Andi Langford-Woods took up the MC duties and opened with a paean (I think!) to her old carpet, which towards the end of its long and downtrodden existence doubled as the Acoustic Night stage rug (“becoming…the shore on which countless nerves were shed”) (glossing over bodily fluids!). It brought a tear to the eye!

ANDI LANGFORD-WOODS

She then introduced Craig Wilson on his return to the Halo family after “about a year”: he has been adding music to his “High Performance Poetry” collection but stuck to the words of “The Glow Project” (the title track of the revised set) and “Lifejacket”. The former was full of helpful advice (“let loose sometimes: hold back in others”) while the latter was about survival (“actions rarely speak louder than words”) but this was Craig as we remember him and we have to hope it doesn’t take another year for him to return.

Mike presented himself as the four Ms, joking that he “ate the other three”. After ensuring that no-one present worked for the BBC, he sang “Morning Dew” by Tim Rose, a sweet sixties little girl lost song, followed by an altogether darker piece based under the sod. He is keen to return and be less nervous: we have all been there!

Simon Leake was another regular returning after a hiatus – he read “The Art of Imperfection” (“the whole dissolves into a play of vignettes”) and a piece incorporating two characters (“the red light of the answerphone waits for her”). As ever, he rewards careful listening and always comes up with some quality writing.

SIMON LEAKE

Steve Fanger was a newcomer to Halo although he recognised a few of the older hands from Croft/Brewhouse days (Polly, Julian and Ian!). He was still a virgin to us, though! “The Mid Life Crisis Blues” explains itself: any title which gets a laugh is onto a winner from the start, while lines like “I still haven’t decided / what to do when I grow up” certainly struck a chord with some of us. This authentic blues song was followed by a tale “about a dark night of the soul” with a gospellish tint and a spoken middle eight including the line “the sky was as blue as Paul Newman’s eyes.”

STEVE FANGER

Simon the Magician followed with more of his tricks including bad puns (“I’m dressed in black – does that make this black magic?”) and poor French (“Un, deux, three, double deux”). Fortunately the magic was somewhat better than the French or the puns!)

Mike Billing read a poem written quite recently about living next door to a pub (“I would live there if I could”) and, apologising in advance for his rare use of bad language, “The Streetfight”, in which “he pushed him and him pushed he”. Proving conclusively that swearing can be clever, even if only in a poem.

David Johnson then performed a very new poem (not written today on the bus, though, I presume!) about a middle class childhood memory of the lighthouse that sits opposite Appledore, of fish “escaping my net as it trawls by”. He then presented a second Devon-inspired piece of farm cats who “stroll the tables” and of “sweaty hikers (who) heft their packs”). Watch out for a longer set from David as a guest performer in the New Year.

DAVID JOHNSON

Tilted City comprised 2 guitars, 1 bass and three beards and were collectively our second virgins of the night. They combined a steady, constant beat with a gentle storytelling style in their songs: “Noxious Doll” and “Quarter to Four Pork”; the latter celebrating junk food eaten at an absurd hour of the night. Technical problems overcome, they made a strong impression in their short allotted time.

TILTED CITY

BREAK

Our first post break performer was the Trowbridge Titan himself, Talkin’ Tekla tha Narrata (in turquoise!) who gave us the momentous one to one hun-dread piece. I never catch the title but the poem itself is unforgettable and the performance is unreal.

(16 love rhythm and 17 melody”) (“49 and 50 me love me heart and soul”) ( “74 me love me mum”). He then performed “The Would-be Poet”, dismantling the art of writing in an amusing manner (“me and my mind are one of a kind…obviously”).

TALKIN’ TEKLA

To follow this was no mean task so the Winterbourne Wonder, Julian Ramsey-Wade, stepped up to plug the big Christmas Acoustic Night (15^th December, £5 per ticket but they’re going fast and changing hands on Ebay). In honour of its subject’s final day in office, Julian then performed the blindingly funny “’W’ 2” (“My fellow Armenians… Renaissance is fertile!”) (“No toleration to pterodactyls”). (You had to be there!).

Steve Fanger then returned with “Just a feeling”, an upbeat, poppy song and (“a song I wrote to cheer myself up”). Miles Chambers followed to plug his Ujima radio show (98FM - Sunday 8-10pm - “Lyrical Minded”) and to encourage poetic participation.

He was then (easily) persuaded to introduce Bertel Martin, a third former regular who has been missed. Compelled by his lack of paper support to perform old poems (for which he unnecessarily apologised!), he read “Immigrant’s Son” a deceptively pointed description of the careless racism which he suffered despite his Bristolian birthplace and accent. (“Caribbeans see me as a  white English rose”). The same unarguable points as Miles makes, but in a very different yet equally valid style! Then, in an entirely different vein, “Sex with Sandra” described the blooming of a sixteen year old falling in love for the first time…in his mind. Again, most of us have been there (although not necessarily with Sandra).

BERTEL MARTIN

Souls Liberation stepped up and performed opinionated rap/poetry with beatboxing – again a sharp contrast to some gentle poetry and music that preceded it. “True Deep” was “about my life” and the second piece was equally forceful (“If you come around you know it’s profound”). I don’t think we’d seen him before but I hope we see him again.

SOULS LIBERATION

Chris Beckett followed with Steve Fanger’s guitar, a waistcoat and a hat and sang Dylanesque songs 1) referencing “A Day in the Life” (“I saw a film today, oh boy”) and 2) taking us from an Autumn city bar/restaurant to a summer meander through America (“where the wild pastures meet the wide open sky”). If he gets here earlier he will get the larger audience he deserves!

CHRIS BECKETT

Finally Ian Sills pushed his way onto the stage insisting that he had written two new pieces and had to perform them. Anyone would think he helped to run the show! Fagin’s Credit Crunch referenced Lionel Bart’s version of Dickens’ favourite stereotype (“I think I’d better think it out again!”) to try and make sense of the monetary disasters befalling us all, while “The Kissing of Georgie” was based on Radiohead and karaoke. I wonder why no one thought of it before?

IAN SILLS

Thanks to Ian Sills for the review. Do you fancy writing the review for us? Talk to us when you arrive!

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE    47

PERFORMERS 17

VIRGINS  5

Andi Langford-Woods opens the evening speaking French… “Bonsoir et bien venue a La Nuit Acoustique Soizante Neuf”. Yes folks we are truly international…

Tony Rowlands
Tony started the night with some of his newly published poems. Teachers all over the room could identify with the pressures of the Inspection team which captured a dream like sequence of events poetically. He also offered us that poets’ standby… love and relationships but with humour and tenderness.

TONY ROWLANDS

Mike – the four M’s
He gave us a song and a poem from his personal experience… giving the devil the lie and baring his recently troubled mind. Well done for being brave Mike.

MIKE the 4 Ms

John Terry
John always gives us truth and this time it was the strangeness of bees. Bristol buses would seem to offer little complexity for his second poem but John gave us both well crafted wit and insight.

Mike Billing
Mike’s social relationships were described in the form of three short poems, the last one about  the after effects of a nose-job witnessed here in Halo… touching observation Mike.

Sam Lynn-Evans
Sam billed himself as a comedy act but his one liners were mixed with more serious poems.

SAM LYNN-EVANS

Phil Baber
Our acoustic night stalwart returned to give us La Nina and La Guitarra with passion, verve and skill. Good to see you again Phil.

Max Milton
Here we had songs about a dark night of drinking and a lament for Jenny. And we finally got the right knobs on the guitar twiddled and everyone was happy.

MAX MILTON

Simon
Two personal poems which reflected some of the difficulty of modern life.

Mary Spender
Taking time to come from Salisbury Mary is a performer new to us.  Mary gave us a really gutsy, polished and accomplished performance of her own songs. Captivity starts with neat finger picking and a smooth vocal delivery on the solitude of city life. Warts and Ghosts was a spooky plea for consideration of spectral feelings, well we think it was! The audience were keen to hear a third song and Mary finished with Melancholy Parade, an upbeat driving song on the contemporary global situation. Well done!

MARY SPENDER

BREAK

Martin John and James Gale
On form and welcome as usual they upped the tempo and the atmosphere. Martin starts with Astorias, an instrumental guitar piece with loads of reverb written by Isaac Albanez. Jack’s Song is a reply to a song martin sang a couple of nights ago. Another sensitive offering. James opens with Beyond, a Finnish poem turned into a song. A neat duet of guitar picking followed by You Can’t Wrap Your Arms Round A Memory – shades of glorious torchsongs from the past.

Jennifer Waters
She knows her pub snacks and these were neatly woven into an observational piece Gala Pie. High calorie words with added spice.

Caroline steps up to give us an a capella song Freedom. Soulful bluesy flowing over the room

Molly Case
Her love is like a subway sandwich tackled with passion just the same… no wonder she wanted to recall her lover’s departure in the second poem. Her second poem The Unrequited tells of watching her lover from behind glass…poignant words.

MOLLY CASE

Anne and Sean/Sean and Anne
Whether its Anne and Sean or Sean and Anne, guitar, voice and flute were mixed to good effect in their songs, the first a pensive song on death with floating flute melody followed by a slightly more sinister uptempo tune with reference to Flamenco and Led Zep… discuss.

ANNE AND SEAN

Lucas Hadley
Insomnia was closely observed and laid out to dry by Lucas with much feeling. His poem
SuperHero Daydream - “positively charged like an anode” went down well too.

LUCAS HADLEY

Julian Ramsey Wade
A cover of a Harvey Andrews song which in these times of recession reminds us that its those at the bottom of the financial heap suffer most. Matching a strong sentiment with a powerful performance.

Pearletta Hopkins
A piece by Pearletta gave us a picture of her honeymoon… she’s not submitting again to an unexpected hill climb on Lundy Island! “In these shoes Rupert?” Tomorrow was a sweet short piece we enjoyed. Welcome Pauletta! See you again soon we hope.

PAULETTA

Ros Martin
In Black History Month Ros gave us Liberating Freedom, an inspiring piece in the voice of the ancestors urging us all to greater and wider humanity.

Andi Langford-Woods.
Andi’s anger at a badly behaved man was clear, unambiguous and unforgiving. As ever she is able to craft the ebb and flow of human behavior into powerful words.

Chris Beckett had waited patiently (again) and brings the night to an end with his roots fuelled, well loved, folk style. We like him and want him to get his ass down earlier!!!

CHRIS BECKETT

It was wet and miserable outside but we had a good nite, somewhat somber at times but hell, there was a lot of soul in the room.

Hazel shaped the blog and Andi wrapped it up.

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS
AUDIENCE    38
PERFORMERS 22
VIRGINS 6

Racing to cram everyone in and starting early!!! MC Julian Ramsey-Wade introduced Martin John. On only his second visit, Martin is already an established favourite and here he played and sang “Don’t take the boat out”, an authentic song of a fictional fishing disaster (“Fishing was the way of life / Where North winds cut like gutting knives”). His second piece was a tribute to the late Elle Graham, who he honoured in the singing (“Elle just stands for love”).

Next, David Johnson drew attention in his poem to the life pulse of Bristol (“the uninvited Samba band” “the buskers, hustlers, market traders”) and shone a torch into the unlit corners of the city.

John and Caroline returned with a sweetly tender duet using acoustic guitar (the song, apparently, making its debut in public) and an individual take on “Mr Bojangles” which was ten times better than Robbie Williams, judging by the warm crowd reaction.

Middleman, a first time visitor and rapper, spoke (?) of his love of music (“promises of beautiful symphonies, ten thousand strong”) in some style.

MIDDLEMAN

James Revell sang a song he wrote (“about ten years ago and I’m still trying to figure it out”). “You beauty” was full of dreamlike acoustical meanderings, pitched into fragility. His second song was a Dylanesque cover of a song Dylan once covered – “You Belong To Me”.

MC Confusion was our second rapper and virgin: aggressive and to the point, his rap was rapid, topical and contrasted well with his fellow rapper.

MC CONFUSION
James Gale was again accompanied by Martin John on guitar – they combined forces on a “soppy love song” “The way you answer the phone” and then “Cavalier” a far less categorised song with a slightly epic feel to it.

JAMES GALE & MARTIN JOHN
They were followed by Simon the Magician, back behind his box of tricks after a few weeks absence and showing us new pieces of mystery and misdirection – the final knot trick was very successful in that regard.

John Terry performed two poems, the first .based on the difficulties of maintaining an imaginary friend called Derek, in comparison to marriage. “Don’t start me on marriage” was followed by “An unquiet eye” – a very different piece telling the story of “a fixer of failed alarm system … awkward as a cow with a musket”. There’s always something out of the ordinary about John’s pieces and / or his performance of them.

Martin Marsh then covered Jacques Brel’s “La Chanson de Vieux Amants” (in French) and George Formby’s “My Little Snapshot Album” (in English). He sang and played his Ukelele – as frantic as it is melancholy – another unique moment.

Polly Moyer then stepped up and introduced two members of her “Imaginary family”. Firstly she read “Other” about her imaginary brother (“Bother! Blether! B******s! Brother!” as she so alliteratively put it); then she performed “Prodigious” about a child growing away (“We kill the fatted … carrot”).

POLLY MOYER
One top quality poet to another – our special guest Thom the World Poet performed a piece in advance of his main spot in a shameless plug for Acoustic Night and its fundraising efforts. Thanks Thom!

BREAK

After the break, Julian Ramsay-Wade sang “The band played ‘Waltzing Matilda’” for Thom (but the rest of us were allowed the privilege of listening, too) before re-introducing our antipodean guest poet.

Thom the World Poet was backed by a Welsh guitarist – Antony Silvestri – in was in fully interactive mode, taking the murmuring of the crowd and feeding it back to them tenfold. His words are political but his delivery is conversational, which sweetens the message even as it is hammered home – (“every song is a petition – every invitation a conversation” and “Freedom is … what you get away with”). Finishing with “The Joy of Being” (“that joy – it shines”) very much sums up this latest but hopefully not last visit from Thom.

THOM THE WORLD POET
Dario followed that with two guitar and vocal performances. An Italian singer-songwriter with a beautiful voice, he covered John Denver’s “Annie’s Song before performing a slightly simpler piece, “Goodnight My Love” (in Italian!). So he might not be Spanish after all???

DARIO

Mike Gower returned to Acoustic Night after way too long and performed a piece rooted in nature (“Grey Sky / Waves chip and chop”) and a more thought-provoking piece – “There is no Given” (“Find your own path”). Someone who has always found his own path – let us hope it crosses ours again soon.

Dominic Rougier – appearing simply as Dom – stood up and sang and played guitar. The poet in me cannot resist the use of the rhyming adjectives jangly and gangly as Dom told the tale of an old flam and the life she led (“she fell to the floor where she found a nice place she could hide”). Lively and upbeat song.

DOMINIC ROUGIER
Tim Burroughs then followed with a poem for Robert Johnson “Bending Strings” (“An interaction of hands, nails and steel”) and a song not performed before “Dance on the embers” As downbeat as Dom was upbeat, but we love a contrast.

TIM BURROUGHS
Charlie Ansell sang two more adapted folk songs in his Levellers meets Matchbox by way of the Clash style (that is a whole lot better than I make it sound.). Hanging on the old barbed wire” was a commentary on the Generals versus Privates anomaly (“Top brass survive, privates die”) while “Two Butchers” was topically about knife crime.

CHARLIE ANSELL
Andi Langford-Woods then stepped out from behind the amps to read the perceptive“Nerve Ends” (“We have become insulated from the electricity of meetings”).

ANDI LANGFORD-WOODS
David Bosankoe also emerged from Techie Corner to play some more top quality Jew’s Harp.

And just when we thought it was all over, Mike Billing read a piece on storytelling itself (“I’d tell of a life of wait and see”) before Chris Beckett finished off the night with some upbeat guitar playing and raucous singing (“Goodbye my England, farewell my queen”) A top night was had by all.

CHRIS BECKETT
Thanks to Ian Sills and Dom Rougier for the blog.

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE - 58

PERFORMERS - 24

A N VIRGINS - 5

LANGUAGES USED - 3

Woe unto ye who were not present on the evening of the 22^nd September in the year of Our Ford, one hundred and five at Halo in the port town of Brightstowe (now commuted to Bristol by the local tongue), said place of public comfort to be found on the road that runs toward the town of Gloucester; I say woe, for ye missed a feast of the human soul out-speaking its inmost thoughts in an atmosphere of conviviality and warmth for a mere tossing of two Maggies into a flagon you tight bastards.

Sarah Class played a stringed instrument called a guitar, and sang in a sweet good voice “Baby I’ll know you”, a touch of Joni, a song of burgeoning love, “When you sing me the words that your heart hides away”.

SARAH CLASS

Jack, a Halo virgin, was next. First he apologised for being a virgin, then apologised for apologising, the beginning of an infinite regress.

“I’ve travelled far and wide – living – waiting in a dream-wish I could fly away – tell me where the door is in the sky”.

Jack’s second piece was exploring the no-man’s-land between defensagressive (neologism © rlawson 2008) rap-rhetoric and poetry. “You might not like what I have to say – no need for poems to shout – can’t hear if you dissect – generation question without a direction – instead of kisses and hugs we are given drugs.”

I like his word “B’dunk”.

Enter David, another ‘virgin’, and his guitar. Wow! and Wow again, even unto a third wow. First thing I heard was a touch of Lonnie Johnson, but then off and away in a rhythmic melodic sub-creation of such virtuosity that I had to check with him afterwards that it was all done on a guitar or if he had a backing speaker with drums on it. No worries. All guitar, a guitar that doubled as a 100-piece orchestra, a guitar with husky-dusky sexy sound, blue smoky jazz with finger-dancing bibbly bits, no self consciousness, just flight, right through that door in the sky. He followed it with “Summertime” to make up for the crap summer we have all just been through (courtesy of GW Bush and his CO2 emitting paymasters).  David Brandon has a club on Sundays at Plantation Lakes near Kingston Seymour. (That’s near Yatton which is on the A370 going south, for ye who know not the Summer-set wherein ye dwell and from whence comes your food.)

Grace Palmer in a Damien Hirsh skirt covered a lifetime from the Bunsen-burner at school to the Buns-are-burned-now demon-infested kitchen of the child-burdened mother. “he’s been gone two years…failure to get things right…it’s those slams.” Yeah, that’s right, blame the poets. We can take it. Or was it the slamming of doors?

Andy’s guitar started with a plaint, then overtones of JS Bach, then a strong exploration of the 6 strings that led to Julian Bream flowing into Van  Morrison (peace be upon him) his Brown eyed girl, and we all sang “Sha-la-la”.   Yeah.

Mary Crowder announced October 18-19 Clifton Wood Art Trail, her own art at 2 Goldney Avenue, and also Lansdown Poets’ new book. She read one of Charles Thompson’s sweet depictions of feather-flicking flight, and then her own, an image of the beach that she had noticed in a post card seen upside down “sea scattered wisps/walking through days gone by”.

Martin (what’s this? Does nobody have a surname any more?), his ukulele made a slow start, infested by a tinnitic feedback that owed more to the sound-person (Andi – was that you?)(nope… Andi) than Hendrix. Very much the drowsy dancing flea, (the best sort because you can catch ‘em). Sad going on maudlin. His second, by George Formby, put us to rights again because it was about swimmin with the wimmin.

John Terry issued a solemn poetic warming about the effects aforementioned GW Bush and cronies are having on our home. Words, ancient species of words like the word for woolly mammoth, frozen for millennia, were thawing out from their protective ancient polar ice, were stretching their limbs, ready to eat again. Throwbacks, in ice crystals, the monstrous bear, all shadowing our nightmares, eternal ice melting, released from tight lock agents of unease we thought were dead”.

That’s what I picked up anyway. Need to read it again. And again. I Googled “John Terry” to try to find the original. All I found was this:

There was a lady called Kerry
Who loved a man called Gladberry
She gave him a kiss
He gave it a miss
So she went out with John Terry
By Shannon

But that was probably another John Terry.

Richard Lawson read a section of his epic “Ogrin and the boy”. Ogrin is the hermit who acted to reconcile Tristan and Yseult with King Mark, back in 7^th century Cornwall. It was the bit when Tristan and Yseult visit him. Mary Crowder in her notes thought Ogrin loved Yseult. (I never thought of that – maybe he did – RL) You can read it all here.

RICHARD LAWSON

Sutura, harpist and singer with nice voice. “This moment – my intention – beautiful in every way – a living déjà vu – prayer tattooed on my heart”. Precision of fingers, a celebration of Love. Next, an air - “travelling too long, this time we won’t get it wrong. Love is like a hurricane, I’ll be falling forever into your arms”.

Then a song of reconciliation and peace between warring neighbours; “Take a drop of coffee with me and your pain will dissolve like sugar”. (Amen to that).

Then a song of forgiving. (Amen again. This is what the world needs. These were songs in the key of peace) Then a strong song to an autistic boy, calling to him.

SUTURA

Ali Wade “Hey it’s a brand new day”. Straight from the heart.

ALI WADE

Hazel revealed her inmost soul, her feelings for her nonagenarian mother, the role reversals that age brings. “I will miss you”.

Loop Withers “Single, double, losing it, I’m lonely without you”. Nice tight guitar. Luke has been writing songs since the age of seven. Told us how he comes down to the kitchen in that flush of relief we all get when we have just given birth to a song or poem, but in spades because he is seven, remember. “Mum, I’ve written a song!” “That’s lovely dear, I’m frying”.  They ought to write that on their rejection slips instead of the vacuous crap they write about “we are receiving 700 Manuscripts a day, but keep trying”.  “That’s lovely dear, I’m frying” on the rejection slips would say so much more.

LOOP WITHERS

[RL went home at this point, over to Ian]

So Mireille (Mathlener) backed by her partner Richard (Craine) opened with a tight almost funky piece whose name we missed followed by ‘Robin Hood’ – “kinda about the benefit of the doubt…”. You’ll see them both on the Open Mic circuit again somewhere soon.

MIREILLE & RICHARD

Ian Sills reprised ‘Re-freshing’ a celebration of Freshers Week from an ‘older’ perspective followed by ‘So I’m Told’ – written for a Mod band but containing too many words for them to handle! (lightweights….)

Richard Craine slipped back up for a sprightly solo number “we go walking thru’ the woodland, we’ve got joy in every stride”. Nice one Richard.

Next up is David Bosankoe our WebMeister and all round top man on the laptop. We’re down to one piece each as time is flying by and still more to perform. David sends the primeval beat of the Jews harp buzzing round the room. We almost expect Rolf Harris to burst in with his wobble board.

Tim Burroughs got up, pretending to be Norman (and also becoming known as‘Surfer Dude’) and shared a slow-paced conversational style piece ‘Try harder’ ending with “maybe all I need js a warm bath and a bar of chocolate”.

TIM BURROUGHS

Our penultimate virgin of the night, Martin John, gave us ‘New Orleans’ a song written after the Katrina fiasco and include on the Katrina disaster benefit CD. We were all in on the chorus.

Mike Billing closed the poetry side of things with an understated slant on
Domestos-icity. One could almost say he cleaned up…

MIKE BILLING

And finally. James Gale stepped up to the mic, joined by Martin John to bring down the curtain with a Dylan cover. Ably and deftly played by both of these seasoned artists who are performing at Barrs Festival this week.

JAMES GALE & MARTIN JOHN

Thanks to Richard Lawson for the review

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE           56
PERFORMERS       23
VIRGINS                6

Anthology Night @ Acoustic Night 66 is opened by co-hosts Julian Ramsey-Wade and Polly Moyer. Tonight’s event is part of Bristol Poetry Festival Fringe and packed with poets and friends, the backroom is set for the collation of the anthology and the blog tonight is a collection of comments from some of the poets and audience.

So at 8.15 off we go. Julian and Polly taking turns to introduce 15 wonderfully diverse poets.

We were spoilt tonight with the presence of two guests. Firstly Guy Calhoun revived memories of earlier days of Acoustic Night with neat guitar work and rich vocals then spoiling us more by inviting Craig Crofton up to blow some sensous sax on his final number. That coulda been a whole other nights guys… maybe another time?

Time for a break…

Polly welcomes us back as seats fill rapidly for our Special Guest Shane Koyczan. He seems to have made a good few friends tonight and takes us through some deep and poignant times sweetly tinged with wry edgy sometimes dark humour. Anticipation fulfilled!

As always we’re seeing a good few new faces and judging by the comments below we will be seeing them again. So, 12 more poets take stage and we’re at the end of No.66 tired but smiling.

Thanks to Olly for stepping in and taking the fotos, we missed a few faces but a list of performers follows the comments.
“A wonderful charivaria of poetry”…anon.

Well, according to my research ‘charivaria’ is an adaption of ‘shivaree’ – a rowdy celebration for newly-weds… mainly the banging of saucepans and kettles and some music. Leads me to wonder if this person was in the same room… but cute anyway. Ed.

“Happy 66^th birthday Acoustic Night! Great to see the new faces coming through and the old timers soldiering on. The standard, as always, healthily varied but I love that you rarely get cover versions here. Acoustic Night is for originality and experimentation, that’s where true creativity lies. God bless you all” …Tiny Tim

“Very enjoyable and friendly. I shall certainly come again”…Ros Martin

JULIAN RAMSEY-WADE	POLLY MOYER

GARY DEATH	ROS MARTIN

“Fantastic! Great to be part of this. Wish I’d heard of it before! Keep up the good work.”… Lynsey-Ruth Mansfield

“A great resource for the creative spirit of Bristol”…anon

LYNSEY-RUTH MANSFIELD	NEIL P

“Wonderful stuff, love it as always, Barry x”

“So much history, so much that is new – but it is all the same good stuff”…Daddy G

JULIE BOSTON	STEVE DUNCAN

“BRILL!”…anon

“Magic is still in the mind made word”…Tim

SHANE KOYCZAN

“Top gig as always, keep it underground”… Gaz Death

“Vibrant & inspiring! Great…” …Mary Crowder

CHRISTINE RAMSEY-WADE	NORMAN

“Really enjoying coming down; the best and only night in Bristol with these standards of artists and guests. Keep it up!!”…Agatha. Knowle & Bath Spa Poets

“Gert bastard lush innit?”…the ever so polite Helen Gregory

HELEN GREGORY	HAZEL HAMMOND

“Thanks for a well organised evening of poetic fun.”…Julie Boston

“Excellent evening”…Rupert Hopkins

GUY CALHOUN & CRAIG CROFTON	MILES CHAMBERS

And my favourite of all…

“Could have been better – but I’m damned if I can see how…”…that John Terry

THAT JOHN TERRY	NICK MOORE

First Half

Polly Moyer
David Johnson
Gina Briganti
Gary Death
Mary Crowder
Ros Martin
Pete Hunter
Mike Billing
Nick Moore
John Terry
Neil P
Rupert Hopkins
Julie Boston
George Wade
Anna Freeman
Agatha
Guy Calhoun with guest Craig Crofton on sax

Second Half

Shane Koyczan
Julian & Christine Ramsey-Wade
Malcolm
Cathy Keal
Andi Langford-Woods
Lynsey-Ruth Mansfield
Helen Gregory
Steve Duncan
Ian Sills
Norman
Tim Burroughs
Hazel Hammond
Miles Chambers

Thanks to all those who inspired, harangued, helped and humped to make tonight happen.

THE BOOK STOPS HERE….

Julian Ramsay-Wade was our MC for the evening and started with an (unnecessary) apology for reprising an old piece – “Front Room” (“smothered…in an as wide as wide is a kiss”) before introducing Andy and Simon. Firstly Andy performed solo: his straight-faced crowd-participating cover of Minnie Riperton’s “Loving You” being by some distance the least faithful cover of the night (in a good way!) Simon then joined him to cover (appropriately) Simon and Garfunkel’s “59^th Street Bridge Song” (better known as “Feelin’ Groovy”) – for their first performance together the harmonies were pretty good and the whistling was magnificent. After Andy attempted to leave the stage prematurely he returned and the duo covered Arlo Guthrie’s Woodstock anthem (Recurring theme number one of several!) with a fair degree of success for a debut performance. Simon then performed alone: a Zeppelinesque tune about “trilobite days” “off the Cambrian shore”. Very different.

Mike – a nervous second time poet – stepped up to read “The Four Doors” (a very mystical piece) and “A Story I Wrote” which took the audience wandering through the story as he wrote and read it. I’m still not sure I understood it all, but more please. John and Caroline followed with violin and voices to cover an “Uncle Earl” album track – a tale of a girl who dressed as a (male) sailor to find her lost love and shot him when she found him with another woman. (Recurring theme number two!).They followed this stirring folk song with the most Faithfull (sorry) cover of the night – As Tears Go By – and harmonised sweetly over the mournful violin. Thanks a lot.

Mary Crowder took advantage of our good nature to plug the Lansdown Poetry Festival Book Launch on Tuesday 9^th September (see Bristol Poetry Festival programme for more details) and then to practice performing a couple of short poems in advance of that event. “This is just to say” (by William Carlos Williams, I think) and “Five Thoughts” (“Thought Five – to greet – to greet all here, all there to say, seize the day!”) were both short but finely written and ably performed pieces, so we forgive her! Dan Ashton went a step further by taking the mickey out of a poet in his song “Abstract Poetry” (but he promised it was not aimed at anyone present!) A song in an English folk style, it described “a nine verse dirge entitled Abstract Poetry” which I am almost tempted to go away and write. Forget-me-not Eyes was a slower song, sounding slightly like an early Beatles ballad with killer major to minor chord progressions and a warning in the lyrics (“She’ll see through you”).Quality stuff.

Roisin shunned paper and performed “For Nick Moore” (“I watch you sleeping… vines riot across your chest…you’re the Green Man…distant as landscape”) and then sung words from a poem she had written previously (“Villages have turned to towns / Acorns into oak”). Thoroughly rural and natural poetry in the heart of the city. She was followed by Chara (Gaelic for “Friend”). Richard and Kiki were first-timers and therefore virgins at Halo and performed the title track from their recent CD “So close to killing you”. This was the story of a wronged woman who shot her lover’s girl instead of him (Recurring theme number two (again!)). The tale sped along merrily in a Country style as did the second song, “Chalk it up to experience” in which a naïve girl is abandoned in the big city and has to make her way as best she can. Very country, yet with a style of their own. Finally for the first half, John Terry pulled “a couple out of the old box file” – “Talking with Plants” in which husband betrays wife and wife tells all to the plants around her until his sins seep through the earth in every plant pot in his home; and “Water”, a study of the great and varied qualities and properties of Dihydrogen Oxide (?) or H2O. Pulled out a couple of plums again, John!

After a short break, Julian resumed with the poem ending “I am the captain of my fate” and introduced Malusi. Again apologising for performing “old” pieces (or as we call them “favourites”) his first piece namechecked dead heroes (Malcolm X, Bob Marley, Steve Biko (see recurring theme 3)) and slipped himself dextrously into the musical, rhythmic piece. His second piece – Nostal-Jah – is probably explained by the title but both pieces were performed with skill, feeling and a controlled force. Doreen and Stuart are the management team at the Hillgrove on Dove Street, which happens to be Andi’s local, so their appearance at Halo has been long encouraged. Officially a virgin, Doreen sang in a strong and rich voice a folk cover (?) (“I got the urge for going but I never got to go”) and Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” (recurring theme 1), slower and therefore closer to the original than to the more successful cover.

Pete Hunter stepped up without paper and performed a piece as a dress rehearsal (“an exercise in accuracy rather than speed”) detailing his normal performance style (“I usually do this in a stadium to an audience of 100,000). The images got more and more extravagant (“demons dance…in a phantasmagorical quadrille”) until the last line dragged us back to earth (and no I won’t give it away!). His second piece was a psychic call and response poem which was slightly confusing but fortunately very amusing – one never knows what Pete will come up with next but it is usually great.

Stuart then stepped out of his accompanist shadow to play two songs himself – one “by the best poet I know” (Billy Bragg) and “Biko” by Peter Gabriiel (Recurring theme 3). His singing and playing were fine and his choice of covers was perfect.

Polly Moyer performed two poems about friendship. Her first was for Mark Armitage – a late friend of hers and of poetry in Bristol whose loss left a hole in the scene which the years have not seen filled. “Incremental changes” passed on the latest news to him (“There are now five branches of Sainsbury’s in the Gloucester Road alone!”) (“I can trace the path you took from here to there”) while her second “You touch me” was “for my platonic friend Guy” (“No lust to contort, distort emotion”) Lovely to hear them both.  She also mentioned Piers, another longtime friend of Acoustic Night, who is recovering in Istanbul from a paragliding accident. Gina Briganti “just a simple poet today” performed “Deep into Shallows” and “Treen Scene”, based on Westward Ho! Beach and Minack Beach, Cornwall respectively. For a short while, it seemed like we had had a summer after all.

Megan – a nervous (she claimed) Halo virgin recruited by Roisin – then sang Billie Holiday’s “God Bless The Child” in a simple, unaccompanied style that left the remaining audience wanting more. We would have to wait for another Monday, however, as she only wanted to sing that one song. Andi wound up the evening with the classic double whammy of “El Fuego” – a dark, dusty Latin saga of lust shed and love found – and “Insects” – a diatribe against the Swedish Blue Monster that dominates the Eastville skyline. Altogether now – “Shall we paint the walls in Tango? Or should it be Persimmon?

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

Audience 29

Performers 18

Virgins 4

Covers 12

Great Covers 12

Photos 0 (sorry folks I’m crap with cameras! Andi)

There was a tangible air of anticipation in the room. It was another humid evening on the street and I was wondering if we were going to get another deluge like two weeks ago but it was a flood of talent that swept through the door. So much that some top drawer performers sat back and let new faces take the stage as part of this special night to acknowledge EMMA HARPER and her contribution to Bristol’s burgeoning Open Mic scene these last two years.

First up was ANDY with Streets of London and Perfect Day – two well known numbers delivered with passion as if they were were his own.

Next we have two firm favourites of the last year who travel over regularly from Bath. ANNA FREEMAN and AGATHA give us a brilliant set of poems about “the Illusion of fear” and the “strange and almost insane ponderings of the human mind”

AGATHA

The next pairing is one of those Acoustic Night meetings that ‘just happens’.
JOHN T and CAROLINE(v) overcome some D.I.box problems successfully and give us ‘Running to be on the run’ and ‘Story of Love’. A pleasant return to songs of innocence and truth.

JOHN T and CAROLINE

SIMON LEAKE takes us on the Heathrow Express and then ‘Built in Stone’ – poignant ponderings prompted by travel.

MIKE THE FOUR Ms(v) brings the most far-reaching considerations on the topics of ‘well advanced aged relationships’ and the two little boys of Rolf Harris fame who are now grown up and gay, quite memorable…

MIKE the 4 Ms

Another welcome return in the form of MIKE SCOTT. Who else could/would link the Royal Family with the problem of a buoyant turd, as well as a song about nostalgia where things were worse (not better). A genius of humour in song!

MIKE SCOTT

SIMON THE MAGICIAN (aka MAGIC SIMON) forsook his box of tricks tonight and gave us two cheeky limericks about nude participants and farmers wives milking cows. Magic or Poetry? You decide.

MAGIC SIMON

JAMES REVELL(v) began with ‘Green Eyes’ not a bad idea, when feeling down, to go and talk to a barmaid and come up with a song. Then ‘Weather Mill’ a lovely vocal rendition of a Dylan song.

JAMES REVELL

Break

Our Special Guest EMMA HARPER opens with ‘This Depravity’ a song about this town which somewhat rattled her mate Bex’s cage! Following on from this a PJ Harvey cover only, Emma gives the heart that songs need when she sings. This magic translates to her poems too. Then two more songs from one with a voice so lusty and clear, even engaging the audience on a typical irish folk song. Thank you Emma Harper!!!

EMMA HARPER

Birthday Girl POLLY MOYER selects ‘A Reader Writes’ pt2 dedicated to her mother “who knows best” and Polly, you know how to say it’s true. On her second poem ‘Breathe In’ Polly goes walkabout and her words are lost to the audience and denied a recording. Our reviewer deems it a gem.

POLLY MOYER

Well… Four virgins and an old hand fill stage under the name of BOXCAR ALDOUS HUXLEY. This band knows how to transport it’s listeners back to the mid 19^th century on a musical transport system comprising of Harmonium, Euphonium, Trombone, Clarinet, Banjo, Drums and Vocals. Andi likens it to Blue-grass Klezmer in Heckmondwike town square… which means she really liked it.

BOXCAR ALDOUS HUXLEY

BYRON VINCENT… This guy can’t help but let out humour in between sentences and short phrases of sense and sensibility, quaint yet quantifiable meaning and meanderings even when he’s being self-effacing. Love, Loris and Bob Holness…wonderful!

BYRON VINCENT

PHIL BABER and KEIRA(v) got a bit of a raw deal on the mics. Firstly on Phil’s sensuous song ‘Seeds’ his guitar mic suffered from droop and then Andi embarrassed Keira by disappearing to the loo without turning her mic up! Sorry hon! Andi
But two real songs that make you feel like you’re taking part in a wild wild western!

PHIL BABER and KEIRA

GINA BRIGANTI Shows us how to recite a poem and mix in a couple of songs, or how to sing a song and mix in a couple of poems? ‘Avebury’ tells of the stone circle in Wiltshire, and ‘Lies of Love Remains’ speaks quite easily for itself and all with an infectious rhythm and cues for instrumental additions plus that soulful jazzy voice.

GINA BRIGANTI

Stepping up to the mic JACK BIRD threw back his hair and opened his set with ‘My Girl’ a haunting lament befitting spurned love and was joined by Emma in an emotive duet. His second song was reminiscent of a lively Johnny Cash with very quick and interesting guitar work. Come back soon Jack.

JACK BIRD

JESS(v) gave us ‘The Power of a Smile’ a sweet innocent poem written from new experiences at University by someone with a singing voice that needs to be heard.

JESS

Our final performer ANGLUSKI had hung in there almost all night and manfully stepped up to sing two engaging folk songs from an Irish perspective.

ANDI closed the night with ‘Five Words’ one of her own observations on life in her inimitable style.

Thanks to Everton for the blog. Additions by Andi. Thanks to Kimberley for taking the fotos.

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE 60+
PERFORMERS 25
VIRGINS 9

Andi Langford-Woods overcame the bone-wearying tour schedule of recent weeks to MC this Acoustic Night and opened with an elegant outpouring of choice poetry. She then introduced the returning Keith and Wendy with a sad song about a singed seagull in their own inimicable fashion. Keith then sang a solo song, sadder, more serious but still stylish.

KEITH AND WENDY

Another returning star, Gary Death, then performed two pieces: one drawing us totally into the dark world of pondlife and the other more seriously describing his work with the visually-impaired. Again, the mix of silly and serious worked a treat.

GARY DEATH

Our first half blogger, Sarah, then stepped up to the stage and sang two lyrical guitar backed songs in a melodic voice. The second, entitled Darkness in My Heart, left light in others.

SARAH

Yet another long lost brother, Phil Baber, then performed two songs on his return: the first a Cohenesque piece of passion and fury (if that makes sense) and the second “La Guitarra”, in Spanish without subtitles but nevertheless lively and dramatic.

Simon the Magician followed with the usual clever magic and stupid jokes – as virtually the only performer who would not usually use a microphone he overcomes the difficulty with style and ease.

MAGIC SIMON

Our special guest then performed before the break. Stuart O’Connor was on a nationwide tour and played more Bristol gigs later in the week, but here he drew us into his world of loops, beeps, slapped guitars and a sometimes smooth, sometimes edgy vocal telling stories which teetered on the precipice of normality and sometimes tumbled off. He also stopped the music for a moment and read a moving and heartfelt poem. Glad we caught him this early – he’ll be playing bigger venues next time.

STUART O’CONNOR

BREAK

Caleb Parkin sat behind a cello and a laptop and in his first piece “Hexadecimalis” interchanges live and recorded speech and cello playing to great if weird effect. “Rat – an Exact Science” was the fourth in his “Vermin” series and brought a rat’s eye view of animal experimentation (“the light-up box of faces needs me”). Clever and different.

CALEB PARKIN

Rosemary Dun, another much missed performer (perhaps we should subtitle this evening the night of the comebacks?) previewed her set at the Harbourside Festival at the weekend with “Being English” (“we laugh at farts because we’re Anglo-Saxon”), a sideways look at her countrymen and women; and “Shipshape Bristol fashion” about her current home city (The Organic Ice-cream guy is Sunday hungover”) and the festival itself. Appetite whetted!

ROSEMARY DUN

James Bunting, another….yes, you’ve guessed it, sang about falling in love with a fictional character (“fireworks like Promethean fire”) and then read a poem, “Immortality and Mortality”, which treated its subject respectfully but not over-seriously (“Live, live, live because if you don’t you won’t know life”). A vibrant and resonant piece.

JAMES BUNTING

Pete Hunter then performed a two-line poem “I thought it would be cool to have a Chocolate Orange heart / but when I tapped it and unwrapped it, it fell apart”. He followed this with a descriptive poem about his days at college in Falmouth (“Sunny, sunny days of watching waves as sharp as language”). As usual his beautifully crafted serious pieces contrast sharply with his sillier efforts.

PETE HUNTER

Mr Bananas (Derek to his friends) performed an e e cummings poem (“I like my body”) which made fruity suggestions about using it and a frivolous poem about a red dress (“I want a red dress / I want it flimsy and cheap”) which shared a true sense of the ridiculous which came across to the audience.

MR BANANAS

Andy then played George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun” displaying a jangly guitar-playing style and sound vocals; which he followed with a poignant version of Don MacLean’s “Vincent”.

ANDY

George Wade (Grampy G) performed two pieces for and about his absent offspring: for Julian (Ramsay-Wade of this parish) he described his children “growing into their own skins” and for Ali his denial that he is “Proud” of his children because that implies ownership of them (“You’re not an acquisition”). Lovely to hear from him again.

GEORGE WADE

He was followed by John T, who had “just tried writing a song”. “Human greed is the cause of all poverty” was a serious theme but was offset by jangly guitars and a light touch. He followed that with a tale of a band touring Britain in the Seventies in a van – a descriptive piece with slide guitar accompaniment.

JOHN T

Nearly finally, the Bath Spa trio of Agatha, James and Taya walked onstage together. Taya (who may well have been the night’s only “Virgin”) read “Night Trial” (“My fingers feel for the fugitive tears”) and will be back, one trusts. James stated unarguably that “We all look more beautiful in black and white” (well we were much younger, then!) and suggested “Irony is our greatest authority, while Agatha invited us to spend “a day in my mind “ in “Insanity List” (Imagine you are a Hindu concubine”). Love them all, with their skills and varied styles.

Pausing only for a blast of the Jew’s (Jaws) harp courtesy of the ever-helpful and musically skilful David Bosankoe, another riotous recipe of rhymes and rhythms was complete. There were enough quality performers in the audience to have played on until 3am, but some of us have real jobs.

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE  53
PERFORMERS 20
VIRGINS 1
BEDOUINS not tonight!

Julian Ramsey-Wade, our MC for the evening, began with a poem written for his sister and our special guest, Ali Wade, who celebrates her birthday tomorrow. He also discloses that he is wearing a T shirt she gave him.

JULIAN RAMSEY-WADE
Polly Moyer then performed “Ali - the Lion Heart” for her (“talking to strangers is dangerous – for them”) and, in the absence of an imminent third in the series, “Lionheart 2001” (“we have, in trumps, the gift of serendipity”)

POLLY MOYER
Sarah-Jane and Katie were our first virgins of the night - Katie told us that she has recently arrived from Canada and only met Sarah-Jane tonight: they spent 5 minutes working on Sarah-Jane’s song “Bodmin Moor” which they then played adeptly with sweet harmonies. The song took us on a trek over the moor (“everyday is in the balance / like a rocking stone”) and was followed by Sarah-Jane alone with a song about a former home and relationship (?) (“your house is wild with orchids / and postcards … from the Himalayas”). More please!

SARAH-JANE

James and Agatha stepped up together but read separately – James presented “a new one ‘cos I still like it” in “An Interested Eye” including “a horologist keeping perfect time” and “clouds wrap around the sky like a scarf” (the audience seemed to like it too); Agatha’s piece “Shapeshifter” (“about what it’s like in my head”) declared “some of the skins I wear are abstract” and “I have spread my plumes and shown my colours proudly” to some considerable effect; and James’ “Buried Life” analysed himself humourously with lines like “if I were any more working class, I’d have a job”.

JAMES AND AGATHA
Martin played two tunes on his ukulele: “Hello Gorgeous” (about himself, he claimed) (“You know how much I miss you so”) and a George Formby song “My Granddad’s Flannelette Nightshirt” whose title says it all. The ukulele is a distinctive instrument and Martin played it adeptly and sang with the lightness the music requires.

MARTIN

Pete (not Hunter but our second virgin(?)) played guitar but didn’t sing (“you don’t want to hear me sing”) and gave us one long, skilfully played instrumental piece which flowed seamlessly through several moods and styles like an overture or a film score.

PETE

Gina Briganti namechecked Ali, apologised for her tiredness after a gig last night and gave us “Liminal G”, her autobiographical poem/rap/song (“this rhyme may be easy but I’m not”) and the self-explanatory “Different Ideas of Heaven” (over our imagined dub/reggae sound system) with a nod to Bob Marley.

GINA B
Anna Freeman followed “a full on weekend” with “A rubbish poem” in which the household waste issue spiralled out of control in an absurd but amusing manner (“make a shiny retro jacket out of empty crisp packets”); she then advocated the pigeon (“the chicken of the city”) as the solution to food shortages.

ANNA FREEMAN
Finally before the break, Dan Ashton (who performed several times at Acoustic Nights at The Croft some years ago) played keyboards and sang “Cavaldi – the portrait artist”, a dramatic tale based on a Browning poem with harpsichord-style backing; and “True Love Dance Hall”, a jazzy song of a dance competition reminiscent of The Kinks’ “Come Dancing”.

DAN ASHTON
After the break, Julian performed a short piece and then introduced our special guest – Ali Wade,

To whom the audience sang an enthusiastic if poorly executed “Happy Birthday”. Describing herself as “just a hopeless attention seeker” she opened with the evocative Dory Previn song “The Hollywood Sign” (“I doubt if the Statue of Liberty welcomed more refugees”) in spite of having to abandon the mic halfway through. The Jeanette Winterson poem, “Under the Black Bell” followed (“I am a warrior / I wear my breastplate proudly”) and then she performed a piece about her mum (“a nun without habits”). Ali then informed us that she had rejected an a capella version of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” in favour of “People” by Yevgeny Yevtushenko (a dilemma we are all familiar with!), which she then performed. A poem in memory of Dave Lovegrove was followed by “The Diggers” – a favourite song of both of theirs. She then confessed to murder – of slugs – and read a garden-inspired piece, after which she read a tale of true love in Thomas Hardy’s life: “I Found Her Out There” and finished with “Almost Like a Sister”. A high-quality, varied set well worth waiting 62 Acoustic Nights for.

ALI WADE
Andy attempted to follow our special guest with a couple of jingly-jangly Byrds covers – “All I Really Want To Do” and “Mr Tambourine Man”- which captured the flavour of the originals well.

ANDY

Steve was another performer new to Halo – “I Don’t Want To Go To Heaven” was a poem describing his very religious upbringing and his reaction to it (“I’m a simple guy / I Just want hip hop …and swanky nightclubs”) while “Pick a Pocket” delved into the world of crime (“even governments steal”).

STEVE

Katie (to much amusement heavily pregnant “virgin”) described herself “a long time ago” in “Northern Line” (“survey my little empire”) complete with Jamaican twang and then read out “Love” (Love is a corporate bastard in a cheap suit”).

KATIE

Pete Hunter then produced the fruits of his day as poet in residence in a Frome café, noting that “the ladies … tut their disapproval” and hearing “castanetting dentures”.

pETER hUNTER

The evening then sped on with one piece each from: Tweetie (Agatha’s choice of poem (“Make me like a tree”));

TWEEIE

Terry, who played guitar (left-handed) and sang “Bitch Man” (“If I were rich, man / I’d be a bitch, man” ”Oh kerching, kerching, kerching”);

TERRY

Annie McGann, whose poem “For the Information of the Former City Council Engineer” contained the unforgettable line (“If I light up the world / it’s with the torch I carry for you, babe”);

ANNIE McGANN

The New Root, a two guitar / two voice duo with a sweet and slow song sung by the female half; Rupert Hopkins;

Cathy Keal (with “Passport” for Ali);

CATHY KEAL

and finally Barry Walsh with his song telling the heartbreaking story of the “Eiderdown”. Julian then read a short piece and wound up the show.

Apologies for the delay in getting the fotos up here. Sometimes it takes a little longer than normal! Just hope I got it right!!

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE: 40
PEFORMERS: 21
VIRGINS: 4
MOOD: Celebratory
WISH YOU WERE HERE: Andi, Hazel, Dave Lovegrove

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!