Acoustic Night

Review by Lucy English

Virgins and Old lags.

First up was Phil Baber, Maestro of the Spanish guitar, and singing in Spanish. (I shall translate) Eat my olives. I go to my death.

Next was Mike Gower who entertained us with poetry about the gruesome dinner guest and the benefits of age. The old guy can still make us laugh.

Neil Allen, the first virgin of the night, was fresh from his bedsit with songs inspired by ‘a collection of retrospective thoughts.” It’s better with an audience, isn’t it, Neil?

Malusi stunned us with his poetry word stream. He’s the dub poet who, he tells us, now does it in aristocratic homes in Clifton. He can do it anywhere. He’s that good.

Anna and Lucas were the first of the Bath Spa poets. They took us through the highs and lows of modern life. Imsomnia and soiled pants. Oh, and a pantoom. (Believe me, it worked)

Evan sang his jaunty songs with much enthusiam on his, and the audience’s, part.

EVAN

Lucy English. That’s me. Ageing word slut. (and always damn good! Ed.)

LUCY ENGLISH

Laura and Everton sang gentle melodic Katy Melua covers. Some of your own stuff next time perhaps?

LAURA

After the break was the guest poet, Annelise Kellner-Joyce. A self confessed serious poet she was theatrical and dramatic. Food disorders. Chocolate condoms. Mother problems.

ANNELEISE KELLNER-JOYCE

David Bosankoe gave a confident set on the Jews harp, or was it the mouth Digeridoo? It all happens at Acoustic night.

DAVID BOSANKOE

More virgins. Young and fresh from Bath Spa. Despite being terrifed they didn’t look it.
Lyrical words from Agatha and James gave us some thoughtful poetry facts. Now you are not virgins anymore you can do it all the time. I do hope so.

AGATHA & JAMES

Julian, our favourite resident old lag, showed that it is not only musicans that can do covers. He span a version of Rieves’ ‘Deaf poetry’. It’s a classic and he did it justice. See the orginal on You tube. Rieves. He’s American.

Pete Hunter. Resident old lag number two reminded us about the badger baiting project in Millenium square. Did I get that right? He also did a love poem with a music backing. Is there no end to this guy’s creativity?

Renee, another virgin, told us he was blessed by god. His poetry was straight from the heart.

Pete Lloyd almost got forgotten. I’m glad he wasn’t. He’s a skillfull guitarist with a zinging Spanish style. I could have been in Barcelona.

Rosemary Dun, recently of Folk House Fame, aired her new poems and her floral frock. It’s good to see her on the poet side of the mic again.

ROSEMARY DUN

Talkin Tekla from Trowbridge said he doesn’t want money which is a shame because he’s a good storyteller and a great character.

TALKIN’ TEKLA

Acoustic Night’s own Hazel Hammond rounded off the night with Rosa Rosada, a sensitive poem about death and loss.

HAZEL HAMMOND

It then went into the ‘anarchy hour’ but these days my idea of anarchy is forgetting to watch ‘Gardener’s World’.

Andi says

Thanks Lucy. Four got up and took the mic…

Pete E gave us Katrina, his take on the New Orleans disaster, Kimberley came up with another goodie from her growing repertoire, Rhys again logged on with rhythm and rhyme and a shy guy in a hoodie told us of his time in the dark side of life. Come back again dude.

KIMBERLEY

RHYS

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

PERFORMERS 25
AUDIENCE 56
VIRGINS 6

Review by James Bunting

Andi opens the proceedings… “get warm by getting up and running around!” promising an active evening.

We start the night with two Acoustic Night virgins…
CARLY AND GRAHAM who begin with a new and untitled song. Carly’s smoky voice over Graham’s picked guitar opening the night in true, beautiful Acoustic Night style.

GARY DEATH is a familiar face back after six months. He performs a poem which shocks the audience about ‘the only Glaswegian dominatrix in Amsterdam” and then about trees making a stand…Welcome back Gary! With all the cussing we’re still glad to have you back.

Our second musician, and third virgin, has CDs to sell. Hands together for SEAN SAYE. ‘You’re a mountain to climb’ is a wonderfully performed ballad to relinquish his virginity. His second piece is equally brilliant. Sean is not a local but we hope he passes through again soon.

HELEN GREGORY treated us to her usual high quality performance. To steal a phrase, it was “sonorous, sensual…”

Next up was Acoustic Night veteran PHIL BABER who, after BBC censors, was glad to be able to freely perform two songs in Spanish. Both as enjoyable as always.

A poetry and music combo followed. ELEANOR AND LEONIE on vocals and accordion respectively. The song lyrics, In Avatar, are from a poem by our own Hazel Hammond. Eleanor was accompanied by Leonie on accordion and a backing track on CD. Passionate and powerful.

PETE GIOCONDA & THE DEARSTALKER With a name like that who knows what to expect but we’ve seen Pete before and we know he’ll be good. After a brief ear-splitting ‘techniccup’ we’re back on track and Pete and the bongo fella deliver a top notch performance.

Our last act of the first half is Acoustic Night stalwart PETE HUNTER. Pete also sets up a CD sample track and his first piece ‘Lovedrops’ brings laughs all around. The second piece is equally impressive, a tip of the hat to Bristol Beauty and we tip our proverbial hats to a fine performer.

Our Special Guest for the night is SUZY CONDRAD accompanied by her sister LIZZY. Suzy begins with ‘30 Below’ a mellow and beautifully harmonised piece about not being able to love anyone. The second song ‘Hotline’ is dedicated to their father, a wonderfully constructed melody which suits the sisters varied vocal style very well. The third song’Geen Bottles’ is eerie and powerful and captures the audience completely. Suzy takes a seat and ‘Stop the Carousel’ slowly progresses in pace and focuses on Suzy’s vocal ability. On her last song ‘Last man standing’ she plays tambourine with her foot (a la Rachel Dadd et al) a catchy upbeat song to round off a wonderful set. But wait… an encore! And Suzy doesn’t disappoint with ‘Dear Simone’ for me the best song of the set. A truly brilliant performance. Look out for her CD soon.

Andi offers a ‘Tribute to Beauty’ for the many faces that make up the audience and her life. As is so common with Andi’s poetry she has the audience captivated.

JAMES BUNTING on his last visit for some time (he’s off to S.E Asia) gives us a new song, plaintive yet strong and then one that has been a feature of his recent sets. Reminiscent of current troubadors James still is his own man. Bon Voyage fella!

HAL ‘Badgertrap’ CAMPLIN apologises for interrupting our evening but we don’t mind. After a long rambling waffle we hear some music. Hal just wants to sit here and eat cake. His second song is a ‘tribute’ to his Granny. The audience is perfectly entertained.

IAN SILLS comes onstage after a brief introduction and performs ‘Oscar the grouch’ about his darker side and the way Acoustic Night lightens it. Well Ian sustained the already lightened mood!

A relative newcomer by the name of CHARLIE ANSELL takes the stage. He follows the tried and tested formula of an updated folk song ‘ A wing and a prayer’ and then a rant about “my local radio station doesn’t play local tunes”. He makes the point in this well written song.

Next up, described by Andi as “a sublime presence” is CATHY KEAL. A
really special talent. Truly brilliant.

The penultimate act before anarchy sets in is DAVID BOSANKOE with his signature Jews harps. Unusual and very enjoyable especially with audience participation. Joined by Phil Baber, Dave again catches the audience.

Finally JULIAN RAMSEY-WADE comes up to blow us away (as usual!!) Tonight he performs a cover poem and everyone, as predicted, is blown away….

First up in the anarchy hour is KIMBERLEY with a poem about the mating game. A brilliant talent but it’s a shame we don’t see her enough. Although she seems nervous she dedicates the poem to Andi and it’s as passionate as Andi is, wonderful!

The rest was pretty awesome but after a few Gems I forget to blog it.

Sadly our camera gave us a hard time and we are gutted there are no fotos of this pretty special night. Duh!!!

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE 45
PERFORMERS 23
VIRGINS 4

Compere Julian Ramsey Wade.
Notes for the blog by Everton Hartley

Julian opened with a welcome poem who gave us all the vocal charisma expected from a poetic champion.
He offered an apology to all those who needed amplification but tonight we were about to be fully acoustic !

Mark started us off with two keyboard pieces ‘A place for Jesus’ and ‘Only one road’ Mark accompanied his full voice with piano playing which makes you feel like you are watching a film about changing landscapes. It was simple, constant and beautiful.

David Sollors who did not expect to perform nevertheless gave us a polished performances of ‘Nativity’ and ‘Wendy the elephant’ - two short poems packed with potency.

DAVID SOLLORS

Sam Dixon Accompanied by Everton. Sam sang ‘Don’t wait’ and a cover ‘Slow train’. She performed like a pro with a voice so full and warm you could snuggle up in it.

SAM DIXON & EVERTON

George Wade started with poem about different angels and one for first time performers – poems of virtuous content delivered by a seasoned orator.

Charlie Ansell was told folksong would die but here was the dynamite response to those who believe that. He sang the lords wedding / millionaires wedding – an intelligent update of traditional songs

CHARLIE ANSELL

Helen Gregory performed ‘this is not a love poem’ and ‘What do you do?’ as ever poignant yet sultry and stirring, complex and sweet.

Oliver Hoare Two songs ‘Goodbye song’ and ’Take me home’ sung with a powerful vocal delivery and accompanied on the guitar and mouth organ.

OLIVER HOARE
Simon the Magician This guy needs to be ‘’scene’’ to believed!!!!

MAGIC SIMON & GUEST (STOOGE?)

Jim Gallagher Jim seems averse to bespoke performance areas however the songs ‘Empty Canvas Open Sky ‘ and ‘The World is a beautiful place’ are cool and easygoing. His vocal delivery aptly matched them. There was an overall feel of America – James Taylor-ish …

Karl One piano piece which transported you all over from Acoustic Night to Bristol and all its suburbs and back .

Special Guest Peter Wyton

Gloucestershire’s own Poet Laureate who gave us words of wisdom spoken in true jest, informatively and in ample quantity.
Started with Laureate for Laura – now we know what the next popular girls name will be and why.
What our Gloucestershire ancestors did for us – summary nowt!! Greece: Gods and Goddesses competing with the summer holidaymakers
Keeping in touch: more effective and profound use of fridge magnets
Khatoon riding by: Lady who put Iraq on the map before the US took it off (Gertrude Bell)
Lifting the lid: answer from the grave to a philandering poet
Pick up the penguin: Lesson on sex from our black and white arctic friends.

PETER WYTON

Phil Baber A new Spanish song about a feminist performed with such gusto that you could hear the flamenco dancers, followed by a Russian/Polish/English song for another young lady.

Hazel Hammond Two poems, one about ‘The Jews Harp’ and one called ‘Do poems work like anaesthetic? From one of Acoustic Nights upholders, poems which transport you effortlessly into meaning, wonder and intrigue. Then leave you with the obvious.

John T. (not John Terry)

The songs may have been written over 25 years ago but tonight they were delivered with the same passion and fervour as I guess when they were first sung.

Guy Herbert Guy gave us a story called “What are you doing for Valentines day?” about what is possible as an answer but also what is probable.

Ian Sills closed the night with, as expected, a modern piece of ingenuity from one so observant of all classes as well as popular culture.

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE 41
PERFORMERS 18
VIRGINS 4

The PA amp has gone off to be sorted. Normal chaos will be resumed presently…