Acoustic Night

Hazel Hammond was our MC for the night and opened with a poem about temptation in the form of a scent bottle that transported us to exotic worlds.

Charlie Ansell then took us to Musselburgh Field and on into a song sung in old English and Scots about the 1^st King George of England.  Blood, guts and passion, Charlie folks my world in the same way that acoustic night rocks my world, if that makes sense.  The Green Man festival needs you, Charlie.

Anna Freeman was not being shy and reflective and had us hooting with a poem about Gingers (BTW we’re called Ginghas in Brissle – think Gingham but with an ‘er’ on the end).  We (Gingers, that is – yep, I is one) are oppressed horribly, but being the ‘cockroaches in the genetic pool’, we shall overcome. Hilarious and biting.  Then followed a supreme pantoom about love, despair and tequila.  Very clever, very fine – Anna is a gobsmith of the first order.

Carly and Graham sang songs about dismal failing relationships ‘building bridges and burning them down’ in Lighthouse and ‘before you go, tell me who you bloody are’ in Say Goodbye.  Carly’s lovely soaring voice and their overall sound reminded me of The Beautiful South.  And after these songs of longing and loss all I can say is that I hope the wedding goes well, Carly!

John Terry gave us a new take on trainspotting in his perfect poem about a tennis starlet ‘trailing paparazzi like a scarf’ and inventing the ‘perfect off court sport’ of paintballing passing trains.  He followed that with ‘Bristol Time Slip’ where he put the Real Time Information from Bristol buses through his reality check and found it to be …. Lost.  A twisted expose of the ‘dumb insolence of the timetable’, this poem showed John at his sci-fi finest.

Mark and Katie got us tapping our feet and grinning broadly with their songs I Need You Now and It Takes Two.  They are a father and daughter duo and highly rated by Gina Briganti, which is praise indeed.  Katie was playing what looked like a piece of mdf but is in fact a percussion box called a Cajon.  Wonderful sound, tight and professional – great songs, great vibes, great things predicted for these two.  We knew them when…

James gave us a well crafted prose poem, Budapest, which laid out the body of the city for us and invited us to run our fingers around it and see what we would find ‘ashes, still warm …. moss’.  I could have done with another poem from this fine writer and the same is true of Agatha who performed Yin and Yang, a poem full of strong images of ‘long lifeless minutes’, her voice matching her words perfectly.

Piers is my mate and it was great to see him back on stage, faffing brilliantly and singing songs full of brilliant lines like ‘words get stuck in the back of my throat like autumn leaves when the rain sets in’ and ‘how the sky looks depends on where you are’.  He doesn’t know the titles of the songs but with lines like those, who cares?  Thanks for playing for us, Piers.  Now fuck of back to Istanbul, why don’cha?

After the break Cat Kidd took the stage as the Acoustic Night special guest.  Cat was ‘fresh’ from Glastonbury and produced a stunning set, pouring her mind, body and soul into her work.  Her poems are long and intricate but I never wanted them to end.  She links different thought strands with powerful themes and brings each piece full circle, equally satisfying and intentionally disturbing.  I cannot possibly do justice to her four poems – Bipolar Bear, Lion Queen, Human Fish and Sea Peach – here, but I know they are available in books and on CDs so suggest you seek them out.  I’ll take a lot from her set, particularly that ‘things do become more valuable when they are nearly extinct’ and that seeing healthy-looking children in Africa who are dying ‘fucks with your head, and it should’.  Creatures shape shift into her poems and Cat unpacks them and learns her life from them, sharing her findings with us, her breathless and grateful audience.  I loved every minute of it.  Physical, lyrical, beautiful.  Thank you, Cat.

Hazel is a great MC, ensuring each act was fully appreciated by the audience and creating fresh space for each performer or duo.  With New Root having to follow the intense performance from Cat, Hazel cleared the air with an epigram from a friend, showing the acceptable side of bind-weed – Morning Glory.

New Root were then welcomed to the stage and clearly they belong there.  They normally play with a full band, but rose to the challenge of the acoustic night with aplomb, playing two fabulous songs, Sick of Me and I Don’t Need to Tell You.  Trish has a great voice and gives it full rein, or is that reign?  Only problem is that I was so wrapped up in her singing that I nearly missed the complex talent of Dave’s guitar backing.  I’m glad I didn’t.  New Root are powerful and gentle at the same time – top stuff.  Special guests of the future, I hope (hint hint to Andi and co).

Julian Ramsey Wade is always special and started off by splitting our sides with his homage to George W Bush and his election victimory of 2004.  Problem was that I was laughing so hard I couldn’t take notes, managing only to record his mention of ‘ethnical minatours’ for ethnic minorities – and it is possible I’ve misquoted that…you had to be there.  Ju then did a requested piece (thanks, man) pleading for our protection of this planet’s perfection and to put a stop to  ‘Pointless wars fought over nature’s bric a brac’.  Inspirational, as ever.

Barry, a self confessed Bristolian singer/songwriter took the stage and became the Bill Nighy of Acoustic Night, charming us all with a love song for Christine in a highly polished performance.  In Eiderdown, Barry’s lyrics ran away with him but they came back and provided the rhyme of the night:  France/Ambulance…well worth waiting for.  Barry was an acoustic night virgin but treated us to a pro performance.  Is that offensive?  I hope not.

Helen Gregory survived organising Poetry and Words at Glastonbury and can now put ‘wheelbarrow driver to the stars’ on her CV.  Her Much To Be Said About Fish poem (for Sebastian, known as Bass) reeled us in (groan) and provided much laughter.  Touchpaper has brilliant bitter-sweet moments and makes me feel incompetent and ‘I mean that in the nicest way’.  I hope you get some time for rest, relaxation and writing soon, Helen.

Vincent was next and sang two covers ‘of Rufus Wainwright doing covers of Leonard Cohen’ – perfect.  Vincent has talent dripping from his tongue and fingers.  He nailed Chelsea Hotel (actually I have no idea if that’s the title of the song or not…anyone?) getting to the raw essence of the song.  In Everybody Knows he let in some wonderful breathless pauses, giving flight to this classic number.  Just what I needed, having missed L. Cohen Esq at Glastonbury.

Who better to round off the night than Andi Langford Woods who took us on a tour of seedy park life in the sixties…or was that a romp around swinging London in one of the many summers of love?  Either way it showed not much has changed with respect to plod’s attitude to al fresco sleeping.  The final poem of the evening was in honour of Andi’s carpet that formed the Acoustic Night stage for many months.  That carpet saw many seductions and had good vibes soaked into it’s weave, in the same way that Acoustic Night seeps into us, leaving our hearts in better shape and our souls full of hope.  Ahhhh.

Thanks for a great night, everyone, see you soon.

Thanks Polly Moyer for the blog. Who’s next?

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE 39

PERFORMERS 18

VIRGINS 5

PHOTOS  Sadly none that were good enough to use. We really need someone who can use a digital SLR to capture the moments!