Acoustic Night

It was a hat-trick of celebrations for Acoustic Night with the evening marking its 14^th year in Bristol and its 2^nd at current home Halo. To mark the occasions(s), and showcase the quality and the diversity of talent that the night attracts, the Acoustic Night crew with the help of funds from the Lottery have produced a CD compilation of 19 performances from nights past which was also launched tonight.

BOB signing up
Andi kicked off proceedings by asking appropriately enough why any of us do it….. write poetry that is. It’s the love of words of course – and perhaps a fondness for the odd drink as well. And so we begin.

Simon Leake continued the theme of writing about writing, taking his rhyme and meter to war against materialism and injustice before hitting a seam of pure sweetness with his second piece ‘My Faith In You’.

The first music of the night, and the first of 7 artists featured on the CD, came from James Bunting. He kicked off with a new number called ‘Alibi’ and followed it up with ‘Stories’; an epic break up tale in which a drunken sailor treats poems as money to buy drinks with Shakespeare - although here at Halo the bar staff were having none of it.

JAMES BUNTING & HELEN
By this point the room was reaching capacity with the audience standing in the aisles and more chairs being rounded up for the overflow.

Bob is new to Bristol and arrived with Parental Advisory warnings of ‘taboo’ words. It wasn’t so much the language that disturbed as the imagery as he launched into a one man violent uprising against the staff of his local dole office in ‘JobCentre Minus’ and was only slightly less vitriolic towards the inhabitants of East London in the ‘trustafarian tragedy’ of the ‘Nathan Barley Blues’.

Shaqufta was accompanied by Lloyd on guitar. In ‘After The Watershed’ the gentle reggae which sends ‘rays of babylon’ from next door windows turns to something darker, as domestic violence leaves plum coloured bruises on the ‘brown girl’ in the neighbouring flat. She followed this with a warm and tender tale of transformation in ‘I Have Become The Third Person I Will Be’.

Hal (or was it Ital?) hit the stage with his ‘sexy guitar’ and what he called his ‘ketamine specs’ - although the audience suggestions ranged from Elton John and Bono to Timmy Mallet! After a brief and brutal memorial to Heath Ledger, ‘There Will Be No More Gay Cowboy Films’, it was the turn of Barry the Badger to demonstrate his oral technique on the microphone with the frankly demented ‘High’.

HAL CAMPLIN

Next up was me. Hazel writes: “Mark Walton returned from London with his transgendered ‘Metropolitan Hand-stitched Blues’ in which a kaleidoscope of characters was brought closely into focus. Whilst I’m not sure it is possible to have a ‘happy poem about senile dementia’ Mark also brought us fragments of ‘Ding Ding Ivy’ to make a touching mosaic of tender words.” Thanks Hazel!

David Bosankoe conjured an impressive one man trance experience on the Jaw / Jew’s Harp before Lloyd returned with his rich voice and guitar to share his unlikely solution to the affordable homes crisis with ‘Radiator Whale’ and the moving poem-song of ‘She Dances’.

DAVID BOSANKOE

Andrew Lawrence treated us all to a one man double bass and tambourine performance. In deference to our bladders he gave us two short but powerful numbers. A tale of the night he met his wife had the audience grooving (and swooning!) whilst ‘Tum Tum’ was a syncopated meditation on God and grocery shopping.

Pete Hunter was inspired to perform a warning to all school children NOT to take up the double bass for fear of the ensuing social stigma. He followed this with a tale of the perils of drunken texting and the hazardous nature of asking for directions for a poetry night in New Orleans which lead to scenes ‘he ‘aint never seen befo’’.

John T returned to the Acoustic Night stage and this time he brought his friends with him. The trio played a pair of ‘lost’ country blues numbers that conjured up cowboys, campfires and dusty truck stops and drove us to the half way point of the evening.

The celebrations continued in the interval with the audience being treated to free bubbly before Andi brought us all back to something resembling order.

Featured guests for the evening were Cute Loony. The band were down from their full compliment of 5 to 3 but still packed a punch as they gave us the easy lyricism and the hard edged softness of Hannah’s voice on ‘Weightless Dream’ and ‘I See Her Coming’. There followed the harmonies of ‘Bohemian Lie’, ‘when your dreams don’t leave your pillow’ and the soaring defiance of ‘Pressing Souls Upon The Sun’ to end their set. It was good to see them back

CUTE LOONY

David Moods (vegan, virgin or just vague? asked Andi) offered us an ode to a pineapple in ‘Layers of Existence’ followed by a plea for a more laid back attitude to life.

Perhaps it was the free bubbly but from this point on the heckling started as Chris (or was it Evan?) treated us to his ‘Rain Smile’ – a plea to accept things for what they are. The gentle delicacy gave way to the passion of a yelping growling number about lost love (or was he just a bit pissed off by the Belinda Carlisle inspired heckling?).

Tim Gibbard (proud Dad and definitely NOT a gay boy) induced more swooning in the audience as ‘nipples were rolled like French cigarettes’ in ‘If You Were My Girlfriend’ and cooled us all down with a sad reflection on what happened to Peter Pan when Wendy and the Lost Boys grew up and left Neverland.

Bernard constructed a genuinely bonkers electronic Bombay Mix nightmare with his box of tricks and dodgy BDSM jokes before we were treated to double helping of extraordinary voices.

BERNARD

Gina Brigantti reprised her CD offering of ‘Just Jealous’ and a remembrance poem for a friend newly put to music. Then Cynthia Quek demonstrated her multi-talentedness by playing both standing up and sitting down(!) to deliver the delicate fretwork and bell clear vocals of ‘This Asian Wife’ before calling G. W. Bush to account for the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

CYNTHIA QUEK

After the quiet, eye-of-the-storm power of Cythia’s ‘Katrina’, Pete Eldridge brought his own hurricane-force anger to the same subject before calming it right down with the transcendent beauty and quiet contemplation of ‘My Autumn Pantomime’. Finally he cranked it right back up with ‘A Game of Chance’ – a supernova of a poem about what it means to really live.

PETE ELDRIDGE

A Press Of Suspects had been to bed since their last appearance at Acoustic Night and treated us to ‘That Kiss Could’ve Killed Me’ and a second number that was a plaintiff plea for better times. With the audience joining in on tambourine and beer glass accompaniment an edge of shambolic rowdiness entered the proceedings prompting Andi to announce ‘the arse end’ of the evening!

There was no letting up in the quality of the entertainment however as Ann and Sean took to the stage with Sean’s guitar proving accompaniment to Ann’s haunting flute and vocals. There was more impromptu percussion from the floor as they conjured magic and dervishes in the room.

ANN & SEAN

The final act of the evening was Phil Baber who treated us to a rendition of Cantos Nuevos, his contribution to the CD, and invited Ann back to join him on stage for improvised flute backing. They were joined by noises off from Ian on the ‘cruet percussion’ and the ‘Acoustic Police’ on Bernard’s loud hailer.

More random than normal? Andi thought so and to sum up I can think of nothing better than this exchange overheard at about 4am as the celebrations continued…..
Phil Baber: This man is like a monkey without any rules.
Pete Eldridge: I love you for saying that.

All in all worth the trip from London I reckon.
Mark Walton

A BIG thanks to HALO for the last two years. Poetry Can for their continued support and Awards for All for this years funding.

ACOUSTIC NIGHT.

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS
AUDIENCE      70+
PERFORMERS 28
VIRGINS          6

Andi Langford-Woods welcomed all to our half century (although the real celebration will come at the next Acoustic Night marking our second anniversary at Halo). She then introduced James Bunting whose first song is new and untitled (well it was at the time!).
It sang the praises of Mandy (“she’d smile the kinda smile that made you sad”) while noting that “she never grew up. Being a guinea-pig never felt so good. His next song was a cover based on the old song about Widdecombe Fair and telling of dark deeds on Dartmoor (I think?) with Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer etc etc. Top quality as usual.

David Johnson performed one poem, a description of his wife preparing to go to dance class – choosing from “skirts with pleats that whirl and spin…evening dresses made of tulle” and donning “eyeliner to make her eyes sparkly and huge”. One could almost see it happen (especially as Alex was sat next to me watching!).

John T then became the night’s first virgin, playing two folky songs in a pleasing style, the second of which wondered “gentle woman, where are you today?” We will happily see more of him, as we did on the night.

Next Yasmin visited from Glastonbury, performing an old poem about a “psychedelic experience at a festival” (“my perception’s playing Call My Bluff”) looking believably hippy/psychedelic herself. She then performed a piece she claimed to have written the previous night about her love of dancing and music (“puppet to the drums; mistress to the symphony”.)

Evan, a friend of James Bunting’s, took up his guitar to perform for the first time at Acoustic Night. Looking like a younger and healthier Ronnie Wood, he sang a rhythmic love song (“I could never cause you any pain”) followed by a skilful cover of Naïve by the Kooks, a song he said was “written by my second cousin twice removed”

Cara was our third virgin of the night and also is Hazel’s niece, so fortunately her first poem was as “lovely and youthful” as it had previously been described. A light piece, talking of “trying to catch rainbows”, it was followed by something “a bit different” involving religion and cruelty (“I was told that baby angels lose their wings”).

CARA

Moussa Kouyate then played Kora and sang (a Kora is an African Harp although it looks like a big fat lute). The sound of the instrument was highly pleasant and slightly complex: Moussa’s vocals whether sung or spoken fitted beautifully alongside.

MOUSSA KOUYATE

After the break Julian Ramsay-Wade took over MC duties and broke the ice with a Dick Goughan song about making the most of yourself (“It’s not just what you’re born with, it’s what you choose to be”) and a very short witty insert. He then introduced A F Harrold, a heavily-bearded performance poet whose between-poem banter was as funny and sharp as the poems themselves. To try and get a flavour, imagine John Hegley with a huge ginger beard and a mean line in sarcasm. “My Mother” (who told him to always talk to strangers) preceded the first of several plugs for his book (only £7) and his “Fairytale Poem” the Ugly Duckling set to Que Sera Sera. More animals followed – “Centipede” – and images (plankton buying a relaxation tape of whale song?); Zoological Song (“the platypus and the echidna are the monotremes I recommend”) and “the mouse’s mistake” (it ate the elephant). A short story included a truly awful pun about “faking organisms”; he took us to the “Ideal Mirror Exhibition” and put Leonardo da Vinci in with some very bad rhymes indeed. His “Kitchen Poem #1” advised “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the fridge” and then “Jam” asked “what are Jammie Dodgers dodging?” His piece de resistance was about a literary collecter whose rhyming and alliterative acquisitions included “Sassoon’s bassoon”, “John Updike’s dyke duck”, “Henry Wadsworth’s long fellow” and “Margaret Drabble Travel Scrabble”. Genius! New poems to finish, with Great Aunt Bertha failing to end World War 1 early and “Rejoice in the bath” in which his paean to the joys of home bathing was accompanied by Moussa and included the thoughts that: “a bath is a boat with the water on the inside” and “It is truly next to godliness”. One final breathless plug (Bath! Plug! Geddit?) and he was finished.

AF HARROLD

AF HARROLD & MOUSSA

Will was a virgin and a friend of Cara’s – he had to follow our special guest and did so stylishly with a Spanish type guitar piece and a slightly Russian song. The former was to be part of a University audition two days later – I hope it was successful.

WILL

Annaliese Kellner-Joyce brought a serious pair of pieces about not loving oneself enough and the reasons why: dark but strong and obviously heartfelt poems of which we will hear more on 24^th March.

Hazel Hammond performed “For the New Year” (“A gentle tale”) and “The New Bath” about getting rid of old memories. Boy is it good to have her back!

HAZEL HAMMOND & ALI WADE

Ian Sills followed with (“An introduction poem”) “How are you?” a warning to anyone never to ask that question unless you are prepared to receive an answer; and “Oliver’s Trousers” a slight tale about trying to sing Oliver’s Army at a karaoke night and having to sing Baggy Trousers instead.

John T returned to cover Richard Thompson’s “Vincent Black Lightning”; a tale of a man, a death and a special motorbike; and “May You Never” another cover but equally well played with singalong and slapped guitar.

Simon Leake’s poem (“Dead bird”) was read on his behalf by an anonymous young lady;

Ali Wade kicked off Anarchist Hour appropriately (“I won’t be reconstructed cos I do not give a damn”) and Pete Eldridge performed his intimidating poem of control (“In every eye that you may see lies me”)

JOHN T & MOUSSA

Moussa returned with a slightly mediaeval sounding piece and then joined with John T for a chinking, clinking, jangling vocal piece. “John from Glastonbury” then performed two drunk poems, drunk. Wilf Merttens gave his thoughts on “Addictions”; Andi returned as performer (“I know you hate me” and “Give thanks for humans with humanity”) followed by Yasmin “Romancing my shadow” and Julian with his piece about an alcoholic friend and housemate. That was it. A good time was (I trust) had by all.

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

Audience     57
Performers  20
Virgins         6

Firstly an apology for the delay in posting this review. It was the last night of 2007 and our reviewer simply mislaid said document in the hiatus of the season and his manifold commitments.  We shall not chide, scold or even remonstrate for he is a wonderful soul and very busy with his philanthropic life.  We always want someone to give us their slant on the night so sign–up for Open Mic and review the night for us!

An un-named student band opened up with some folk sounding pieces – Bass guitar, violin and vocals providing an interesting overall sound.

Next INCKS with 5 very short poems, sometimes disconnecting within each utterance but poignant just the same. He also recited them from memory.

JAMES BUNTING brought two songs (one original, one cover) and proved there’s hope yet in the acoustic songwriter

RICHARD LAWSON – A little bit of humourous anti-Xmas sentiment mixed in with political (W.M.D.) hypocrisy.  Next a deeper satirical look at life and our irresponsible choices, particularly around this time (of year).

HELEN SADLER and her overdubbed/loop-pedalled vocals.  A funny/simple/comic strip song about how we treat each other, and men are the same. (Plus, music box tricks & kazoo).  Helen Sadler = a one woman array of sound.

SARAH TAMAR – mythed out ‘Father Christmas

PHIL BABER – typically bringing his European/latin-american twist to the evening with Mexican and Spanish songs.

The formidable IAN SILLS brings us his poetic/musical recollection of an ageing rocker. (Definitely not auto-biographical).

LAURA (15 years old and ably backed by someone who prefers to remain anonymous…) delivered a jazz standard and a folk standard with exceptional maturity.  (Look out for her!)

After the break, the legendary ROB GEE exploded onto the stage with a 500 word chat up spiel, and a fitting truthful war memorial poem – who can sell anything – plus give you a new licking to (a) football and why ‘Cosmo’ is everyman’s must read.  And much more!

A very mobile ROB GEE

PRESS & SUSPECT - laptop/amp/guitar/pre-recorded vocals and backing track – nice but too different for an ‘acoustic open-mic night!!!’ (plus 3 nights of no sleep is not fair on punters. Tricks or no tricks!)
* Note from Andi. Do try this at home… until you get it right and don’t dare attempt to inflict it on anyone else lest it’s tight and you know what the f*ck you are doing! Grrrrrr

Next, fail-safe humour and consideration from the one and only PETER HUNTER.

PETER HUNTER

A ‘HELEN’ gave us pure accapella tones

BAD NEWS WADE: P.D.A. poetry with a battery need.

BERNARD – another new meaning to the term “Acoustic” – loud poetry with a haunting backing track. Bless him x

HELEN GREGORY – Acoustic night’s very own celebrity poetic chef, who could be whatever you aren’t, but need.

DAVE (the voice) BUTLER.  Singer/songwriter, with a voice to die for, sings one of his own and a modern cover.

‘The’ SETH LAKEMAN (the wonder) who fiddles and sings at the same time – and so effectively.  (plus a 4-string guitar plucked magically).  This is the sort of treat that Acoustic Nights attracts.

SETH LAKEMAN

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

Audience            53
Performers          21
Virgins                 6
Names to drop      1