Acoustic Night

ACOUSTIC NIGHT 48

Review by IAN SILLS

JULIAN RAMSEY-WADE opened in front of a small but select crowd and then performed a warming warm-up piece: “wonderful, incredible and beautiful” were some of the words he used. He then introduced DAN WELZMAN – sometimes known by a pseudonym which has slipped my mind – who played a folksy song with an intricately-picked introduction (“Till the end”?) and an equally gentle ballad (“cut loose”?) regrettin “once I had a lover / I let her walk away) and apologizing for his unnoticed shortcomings with a new guitar (surely the first instance of a good workman blaming his tools??).

GINA BRIGANTI invited the audience forward and then pinned them back with “regular poems”. “Liminal G” mixes soul and rap in an Aretha vs Eminem kinda way “(So you think I’m too old for hip hop?”) while “Just Jealous” suggests that the young envy the old(er!) woman - “at least one pregnancy for the full cushion effect”. Very wry, and a perfect counterpoint to her soulful singing.

RICH FISH – an Acoustic Night virgin – was further inconvenienced by Phil Baber’s phone going off, but performed a complex slightly prog piece with several key changes and narrated sections (“Cold Air?”) and “Colours”, a janglier piece which he described as “a song about mental illness” (“The drugs you gave synthesized my brain”). Then he sneaked in a third song (well it was a quiet night!) mourning the present and future loss of Englishness as we drift into America’s clutches. Very Marillion! Or Noel Coward?

RUTH WEAL returned after losing her virginity at AN47 with “one I wrote the other day” about a friend who had given too much of her heart away; and a topically Autumnal poem “Stolen summer sun” (It was the “conniving deciduous tree leaves” wot dun it).

DAVID BOSANKOE apologized for the state of several of his Jew’s (jaws) harps: he then proceeded to demonstrate what a broken Jew’s harp sounds like and then played his unbroken one. (As usual the pieces themselves are hard to describe, but he is a highly proficient player of a unique instrument, as well as a loyal Acoustic Nighter.

TREVOR then apologized (lots of apologies tonight??) for the unseasonal nature of his pieces – reading from his book a poem about fat people on a beach and “Ode to Memory” (sometimes “it seems it has a mind of its own”)
Finally for the first half, JAMES BUNTING gave us two songs from his new EP: the first he has named “Paper Flowers” (“Just for this single cloudless night / We’ll dance beneath the Bristol lights”); while the second, “Stories”, collects historical and fictional characters and fits them together in his song. Sounded as good as ever, and a fine way to enter the break.

BREAK

JULIAN recounted the story of his revelation on the buses (sounds like a 70s spin-off film!) ending “I nearly broke free”.

ANDI LANGFORD-WOODS then performed two pieces of known quality: (“Life’s a fucker when you just want to believe” and “I know you / Mistrust me”).

PHIL BABER sat down and took us from wintry Bristol to Spain with “The Wish” (de ceo?) based on a poem by Lorca with a flamenco heart. Denying that he ever played covers (Brel, anyone???) he then gave us a song by Los Lobos previously performed by Antonio Banderas in Desperado. Leading us neatly to our night’s special guests:

I AM LAGAN – BUDDY WAKEFIELD, ANDREA GIBSON and KATIE WIRSING then performed a wide-ranging and rapid set of poems, which I will try to recapture in mere blog. BW introduced the group and said that “today was our first day on the wrong side of the road”. He then sped through a piece touching on “conversations with folk who look like an iceberg lettuce”, “the best songs are the ones about Georgia” and explained that a Lagan is something on the bottom of the sea tied to a buoy. (Well that’s OK then). KW gave us “If life was a love song” (“I’ve never gotten off on anything less than perfect”) and AG (“your country is beautiful in the dark” – what a compliment!!) read “Life doesn’t rhyme” (“It’s your worst sin – saving your fucking life”). The two women then performed a very powerful piece about abusive men (“bruises on her knees from praying to forget”). BW followed with “My Town” (in his case Huntsville Texas under George Bush); “my town was cute like…God Bless America bumper stickers”. KW returned with “The day you stopped kissing me” (“I started kissing the microwave just for warmth”) and AG gave “My heart is a parachute” (“It takes…more muscle to stay than to go”), (“I am not looking for roses”) which was extremely well received.

BUDDY WAKEFIELD

BW then pretended to be struggling to follow it but did so with “There is life after survival”. AG then performed an anti-war piece (“not all the casualties come home in bodybags” “No senators’ sons are being sent out to slaughter” “fuck your yellow ribbons”).

KATIE WIRSING

KW then honoured her grandmother for being unique - emailing to say “your mum tells me your plane didn’t crash” and accepting her granddaughter’s sexuality. She and AG then performed a Christian Drake(?) piece celebrating periods (tasteless but very funny) and BW followed that (!) with a piece rueing a lack of application (“I keep forgetting to put focus on my to do list”), (“tonight is not the last time I’ve seen the light”). Three fine performers, but even more than the sum of their parts as a trio and well worth seeing.

ANDREA GIBSON

How to follow that? VID WARREN, beatboxer and performer extraordinaire touched on The Kinks, The White Stripes and Deep Purple with his voice and recorder. He then juggled as well. To top it all he provided Buddy and Katie with a rhythm track for a further piece from them – “Our belief system” – which also included a harmonica and the whole audience. Inspired by the hip hop feel to the evening and the anti-American (government) tendency, IAN SILLS reprised his “Apology to Eminem” and JULIAN gave us W 2 (“My fellow Armenians…Elvis has shifted on his axle”). He rounded the evening off with (“In my father’s house there are many mansions”) and polished off a very fulfilling and varied night’s entertainment.

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE          38
PERFORMERS      18
VIRGINS               1
FAKE £1 COINS    We couldn’t tell the difference

Review by Ian Sills… apart from the cat bit, after he got the giggles, a little added grammar from Andi.

It’s quiet tonight. Silent streets, not even a cat scurrying across the damp dark Gloucester Rd.

Julian opens with ‘The band played Waltzing Matilda’, he sings this with such emotion.. then brings on DERRICK HINES who plays ‘Not Tonight’ a song successfully fighting the temptations of adultery and follows that with “the only other original I have finished… ‘Blackboard, no chalk… actions with no thought’…”. We all wish him well on his trip back to the States.

SARAH TAMAR gives us three short pieces (cheeky) First is ‘Sparklers from Asda’ - “anti-climactic, unorgasmic…no time to write my name…” then ‘Sad’ – “ sedimented sentiments that sear my soul…I am next in the queue of ancestral bones” and finally ‘Liverpool cathedral’ “ a silent colossus” concise and colourfully accurate words Sarah.

Recent arrival to Bristol ASH DICKINSON is in good spirits. He reels out a poem about going to the dentist and falling in love with the dental technician “ take a gondola down my root canal…” and then tells us how his fridge is in love with him “ using magnetic fridge poetry to declare its affection and worrying about it’s weight”

STUART GOODALL (our first virgin of the night) displayed some delicate string plucking and sang two songs notably ‘At the End’ - “the Earth burns up …incinerating what creation had begun”. Good stuff Stuart.

JOHN TERRY (great in the defensive line-up of tried and tested local poets) opens with a slice of bestial observation “ quiet as a mouse wanking… no animal reaches orgasm in total silence” then proceeds to rail against November “ Nothing to breathe except November’s breath”
Sighs all round… we know just how you feel John.

DAVID BOSANKOE – Utterly inimitable and indescribably rhythmic renditions of trance inducing jaws harp playing in two keys. Anyone remember Medicine Head? Well he’s funkier…

RUTH WEAL ( ANV 2) starts off with the longest title of the night ‘True love and a St*rb*cks coffee less than 2 feet from me and a thousand miles away’ detailing “your desire to devour my warm chocolate gaze” and then follows that with ‘Lady Darkness’.
A captivating debut Ruth. Come back soon.

PHIL BABER is really family now and we love him. Tonight we get a chat-up song from Ireland ‘A little drummer boy’ and then ‘Cantos Nuevos’ (New songs) based on words by Lorca. Cheers Phil, SEE YOU AFTER THE BREAK!
LAIENDA
And yes, here he is again with LAIENDA, no longer the fresh kids on the block Laienda have been gigging almost constantly this year and making their presence felt. They open with Phil’s song ‘La Guitarra’ a flamboyant latin styled tribute to his instrument followed by ‘Autumn’ more folksy in its delivery. ‘The ballad of Matty Groves’ – ‘Slow Song’ – ‘Flicker and Fly’ take us thru’ waltz time with added mandolin to more European linguistics with ‘Once Again’ and a debut performance for ‘A man you don’t meet every day’…
Sadly our reviewer was reduced to giggles at this point due to continued
reciprocal heckling twixt him and Mr Baber (from onstage I might add…) and his notes are incomprehensible. ed.

From here on there are only two more performers noted. Ash Dickinson came back with ‘Commuting to Jupiter’ – “though she had the back seats down in her Xsara” and Julian retold his tale of his alarm clock, BEEP! BEEEP!BEEEEP!!!!getting to work “ I’m thinking – now I’m thinking too much”

A cat slunk out of the shadows of the parked cars, scratched its ear, farted and scampered off towards the service yard. he was hungry and the rodents were stirring…

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS
AUDIENCE ENOUGH FOR A SMALL HOEDOWN
PERFORMERS 14
VIRGINS 2

Ok so we are suffering the onset on winter blues, autumn browns and
group members falling over left right and centre. On top of that technologicackle daemons have been biting our ankles non-stop and we are determinedly fighting to recover our composure. Finally we have got enough braincells together to collate the following…

The first part of the night was filled by many of the noted talents that have been regulars of Acoustic Night for the last couple of years. David Johnson, David Sollors, John Terry, Ali Wade, Phil Baber and the wonderful Polly Moyer on her last night in Bristol. Quality performers all.

A couple of newcomers Doug Hamilton (keyboards and AN virgin) and Derek Brake (poetry) added to the spice with their own material.

Our guest Audrey Ryan had arrived early in the day in a very smart hire-car (upgraded!!) and along with Andi set off to return the car to an elusive Hertz depot. Failing on this mission they retired for an early dinner.

Coming onstage after the break Audrey gave us a great set from her new CD ‘Dishes and Pills’ and older material showcasing her talents on guitar and accordion. Long anticipated enjoyment was fulfilled by her velvety twang and neat stories. Thanks Audrey!!

AUDREY RYAN

Following with more Open Mic we introduced a little freeform flow and the stage was taken by Helen Gregory, Gina Briganti, Derrick Hines, Andi, Ian Sills and Julian with second appearances from Phil Baber and Doug Hamilton. Not too many fireworks but as usual a great selection of performers.

DOUG HAMILTON
ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE 38
PERFORMERS 17
VIRGINS 1
DAMP SQUIBS All those who stayed away!