Acoustic Night

Set against the new backdrop Andi started us off with ‘Quest’ a diatribe on festival organisers… “no place to park, no place to pee”. Then David Basencoe kicked off the evening proper to a less than packed house – but then the aim is always quality with quantity if possible, if not then we go for quality – where was I? Oh yes, David with his Jew’s (Jaws) harp (or harps). An amazing and inventive performer. I always used to think this was a boring instrument but not in David’s hands/mouth/jaw.

DAVID BaSeNCOE
John Terry followed with two poems – ‘Mountain Rescue’ and ‘Out of her mouth tumble light fabrics’. Two pieces that captivate the audience, the second one drawing collective imagination into the room with narrator and subject. John’s writing should be an English curriculum subject.

JOHN TERRY

Phil Baber My favourite musician started to play ‘Nancy’ but after two false starts and a rebellious mic stand took us instead to ‘Amsterdam’ giving us a rollicking tale of a hard drinking sailor.

Poems from Sarah Tamar followed up Phil’s success. ‘This is Life’ a tourist’s guide to life followed by one about ‘Ale’ an amazing many sided journey!

Sofia Gradin who “took stick with the shit I write” and went on to prove that what she writes and sings is always great to listen to. Her second song (saying “yes, everything we do IS fucked up –but”) gave us her highly original view on life. For good measure she gave us an ‘angry’ poem built around a poor relationship and what may lie beyond.

SOFIA GRADIN

Angel Tonight’s only Acoustic night virgin opens with ‘Talking ‘bout my generation’ a strong first piece followed by ‘Three Steps’. Both poems about life and what it does to us all and especially those who fall in love and take the consequences.

ANGEL

And last in this smashing first half is Peter Hunter who said he had brought three poems but had ditched the best. He tells a true story of what happened to him on Friday, describing his meeting with an Sikh in a green turban claiming to be an astrologer. He follows with “When I am brave I will wear orange” built on Pete’s highly original take on life.

PETER HUNTER

Andi starts the second half of the evening introducing the Corporate Watch group who have travelled from Oxford and Reading for tonight.

Claire Fauset describes what they have done, putting together the anthology of many worthy contributors and demolishing the statement “you can’t do a political poetry anthology” with the retort “Bullshit!!” then starts with a poem by Will Holloway (formerly Mr Social Control) called ‘I did not speak out… because history is rising in waves’. She follows with her own piece ‘Steal this Poem’ –“anyone can copy because it’s copy-left…I steal a verse here and a line there”. Her next poem ‘My direct action poem’ written pre G8 time –“I wanna make poverty history…erase it from the dictionary” echoes many of our sentiments. A worthy opener for this dedicated trio of activists.

CLAIRE FAUSET

John Hoggett is up next, a multi-coloured hippy wonder musing on the delights of handsome didgeridoo players, stating that “the world is in hock to the corporations”. He gives us ‘Changing the world’ – “If I wrote a poem to change the world I would give instructions on what presents to give your lawyer”. This one is in the anthology. Next he gives us ‘A poem of Prayers’ –“from the dawn of the world to the death of my Dad” a piece delivered in a hushed but potent tone. He finishes his spot with ‘We’re all in this together’ – “ants and seaweed and summer wheat” before calling up…

Danny Chivers who starts with his poem “How far has the Sahara grown to make up your banana –phone?”. Danny is a lively performer who moves into a piece from the book by Rob Gee ‘The Day the world stopped turning’ – “Politicians everywhere admitted they were lying … on the day the world stopped turning” Finally he rounds up a truly great set of poetry with ‘Don’t buy it!’ – “about economic justice, you can ask…Bono. He knows the way out of this fix: SHOPPING: it’s the new politics!”

DANNY CHIVERS

Andi returns to the mic and slips in ‘Insects’, her observations on the effect Ikea has had on our lives “Ikea! Ikea! The insects cry with accumulative hunger for interior DIY…” and then introduces

Pete Gioconda who plugs his new position as MC at Oppo on Thursday nights before singing a new song about apathy ( I just couldn’t be bothered to write down the title… ) and then a favoured old song on traditional theme of love and heartache. Andi still thinks he reminds her of Arlo Guthrie.

PETE GIOCONDA

Mark Patrick Hill took the stage and got everybody to sing Happy Birthday to his partner Roisin and then invited the whole audience to her party on Thursday! ‘In the beginning’ is a piece based around his plans for the UK University of Life, much as we would like life to be and then he gave us a sound poem as often performed by (and tonight dedicated to0 George Melly.

Phil Baber came back for a second stab at the mic starting with a subdued song in Polish which drew some response from a young woman delighted to hear her native language and then rounded off his night with ‘Dance me till I die’ a first airing for the song done in part Spanish a la Flamenco style.

Julian Ramsey-Wade Opens with ‘Peace is the way’ – “In my Father’s house there are many mansions” He has many fine pieces of work, this is one the best. Julian follows this with a dedication to his son Eric “speaking the language of friends…” Class act as always.

Hazel Hammond Shares her experience of a disturbing visit to a local Psychiatric Museum “a key hung on the nurse’s belt…unwashed calico rises… soft feet no longer walking” dark sensations indeed. Her second poem is a tribute to Tracey Emin “ She’s got balls!” and Hazel ends her slot with details of her project where she will knit herself into a cocoon. See myspace.com/hazelcocoon

HAZEL HAMMOND

Ian Sills rounds off the night with ‘Abolition Rap’ a contemporary piece on the murky history of Bristol’s slavery years and then ‘Present Participle Principle’ before handing the mic back to Andi who closes with ‘Daily Dirt’ a final rant about the greed of media moguls.

ANDI

Thanks to John Terry and Ian Sills for the review, occasional editing by Andi. Still waiting for our new camera but thanks to Julian for the shots tonight.

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE 58
PERFORMERS 17
VIRGINS 1
REPUTATIONS SHOT 3

VROOM!! An appropriate noise to begin the 35^th ACOUSTIC NIGHT at HALO.

CRAIG WILSON With nothing to promote this week – he begins with a new poem ‘The Bench’. A quick, pacy beat and his dark poem brightens the weary festival goers. His second piece, written aptly in Glastonbury, is a Billy Bragg-esque statement of national pride and of country life. “I’m an Englishman, proud to be so”

DAN POULTON

Dusts off his guitar and begins with the lament “Muddy water take me down” Nick Drake instantly springs to mind, soft deep voice and sawing guitar. ‘In the pines’ follows, very different to the Nirvana version. Again a Nick Drake haunting song.

BEN RICHARDS

More sober than last time, considerably! Much to the audience’s disappointment there will be no poem about sex or drugs. First poem about his love for poems and the swearing begins as he moans and groans about “air quotes” We liked that one! ‘The Great Barrier Riff’ – a rap of the sea, every fish you can think of and words surely made up…merkins?? He gets our ‘seal’ of approval and much oinking to back it up.

MARK PATRICK HILL

A regular who is celebrating his birthday and we all sing. He begins with a fast paced inter-galactic piece “There ain’t no McDonalds here in space yet” and slips in a plug for his ‘University of Life’ (see links on our website)

MONTY Cheerful faced he decides to give half a song to us guinea-pigs and it’s all about Christmas! “Santa where did you go? I’ve got my presents but I feel like a sack of coal” He follows with ‘Life in a nutshell’ and the audience is as happy as he is. Job done!

ANDI

Gracing us with two poems, the first ‘The Charge’ she hasn’t done for over year, …it was worth the wait. Now comes the new poem… a powerful piece questioning where religion takes people.

SARAH TAMAR ‘Carry Over’ difficulties that occur in intimate relationships. The hurts and multiple painful words that ‘carry over’ to the next day. Who can explain the lows that couples endure. Then “Goodbye Mr Blair. Time to cash in your chips, back on your bike, dethroned. Mister of Blah Blah. Another fine mess after the other one enveloped us, Oh but enjoy your trip on holiday…if only Tony Benn could begin again”

JAMES BUNTING

“I’m still in love with you” A big cheer for the Halo slag/slut. ‘Always’ - serenading us with a fine love tune –“feeling like a sailor looking for a saviour” Bunting has no regrets or hesitation, he was always in love with us, only left with similies. Fantastic guitar work. ‘So lets be killer babes, make the great escape’ A deep and mysteriously passioned performance. Sexy times.
ROISIN

Written in the gusset of her underpants, she doesn’t like purple but has a soft spot for scarlet. 50! Half of a hundred but her options are open and she prefers experience to energy.

PETE GIOCONDA

Harmonica and acoustic guitar. Bob Dylan? Nope but a very American style voice singing of the “The Queen of the future”. Very enjoyable to conclude the first half. ( Andi was reminded of Arlo Guthrie)

SPECIAL GUEST
RC WESLOWSKI

Fresh from his stint at Hay-On-Wye and Wychwood Festival in Chelt-en-ham (Yes he’s from Canada) he begins with ‘Monkey Pudding’ which requires some audience participation…not as expected as RC begins screeching out the words ’monkey’ and ‘pudding’ and asking us to mimic him. Oooh kay…
Finally the word ‘merkin’ is explained, it’s a pubic wig and in Monty Python’s prayer style the audience is amused and captivated. A satirical take now and “butterflies fuckin’ on warheads” is causing war across the world by “self-righteous bastards” but “stop, in the name of love… stop the bullet, bang, pow pow” Stunning!!
A mockery of the honourable sport of Cheese Rolling is next! But on reflection… fair enough.
Now a poem about string with more audience participation and then a poem of comic horror and no-one knows whether to laugh or be shocked as RC shouts “Time after time after time…!”
The final poem and the jacket comes off, the serious stuff! This poem is about a slug, a jaguar and a priest who joined the clergy “for all the gay sex and a cameo in the Da Vinci Code” would you rather be a jaguar or a slug? After this poem we think many minds may have been changed, all love the slug!

JAMES WHITE Ready and eager, he is up on stage before he is introduced! A brand new song with some improvisation about drinking fancy drinks by the seaside. Then an acoustic rock and roll style played and received with enthusiasm.

RICHARD LAWSON Richard decides to voice some political poetry and his first poem is brief and humourous offending Muslims and Christians then Catholics but there is nothing but smiles in here especially at the thought of a ‘doped Pope’

PHIL BABER Still fresh from Prague he begins to heckle himself with Ian’s encouragement then plays a song inspired by Warsaw but sung in French and played on a Spanish guitar. This turns out to be quite the combo! This is followed by a slower song of heartache ‘Loneliness becomes you’.

TALKIN’ TEKLA THE NARRATOR Such a name requires great things, but this guy is a champion, so no-one doubts he will amaze. ‘The Poet’ is a “brand spanking new one” which keeps the audience riveted with it’s fast paced performance. His poem ‘Ambiguous’ astounds the audience and leaves nothing to the imagination.

ROSEMARY DUN A local legend now, she has something to say – “God’s honest truth” of her “misspent youth” She can’t do drugs, but she’s tried! And then a poem of Rosemary’s dark fantasies about American double-bass players…

JERRY ‘Lost and found’ is the title of his opening song as he mumbles into the mic before cranking up the volume with a powerful Neil Young style nasal voiced song. After a brief Rosemary stage invasion Jerry continues with a song about military coups.

POLLY MOYER Heckled as “Ginger!” “Slapper” then Ian chips in with “Genius!” aah love is in the air…Polly takes a poem ‘Silver lined heart’ from a New York poet and adapts it to Acoustic Night. Plagiarism all round and everyone is smiling.

KEVIN Andi asks” Do we have a virgin here?” Nope, he’s done it all before. he opens with a poem from Brussels Station of longing and hurt.
‘Today’ is a poem of Kevin’s heartbreak at the hands of a Turkish woman, broken by “Cupid’s crooked arrow”.

GINA BRIGANTI Gina comes to the stage with cheers from the audience and runs through her poems for us in preparation for her big gig on Saturday. Her opener shows us she will do well as she captivates us with her love poem of Isis and Myrthyr woven thru’ with song. Then a full-on bluesy a cappella number in the shape of ‘Come fly with me’ – her voice soars over the room and she receives a much deserved round of applause.

MILES CHAMBERS Giles cannot be found so instead we have the poetical musings of an unsuspecting Miles and no-one is disappointed with his satirical and politically oriented verse. Big cheers and the night concludes.

But wait! Who’s this? Giles has been found but his name is really…

JO With a poem on dinner party etiquette, then one for his dog! Another two shows the favouritism for this guy after a lengthy absence. A cheeky four poems, all well received.

Well he waited patiently all night for his slot bless him!
Thanks to James Bunting for the review, RC Weslowski for travelling to share his presence, poetry and love with us. Hazel for MCing the first half though exhausted after her first taste of Sunrise Festival. Helen for the photos tho’ she “godda bunged ub dose” and was sent home early. (Wychwood Fest casualty) Helen and Paul Vallis for transport, hospitality and vibes. Julian for filming RC Weslowski. Chris and Eric for letting Julian out to play with us. All the HALO crew who take care of us as we slide into random and last but not least all you who are ACOUSTIC NIGHT, The poets, musicians and audience.

Say what? Oh, Me? Well I’m the Mother Hen innit?

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE 45
PERFORMERS 22
TALES OF HEARTACHE AT LEAST 8
REGRETS 0