Acoustic Night

A Quiet One

Andi Langford-Woods introduced the 81^st Acoustic Night and read “Oases” about touring with the Bedouin Jerry Can band (“our course dictated by neon and halogen” “each day full of hellos, salaams”) and then “Trust Me” (“the urge …to bury myself under five duvets till Spring breaks”). Recording supremo Dave Bosankoe then contributed two jaunty Jews Harp numbers (how does he balance the sound at the same time?)(he doesn’t… I do!… Andi)

ANDI

Pete Hunter read two shortish poems from his notebook: firstly a vignette from conversations overheard in bars (“I still don’t know whether Bob was a person or a pet”); secondly “Just Asking” which was in turns complimentary and downright rude (“or are you a lollygagging sea-slug?…just asking”). Short, sweet and revealing.

PETE HUNTER

David Johnson, Pete’s partner in Paralallia who is shortly off to the U S of A, then recounted a tale of their previous visit and specifically travelling through Biloxi a few months before Hurricane Katrina hit. His second poem – “Whitstable in June” – described an old-fashioned seaside town which had known better days (“oh for a quarter of pear drops to gather fluff in my pocket”). Bon Voyage David – give Austin hell!

DAVID C JOHNSON

Gary Death was the next poet up. “Kitchen Party” told of a party in Newcastle “where all the losers just talk to themselves” and various disgraceful incidents ensued (“Simon had got his knob stuck in his zip”). We could have been there.

Hazel Hammond read three poems inspired by categories on “tattoolovers.com”. “Strategically Placed” asked “when did arms become weapons?”, “Pierced (but only ears)” was “a bit of a rant” (although a terribly polite one) while “Visible Tattoos” was more personal (“patterns where the skin is blackened” “stripes formed by discrimination”). Three very different pieces ostensibly on the same subject. More please, Hazel.

HAZEL HAMMOND

BREAK

Our special guests, Laienda, followed the break. They presented a strong visual image and began with a “brand new song” with a Russian/East European feel, with the female vocals backed by Violin, Oud and Darbuka. The second piece utilised guitar and additional percussion which gave it a slightly more English tone, while third was a cover of a Sephardic song by Yasmin Levy. A self-written tune came next – “Rip out the Roots” had an Arabic tone which contrasted with rapidfire English vocals. Phil Baber was acknowledged with the next piece: he described “Cantos Nuevas” as a “Mexican Death Tango” which summed it up nicely. The next, quite English style folk song told of the writer’s ambivalence to a drummer (“be off little drummer…come back little drummer”) and understandably featured the drum quite heavily, before exploding into a frenetic instrumental to a finish.  “Autumn” (“another one of our own”) was a gentler piece of folk, while the band were joined by David Bosankoe on Jews Harp for a rendition of Phil Baber’s tale of adultery, betrayal and the Russian Mafia (which I haven’t got a clue how to spell!). The song and set ended in a frenzy with much audience participation - it was lovely to hear from them and we will hopefully do so again soon.

LAIENDA

DAVID BOSANKOE WITH LAIENDA

DANCING IS ALLOWED…

Ian Sills followed with his account of teenage individuality (“A Boy Apart”) and his critique of the obsession to diet and stay slim amongst young women (“Fern/Elise”) (“not everyone is slim like me!”).

IAN SILLS

Eric Anderson(V) then bravely stepped up from the otherwise spectating “Bristol Creative Writing Group” to read “It’s good to be a poet” (“when each word…smatters the bloody page” “maybe we’re useful on a drab morning”).

ERIC ANDERSON

Mike Gower made a welcome return visit and gave us “Consumerism Consumes” (it had several other titles) which took the audience from “work, work, work, work, spend” via “have a loan / have a BIG loan” to “bailiff / no more house” and [the bank] “Chief Executive laughing, laughing, laughing”. He followed this with a Haiku.

MIKE GOWER

Andi then finished off a poetry-heavy evening (not an evening of heavy poets!) with the classic “Insects”, which, contrary to popular rumour, has not been taken up by IKEA for use in their latest advertising campaign.

Yes it was quiet. Yes it was short. But was it still fun. You bet.

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE:  FLIRTY 30

PERFORMERS:        12

VIRGINS:                1

In the enforced absence of Andi through ill health and Julian through time commitments (until near the end) it was fortunate indeed that Hazel Hammond was already pencilled in as MC for the welcome return visit of the Studio Upstairs writers’ group. Her first, pleasant, task was to introduce John Terry, whose protestations about the unsuitability of his poetry fell on deaf ears, unlike the pieces themselves. They were two more from his collection of poems covering his work at Airbus in the 1980s: “Nice” described his negotiations with the Design team (“aerodynamics are iffy about a solution that drops the problem back in their own laps”) and the second piece detailed things not going according to plan (“unacceptable negative pressure… John becomes an explosion”). Everyday stories told accurately, with humour.

JOHN TERRY

Tim (V) then appeared – tall, in leather trousers – to sing (1) a Robert Johnson number he had originally learned in a choir as a four part harmony; and (2) “one of my own” which was “a little bit dreamy”. The singing and guitar playing meshed well and the result was uniquely entertaining.

TIM BURSTALL

Pamelli (V) then shared two poems with the intrigued audience: “Even Carnivores” was a progressive list poem incorporating “cross-eyed ophthalmologists”, “closet wankers” and “leftover hippies stoned on pot”; while a suburb of Dublin was the venue for “Stilauban (I think) Surprise”, which ended with the humourous image of a runaway car, a dog behind the steering wheel.

PAMELLI

Monty returned next to sing us two songs – “The Elephant is in the Room” and “Strangers Again” - which he debuted a fortnight ago. The former is louder and more insistent (“come out, come out, wherever you are”) while the latter is a twist on breaking up (“I’m just a people-pleaser, you’re just my favourite stepping stone”) but both sound fine to me.

MONTY

Agatha apologetically introduced her poem “Lunar Recall” as being “about female menstruation” but made that subject sound poetic (“your turn for retribution” “feeling the pull of forever”) before leaving us wanting (one) more.

AGATHA

Julie Boston stepped up next with an update of an old favourite to celebrate (?) ten years of First Group. A catchy jingle of a song which strikes chords with anyone who has ever been at the mercy of the local bus service (“we pollute en route…because we’re First Group”), this was followed by a timely piece of advice about protesting (“when challenging the local church…research”). And, as if Julie’s company were not welcome enough, she had encouraged her friend Janet Rume (V) to perform a poem. Written several years ago about the end of a friendship, it emphasised the special kind of loss one suffers when one loses a friend. Two for the price of one – unusually good value for First Group!

JULIE BOSTON
JANET RUME

Hazel then welcomed her Studio Upstairs cohorts onto the stage for their pre-break guest spot. Steve performed the first piece – “Affluenza” – topically name-checking Fred Goodwin and Kaka in a diagnosis of the credit crunch. Hazel then performed a poem which described a unicyclist with a tattoo of a circus with creatures climbing up it, and Brian followed with a sad four line poem and a marginally happier one of equal length. Carmen then read a poem about a cemetery on behalf of Alison, before Julie read “Cave” on behalf of Lizzie (“Warrior marks on legs and belly and heart”). Nick performed “The heaviest poem of the night” and Julie then read “The Artist Revolution (“painting the vision of soulless humanity”). Steve returned with “Stuff” craving “a civilised mind / free from stuff” and Hazel gave us “Grandma” (“What’s a tattoo, Grandma?” “So when were you young, Grandma?”) . Brian was next to read: he had two more short, pointed poems before Carmen (on behalf of Alison) and Julie (on behalf of Lizzie) performed successive poems about Spring and “fertile ground”. Nick continued the natural slant with “The Water Runs”, before Carmen read “Magdalena” about a river in Columbia and Julie performed “Ashes” (“This night you will take the candle’s flame”). The benefit of a group performance is that it draws attention to the similarities and the differences between poets as writers and performers: it is a pleasure to hear and see these talented people perform.

  NICK

STEVE

  BRIAN

JULIE

  CARMEN

HAZEL HAMMOND

After the BREAK David Johnson stepped up and informed us in his poem of his big birthday this year (“reminders of the fact …the need to pee too frequently”) before celebrating (?) the “Urban Fox” (“eyes…flashing in the sodium glare”) which soon irritates the narrator.

James Bunting read two poems due to a self-inflicted hoarse throat – they ran through thoughts both complex (“to see self-destruction is to know self-assurance”) and simple (“the chord A is the only chord worth playing”) before understanding its own lack of understanding (“there are some things we will never have an answer to”). Very different from his songs, but equally creditable.

JAMES BUNTING

Carmen Alfonso of the Studio Upstairs group came back for an additional piece – “Slow” – before Richard Lawson used the recent demonstrations to recall a previous demo in Genoa 2001 – (“Prologue and epitaph of primate history”) before firing a lighter but still accurate barb at greedy politicians.

RICHARD LAWSON

Libby stepped up to perform two short pieces about love – one romantic and one sisterly, before Jade Oldfield delighted the audience (especially but not exclusively her fan club) with a poem about a conversation with a local in Cambodia when touring then followed with the before, during and after of a heavy night of “Coffee and Cigarettes” (and other unmentionable substances) which turned into an argument about Dubstep. Very different and fun.

  LIBBY
JADE OLDFIELD

Rembrandt Clarke reminisced about the “Top Road” of his Yorkshire childhood (“hoping for an ice-cream van”) and discoursed upon “Supermarkets” and “laissez-faire vegetarianism”.

REMBRANDT CLARKE

Tim Burstall returned to proclaim himself “Body and soul…rock and roll” before Rosemary read a recently written poem “The continuity of strength and gentleness” and then sang “Somewhere over the rainbow” using her unique technique of telephoning for the tune and then reproducing it into the microphone. Once seen, never forgotten.

As is the name of our final guest – “Drift Snowbarger” – who examined whether there is any truth in superstitions (he blamed a parking ticket on his failure to break a hole into his finished boiled egg) and then took us all on a trip to “Ska City” on a bus which “follows no timetable” First Group again, Julie?

DRIFT SNOWBARGER

As usual the variety was wonderful - this blog cannot do justice to many of the acts.

We are sorry this has taken a while to upload – the blackberry was left on the late-night rickshaw and was squashed by a saki-soaked Sumo. It took ages to get the juice out of the memory card…

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE         57

PERFORMERS     20

VIRGINS             6