sang “I’m afraid to fly”. He also let slip that he lives close by now, so we great admirers should have the pleasure of seeing and hearing him more often!

Hazel slipped in a piece of her own “Brighton”, describing that seaside town and name-checking the Prince Regent along the way, before Gary Death (his real name!!) who has moved down from Scotland to Bristol, amused most with his comic poems: “Jesus did it backwards” (“Who’s to say? Who’s to know?) and “Fear”. He also asked “is Bono Jesus?” (if he is, then The Edge must be John the Baptist!).

James White described himself as “nearly a virgin” and sang plaintively “I’ve been waiting all my life for the chances to arrive”: he took this chance well enough! Then David Sollers gave us elephant death and geometry (not in the same poem – the second piece was pi!) with God (who has had a hard time tonight) seen as unraveling into zero!

Richard Lawson celebrated a skateboarder careering down Park Street in “Hey to Skater” and bemoaned the lot of the “Occupation Jobbing Squaddie” with “no paddle in a sh*t creek situation”, followed by Livvi with accompaniment from Everton on a fine version of Come Together (for some reason always my favourite Beatles track) and a rural idyll inviting us to “watch the river flow”.

Our special guests were six poets from Bath Spa University: Emerson, Frances, Ed, Andrea (Andy), Gordon and Tracy (their beloved leader!). Tracy started off with a sad tale of a Convent School Disco which turned (as usual) into a beauty contest; Andy saw the link between poet and reader as “late night contact through the ether”; Emerson emphasized his Northern perspective in discussing “Margaret Thatcher and Doncaster coal” (“She watched it all, her stomach full”); Gordon was equally Northern in “What did you do in the war?” scathing at the justification of Page 3 girls as “empowering women”; Frances told a moving story of consequences “ ‘71 postal strike…platelets never arrived” and Ed raised the pace with “Fancy Dress”.

BATH SPA POETS
Tracy promised to “caress your crevices” in “If I was your dentist” (and then give you a bill for £456.71!!); Andy stressed her antipodean origins in “Partners in Arms” (and only mentioned the Ashes briefly!); Emerson mused on under sixteens trying to buy cigarettes and Gordon provocatively threatened to run a writing competition “for white men only”. Frances described “Gwen’s Garden” – “the proverbial pocket handkerchief” and Ed turned “You’ve got to pick a pocket or two” into a rap. Tracy’s final piece – “The Plectrum” – described the end of a relationship; Andy’s “Bird on a Wire” twisted Lady Chatterley; Emerson’s piece told of “cover blown, Northerner looks elsewhere in “Damn, ‘e saw me”; Gordon warped a Dylan piece in “Substandard Homebase Blues”; Frances gave us “Frost on Glass” and Ed finished with a rap which wandered all over the place (as did he) but miraculously came together at the end. Six wonderful, very different poets.

After a well deserved break Hazel resumed and introduced Ian Perry (who I had down as John so please forgive any error!!!). He played a very bluesy slide guitar and sang to great effect “oh the tides they wash over me”.

IAN PERRY
Gina Briganti sang “More than you do” and touched upon slavery (“am I superior…or did I get it wrong”) and admirably so since she was hit hard by the news of Dike’s death. Mark Edwards was another virgin (I think) who didn’t play in the least like one. Derrick reacted to being oversensitive by promising “you’ll never get another f***ing dollar out of me”. Phil Baber then sang a Jacques Brel song (My Death) for anyone who has lost someone and a guitar (and indeed “guitarra”) heavy Spanish song. Caroline Sawyer plugged her Open House night at the Eldon House (Sunday 28^th January) and denied her pieces were all about hating men, admitting “I am bitter and twisted” but performing “The Miracle of Love” as “the exception that proves the rule”, following this with “On the shelf”. Hal Campion disclosed (distastefully) that he was “now more constipated than I’ve been before” before singing “Serial Killer” in which “they found a piece of my wife”.

Simon Leake performed “A better day spent” and “bullet sword breaking up”; he is more of a performance poet than he realises! Sam Taylor sang a song he wrote three days earlier (a folk-tinged sweet song) and Becky Gunn joined in with harmonies on a second contribution. Julian Ramsay-Wade then stepped up to the plate and swept in with “I wanna be a Superman (for Dike) and (for Tony Blair) accused him of “messing with perfection”. Nailed!!! Wilf Merttens then contributed “Not a Muslim burial”; “Lost Property” and “Shared Kitchens”; more Wilf-like slices of life, but not as we know it.

Pete Eldridge brought the Bonobo Hobos for their first of many contributions to Acoustic Night – starting with the more familiar “a Game of Chance” they then rapped and freestyled their way through several tracks culminating in one piece featuring all three of them. As a taster for a possible guest appearance in the near future, this was intriguing.

BONOBO HOBOS
Andi closed the night with “Give Thanks” her tribute to positive life experiences before
Hazel banished us all from the place for a fortnight – she and all of us could be well satisfied with a successful night despite a somber and poignant start!

Thanks to Ian Sills for the review and Pete Hunter for the photos. If you want to be an Acoustic Night reviewer or photographer talk to us @ Halo!

Andi