Acoustic Night

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!

I have been asked on numerous occasions to blog Acoustic Night, but have always refused. This is not because I don’t care, it’s because I’m not sure I can cope with the blogger’s responsibility - should I be honest, admitting that maybe I don’t like what I’m hearing or do I simply big-up everyone. I also find it difficult to concentrate on all of the acts, particularly when I haven’t been on myself yet, or when I’m gagging for a cigarette, or when nature is calling (to either go pee or get another pint in – the two are usually linked). However, Ian asked me again, and, succumbing to the principal of ‘do one thing that scares you every day’, I accepted the challenge.

Julian started the night with this short poem:

Here’s the church, here’s the steeple,
Open the door - where’s all the people?

Referring to the disappointing turn out for the start of the evening; especially considering the guests that were lined up. However we are troopers, so we marched on…

First to the mic was David Johnson (aka David C Johnson), who read us a couple of poems, the first of which was new to me and described his ‘first full carnal romp’ on a beach in a seaside town somewhere on the south coast. David admitted that the main memory he had of that night was his brain repeating over and over, probably in both hormonal relief and joyful teenage disbelief ‘She’s letting me in, letting me in, letting me in!’ The second piece was a short tribute to Beryl Cook, recently deceased artist, famous for painting rather large ladies at play, describing Beryl as ‘dead, like Bacon’ (the artist, not the meat)

Next we had a first timer taking the now warmed-up stage: Jill. She was nervous. Too nervous to read one of her own poems, but said she would work up to that, so she read, to my delight, one of my favourite all-time poems about poetry by Billy Collins, An Introduction to Poetry. Jill managed, despite her nerves, to read the poem clearly and not rush it. Hopefully we’ll see Jill with some of her own words soon.

After Jill was Julian Ramsey-Wade, Or J-Words as he was known when he wrote the song he performed tonight. I’m not sure of the title of this piece. In my mind it’s called ‘The Scarred and Scary Lady’ and it tells of characters he has seen living in and around the Bearpit at the end of Stokes Croft. Sympathetically describing what they do to survive and how they entertain themselves, despite their desperate lives. It’s an old favourite and a pleasure to hear again.

John Terry then delivered two poems for our delectation (What is it with all the J’s in the names tonight? – John, Julian, Jill and Johnson!)
The first (apologies John, I missed the title of it) was based around the names of different types of screws found in a DIY trade catalogue, and described a mans obsessive love for, and collecting of, said screws – a sort of screw spotter – who loses his passion when a builder offers him a whole boxful and the thrill of his rare finds is suddenly devalued. John then casually added, as an afterthought, that the judges of the competition he had recently entered it for, described it as ‘the most unusual poem we’ve seen’ and he won £50 for it. John Terry is successful in another poetry competition – well done John.

Unfortunately I drifted off during John’s next poem. My notes seem to say it was called ‘Dictated by Captivity’ and featured explorers misunderstanding trees and collecting leaves which inevitably lose their glossy green sheen and turn brown and lifeless once plucked,. There must have been some reason I was distracted, I’m sure it wasn’t John’s poem or voice, as both are a treat to listen to.

Gina Briganti followed next. Her rich vibrato voice bringing what she describes as her ‘Abolition 200 medley’ to our soothed ears. This piece is a sort of song/rap/ poem entitled ‘Do I Know’ stating Gina’s feelings about the slave trade and ending with the refrain ‘Money has no soul’. No truer a word was said/sung. Gina followed this with a new song called ‘No Pleasure’. At this point I was definitely distracted, as I was up next. Sorry, Gina, I’d love to hear it again when I’m not so pre-occupied

This part of the blog, since it is about me, was written by Gina, honest.

Pete Hunter
1. An interesting and witty piece about the male totem.
2. ‘Goldfish swim in their own piss’.
There are no wasted words and an enquiring intelligence. Original and very entertaining.

Right, blushing over, I’ll get on to the next performer, and performer is the right word to describe this man.

Miles Chambers regaled us with his poem inspired by the visit of a TV dating show to Acoustic Night sometime last year. In response to the visit, Miles has written a poem describing himself and what he wants/would like in a partner, just in case the TV people come back. The poem is full of comedy and promises, but ends with the warning “If my girlfriend finds out she’ll kill me” Careful Miles!
Miles’ second piece was newly memorised poem about belonging in Bristol called ‘I Belong Here’. In his wonderfully passionate way, Miles described both the good and bad reasons he had for loving the city and shared with us the fond and not so fond memories he had of growing up here. One, amongst many of the lines that stuck out for me, was how he enjoyed living “amidst the prayers of peace on the walls of Bristol’s heart”.

With this thought ringing in our own hearts we took a break

By the time the second part of the night started, the audience had swelled to a room filling number. In fact there were not enough chairs, so there was standing room only at the back, which is always gratifying to see.

What I haven’t mentioned so far, is the stage set-up tonight. On stage there was a small Bedouin tent, decorated with colourful designs and harbouring similarly patterned cushions and curious musical instruments. Above this the letters spelling out Acoustic Night, white on the black back-cloth, floated like stars in a night sky. The reason for this is about to become apparent. Our special guests, and we were truly blessed to have them with us, were The Bedouin Jerry-Can Band, taking a sneaky night off from their UK tour. This band of 9 skilled musicians and singers hailing from Sinai, began their set with a couple of poems in Egyptian, one I believe was about the Suez Canal, which opened 50 years ago.
There then came a plaintive keening from a flute-like instrument, which eloquently brought to mind the vast emptiness of the desert, setting a scene that soon erupted into joyful drumming, plucking, bowing and strumming that had everyone jigging about in their seats, beating out the rhythms with their bodies. I recognised the sounds of nearly all of the instruments the band were playing, but could not name them, however the enthusiasm and delight portrayed by the musicians with their soaring tunes was unmistakable.

The songs were rousing and lively, so much so that several people got up to dance with the band, despite the heat and lack of floor-space. At one point we were introduced to ‘two new traditional instruments’ that the band had brought with them – the jerry can and the ammunition box – both found discarded after the war in the 60’s and aptly employed to make blissful music, a magical sort of swords to ploughshares transformation. This was a full, no-holds barred show and the audience lapped it up, grinning and clapping along.

Thank you guys for this great experience; and thanks to Andi for making it so.

*VIDEO CLIPS ON OUR MYSPACE SOON

The person with the unenviable task of following this stunning set was Pete Hogg, but Pete had no trouble at all. His first poem honestly explored the self-doubt most performers have by splitting his personality into two parts, one part being the poet reading the poem, the other being the voice inside the poets head, questioning and belittling what the poet is doing. I think of this as the ‘Gollum poem’, as the critical voice takes the form of Gollum (from Lord of the Rings for those who don’t know the books/films) This is a very popular piece and must ring true with a lot of performers as the laughter raised by the constant switching between the two characters indicates an uneasy recognition of the ‘condition’ in the audience.
Pete then warmed up his philosophical piece ‘A Game of Chance’ as he intends to perform it at the festivals he’ll be attending this summer. It’s a rhyming rhythmic discussion of the nature of existence “This appears to be a game of chance, of circumstance”. Another hit from the Hogg.

Finally, with special permission to break the two poem rule, Pete read out a freshly penned piece dedicated to Pat West who ran the Poetry and Words tent at Glastonbury Festival and sadly died on the 14^th June, just two days before this Acoustic Night. In the audience were several poets that Pat had given the opportunity to perform at Glastonbury and I think we were all grateful that Pat’s passing was marked in such a fond and poetic way.

(At this point I witnessed my scariest moment of the evening.
There was a drunken bloke who had been whispering very loudly for most of the evening, especially when the poets were on, and despite Hazel Hammond having a gentle word with him to ask him to please be quieter, he continued to stage-whisper to his female companion at the back of the room while Pete was reading his poem dedicated to Pat. I looked up from my notes towards the stage and caught Hazel giving the noisy bloke her hardest Paddington stare and pointing the finger of dire warning at him! For a second I panicked, thinking it was me in trouble, but realised that Hazel’s aim was true and her laser-beam of warning was searing past my shoulder and burning into the noisy bloke’s heart. Phew. Unfortunately the noisy bloke couldn’t seem to keep his trap shut for more than a few seconds, so he continued to irritate from the back until he decided he was bored, and with much disruptive fuss eventually left.

It is annoying that some people don’t seem to have the facility to respect the performers, and I guess there will always be (at least) one, so I suppose we’ll have to put up with it as best we can. Selfish gits!)

Following Pete were the Bartones, a six-piece harmony choir accompanied on guitar by Everton Hartley, who also arranges their songs. Their first song was Paper Moon, which wavered a little in performance, but their rendition of River Deep, Mountain High was a more relaxed and enthusiastic affair. Hope to see you all back soon.

Ian Sills then told us of his love for the larger woman through his poem ‘Fern ‘n’ Lisa’, dedicated to Fern Britton and Lisa Tarbuck and cleverly based on Beethoven’s tune Fur Elise.
He followed this with his ‘Apology to Eminem’, a confessional piece about Ian’s admiration for the skills of said rapper, and how Ian thinks Eminem would be mortified to find that that his music was admired by someone who is ‘middle aged, middle class, middle - like a small van’ (one of my favourite ever lines from Mr Sills.)

Returning to the stage, Miles Chambers, informed us in his powerful and passionate style how he ‘Wants to be Treated Normal’. An explanation of how frustrated he feels when he still finds some people see the colour of his skin first and stop there, not getting to know who he is inside.
Following this, and dedicated to Pat West, was Miles’ poem written in memory of a friends father and based on the W H Auden poem commonly known as ‘Stop all the Clocks’ (real title- Funeral Blues). This is a barnstormer of a poem, by turns both angry and tender, accurately summing up the frustration and sorrow at a loved one’s death, and Miles always delivers it with perfect grace. Many eyes were brimming by the end.

The call then went out for anarchy hour and Reece took to the stage to read a freshly penned regretful piece about how he feared he’d ruined his relationship this weekend, stating ‘I’ve never felt like this before…’ Good luck with that Reece.

Bartones and Everton then gave us their version of Going to the Chapel, to which we all sang along, and finally Julian rounded off the evening by performing a poem lovingly dedicated to his dad, that told us of his boyhood pride in knowing that ‘all the kids knew that you were just so cool’.

I have a final note to add about this great fulfilling evening. During the break, a ‘famous’ TV presenter appeared and sat quietly near the back of the room to watch the performances. Nick Knowles is the best known as the presenter of DIY SOS, amongst other prime time TV shows, and in our inimitable laid-back Bristol way we made no fuss of the fact that such a well known personality was amongst us. However, from where I was sitting I could see through the corner of my eye, that Mr Knowles was tapping his foot, smiling and generally enjoying proceedings, so, since I was responsible for the blog, I approached him for a quote about what he’d seen, a sort of media endorsement of Acoustic Night.

This is what he said: “It’s a fantastic combination of an evening with everything for everybody. Who’d have thought you could wander into the back of a Bristol pub and hear singing from the Sinai desert, 6 part harmony and such wonderful, powerful and funny performances - such a different and culturally entertaining evening.”

What a nice man, and, to be honest, I couldn’t have put it better myself.
I expect that quote will be used in Acoustic Night publicity for years to come!

Thank you to all the performers and the Acoustic Night crew.

And thanks to Pete Hunter for the blog.

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE 50+
PERFORMERS 27
VIRGINS 16!!!

The evening starts with Hal (surname: Badgertrap) asking all to help him write the final song in his set, by form of a line each. A somewhat novel request from the Special Guest but it seems rather inspired and the audience duly oblige.

Starting with a somewhat sparse audience (although growing later) HELEN GREGORY gave us a tale about fish with souls (pun intension unknown!) and thus proves there is, indeed, much to be said about fish!

She then cordially invites us to be entertained by the 59th Acoustic Night @ Halo and JULIAN RAMSAY-WADE extended the introduction! With his excellent quick rhyming and entertaining verses he then told us about blizzards and the weather!

Next up was the man ‘they’ (who ‘they’ are I don’t know!) call ‘La Guitarra’! However, it appeared his alter-ego PHIL BABER was on show tonight as, quite rarely it seems, both his songs were in English.
Phil introduced his first song with a story of a Gloucester Road flower shop that advertised it’s availability for flowers for “Weddings or Funerals.” It appears some cynical wag had graffitied “No Difference” in capital letters underneath!
This aside Phil’s breezy numbers cheered us up on a rainy day, even if he did say so himself.

POLLY MOYER, Acoustic Night’s answer to Dellboy Trotter, followed. After informing the audience of the bargains that could be had, she read a childhood tale revolving around her father. A meaningful and poignant piece this was then trailed by a good poem about subtraction. Shame indeed that she will be soon departing our mists for the shores of the New World.

Next up was CHARLIE ANSELL with, firstly, his reworking of the traditional song Lisbon. A tale of travel, sex and pregnancy; all good folk territory. Next he ripped into Show Of Hands’ Cutthroats, Crooks & Conmen; a socio-political rant discussing the over-capitalist nature of modern Britain that got the crowd clapping.

From Political Agitation to Special Magication we swiftly moved with MAGIC SIMON. This week Simon found a coin, talked about The Bangles, had Knots that aren’t ‘Forget-Me’ Knots, disappearing Kings and the magic ribbon, which of course, produced much applause, especially from the rear echelons of the audience.

GINA BRIGANTI then sang a couple of numbers acapella dealing with relationships and finding each other, including the lovely No Pleasure Without Love. A lovely voice and a great lyric writer.

After Helen had informed us of her partially to sugar-based snacks ANGIE BELCHER appeared. We now all know of her less than fondness towards Dave! Luckily no Dave’s were harmed in the performance but hearing of the Coco Pops of Doom was a novel learning experience for us all! Computers then a took a battering in a very effective style for being slow and repetitive but Grand Theft Auto was the end result, a just reward!

We were led to the break by CASCAVEL. Acoustic Night virgins, they brought us some R&B previously lacking from Acoustic Night’s regular repertoire. You Want Me Back established that the two girl lead singers are not to be messed about by silly boys and Move On proved that they will. Two bonus features were their third member who played the keyboard and bass drum and also there snazzy matching T-Shirts!

THE BREAK FOLLOWED

After the break ANDI LANGFORD-WOODS introduced our special guest with a poem about belief and having sex with cricket teams!

Mr Camplin alias BADGERTRAP then took the spotlight with his lovely guitar (this blogger was jealous!) and his celebratory party poppers! His opening ditty was a lovely tale of incestuous sex in Nebraska which has hit potential! This was followed by songs about Caterpillars, Kidney’s, Monday’s and Phoetuses. The highlight was probably his tune Missing In 1981 and yes Hal, I bet that woman would like to know where you buried her cat!

The Badger Disco was the finale to the set, where Hal used the audience’s endeavours to adlib to the tune entitled Kebab Deaf. It was a fitting ending to a beautifully chaotic set with Hal dressed as his infamous alter-ego Barry the Badger and his side-kick, Lennox, showed us his new anti-rape alarm which blurted out  the phrase Get off me you paedo!

How do you follow that? Well IAN SILLS added to the parental poetry theme with one about his mother. We however, never did discover the name of the shop his mum can’t walk into in Cheshire, but it wasn’t Sainsbury’s. Then he explained why he couldn’t sing the blues, which fitting he didn’t sing in a blues style.

MARK & SUE were next. Mark first with his two solo tour-de-force’s, one called The Constancy of Affection and the other about being a girl on the inside. The latter song featured the line of the night; “my genitalia’s not going to change”. After the scat ending Sue joined for two songs; a Folk Song from Newfoundland with Mark and an acapella version of an old Irish song on her own.

After this the performing resources had been exhausted and we went around again.

CHARLIE ANSELL reared his head again and walloped us with an old Jacobite song about a very randy George I.

And finally ANGIE BELCHER popped up once more to tell us why the global recycling problem was down to not recycling lettuces!

Genius! Another Acoustic Night safely navigated with much talent, fun and frolicks!

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE          33
PERFORMERS   16
VIRGINS               7

Helen was our MC for a packed evening and a full house. She got us off to a culinary start with Paprika Seeker, a poem about love to get your taste buds budding.

HELEN GREGORY

Charlie Ansell launched straight into his own rewritten boisterous renditions of folk songs, shouting d’ ya ken John Peel (apparently not the famous DJ!?). I liked the aggressive line ‘We know but we don’t act’ in a song that seemed to hint a the sinister side of ‘trees biding there time, which I can only assume to be a take on the current environmental predicament were in.

CHARLIE ANSELL

Richard Lawson was on top form bringing a personal touch to epic tales in his poems based on Ancient Greek myths. His sober account of the Medusa tale echoed the closing sentiments of restraint and duty in the face of danger.

RICHARD LAWSON

The two members of The New Root produced an acoustic set of frenetic lullabies with the focus very much on endings and resting. The vocals were somewhere between Shirley Bassey and P.J Harvey, and showed amazing restraint for what is obviously a distinctly beautiful and free voice.

THE NEW ROOT

‘Her Holiness’ Andi, came on to introduce the Guest Poet for the evening, with a poem that reminisced about the memories contained in the most inanimate of objects, here being her carpet that now serves as the acoustic night stage.

Guest Poet Georgina Banfield had been invited to come and perform by Andi. The two had meet previously in London. Georgina read out a series of poems that focused on the cyclical patterns of love, from desire through consummation to finally separation and longing; from the obsessive fascination with every detail to the ‘loud’ silence of memory, where fantasy mixes with reality. Underneath many of the poems was a disconsolate, restless loneliness, best expressed in images such as London as a predator of lonely hearts, and the intimacy at a distance we experience on the last bus home, ‘how single is single in this city’ she questioned. The great thing about her poems was how she could interpret similar feelings through different relationships, such as in a poem about her Grandfather that seemed to echo the imperfect yet necessary connection she had with London.

GEORGINA BANFIELD

Julie mixed things up again with a couple of bawdy Nirvanaesque songs about her past in Cape Town (in which she managed to insert the words ‘Gert Lush’!), and the folly of Ms make-up who’s lost all sense of her self behind the mask of paint.

Next followed two performers who had came all the way from Cardiff. First up was Mab who delivered a very different and humorous take on haircuts of the bodily nether regions kind! She followed that up with a series of clever, hilariously offensive nursery rhymes, based on the characters that she grew up with on a council estate.

MAB

Noel continued the welsh theme with several pertinent but funny poems and a song. At this point I was still aghast at Andi’s ‘Indian-Welsh’ accent and the use of a guitar as a prop for poetry, all very surreal.

NOEL

Simon the Magician finished off the first half, and to mangle the words of Kevin Spacey’s character in the film The Usual Suspects, ‘like that, I was gone!’

MAGIC SIMON & JAKE BEETON
Polly Moyer - on a welcome return visit from America to her poetic home city - first explained that she had suffered a miscarriage and thanked Gina Briganti for ‘picking me up off the floor’. She then performed “No-one” a piece inspired by “Someone” by one of her poetry idols, Dennis O’Driscoll (another is our MC Julian Ramsay-Wade). Detailing the experiences that the lost child will never know (”no-one will tell you how much you’ve grown…again”), it was brave, heartfelt poetry and Polly just about fought back tears. In contrast, she introduced her second, lighter poem with reference to Albuquerque, her current home city.

This  was followed by Everton and Jackie. ‘Mondays always bring me  down’ as the lyric went and the sweet,  melodic rendition of the song. Effortlessly supported by Everton made both this and the cries of love of the second song a beautiful follow on.

Pete Hunter did not stray from the theme of love and gave us a very contemporary tale of cider, skunk and mismatched feelings of ‘the first time’. The next poem was a witty ‘coming out’ as a geek. All that expected self aggrandizement was present.

Phil Baber gave us ‘Lamoureuse’ ( in French) with a softer rendition than last time on the new ( tunable) strings. There are people who Phil has not seen for twenty years and he celebrated a meeting with a woman . A poignant line struck me ‘ loneliness becomes her ‘

Talking Teckla  tried and eventually succeeded  in giving us from memory ‘One hundred Love’ which we all appreciated very much especially me  as I do not seem to be able to remember even ten lines of my own.  !!!

TALKIN TEKLA

And so we came to the final part of the night and a new face stepped up to the mic. STUART O’CONNOR had been threatening to appear for a while and it was worth the wait. catch him on July 28 as our Special Guest

STUART O’CONNOR

RENE has been down a few times now, sadly too late to get on the main list, but his patience is admirable and he comes thru’ with his well worked words of life experience.

RENE

Due to some e-mail weirdness part of the blog has been lost and we apologise to Jake Beeton for the absence of his bit! As always there are fotos we would have liked to post here but some of you are quite mobile and hard to capture clearly. We do our best!

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE   FULL HOUSE!
PERFORMERS     20
VIRGINS              8

Helen Gregory introduced the evening on this bank holiday night….with no back drop
(Where’s the wee man??!)
Helen started with a poem named Diva. With her silky & well woven rhymes & words we delve into the performer’s longing for that glance of a spark to recreate the flame of yesteryear.

First up was Sarah, described as a ‘dabbling virgin’, as she has been to Halo before but only to watch. Two short poems read from the page, one of which a flowing Japanese poem about water. Unfortunately this piece missed out on a poetry competition deadline, but was welcome tonight as it started the proceedings of what came later from the open mic floor.

Lee Bateman, another Virgin to Halo, haunted the room with his powerful black shiny guitar cover songs which included the classic Johnny Cash number ‘Hurt’, and ‘Iris’, a soundtrack title from the Goo Goo Dolls, explaining about angels and mortals and angels again.

John Terry experimented with a German poem put into English words. A Christian Morgan Stern verse, it told about LSD being a term for old money and not drugs, and how the wealthy man discovered to his dismay that not even his riches would get him past the pearly gates.

Gina B. delivered a seasonal poem named ‘Succulent Beltane’, a tribute to the fire festival held usually on April 30^th. “Heaven is all around us in the garden”.
“The lies of love”, the loss of touch, saying you were never here to stay, but lies of love remain. Beautifully sung words with spoken lyrical twists filled the air with her second piece tonight.

GINA B

Gary Death stepped up to the mic opening with his wry observations on Poetry Slams, bringing some smiles of recognition from those who have been there. He followed up with Death Shorts, three of his typically acute pieces on life.

GARY DEATH

Barry’s slide guitar blues spilled over the acoustic room with its infectious melodies and rifts. The second number ‘Slaphead Serenade’ finished off with a rapturous applause.

BARRY

The final poet of the first half was Hazel Hammond from the Acoustic team. She treated us to an ode on the joys of retiring to bed when the outside world needs to be shut out. During the longer poem ‘In the pool’, Hazel’s softly spoken voice lifted and we hovered over the swimming pool observing territorial rights being fought over in the early morning dip. Observing fellow swimmers and exchanging exercise routines.

HAZEL HAMMOND

Vicky Burke another Virgin, this time with a harp (a first for the acoustic night). Vicky’s two songs transfixed the audience with a floating complex rhythmical string arrangement played with perfect ease and a singing voice to match.

VICKY BURKE

Andi opened the second half both in her dual role as MC and poet. She read El Fuego with passion and the full blooded approach she gives to the issues that concern women in her life and beyond.  She described Phil Baber, the special guest, as a stalwart and a regular of Acoustic Night and reminded the audience of his facility that some songs might be in other languages. A treat.

Phil started his set with an apology for the strings and the necessary tuning but the soft picking that accompanied this belied the passion to come.
His first song “L’Amoureuse” (based on a poem by Paul Elouard). A surrealist poem about the oneness of lovers. This was sung with energy and delight making one feel the strength of the inherent feelings of the original poem.
Phil followed this with a dark Jaques Brel song -  “Port of Amsterdam” – containing all the dark elements that appeal to some of us and can give such power to a song – death, drunkenness, low life, whores and a toast to the health of such company. With Phil managing to match such strong elements with his voice and the single guitar - the room was easily filled with a Brechtian mood.

Those who have been more than once to the Halo and heard Phil’s song about an invitation to the young girl to leave her olive picking and come with them to Cordoba, Grenada, Seville. (The song based around Lorca’s poem – “La Nina - No Los Escucha”) will have been surprised by the strength of this version…giving a much more urgent, oppressive feel to the mens’ demands and a more raw feel to woman’s absolute non-compliance, even to the point of answering them!

He followed this with another song based around Lorca’s work with ‘Sueno’ (Dream). Here there was a softer tone to the music reminding one of red wine and gathering dusk on a hot evening. About a young man losing his heart to the cool waters of a fountain, as a metaphor for falling in love. The music rolled towards a strong finishing chorus.

The next song, “Jeszcze Raz” (Once Again), also had a strong finishing chorus in Polish and the audience was invited to join in… my Polish is non existent really, but I was swept along in the enthusiastic singing about the blatant adultery of a Russian woman with a member of the Russian Mafia, and the unbelievable spiralling demise of her hapless former partner. The musical theme was repeated with increasing pace in the middle section as in the Russian folk tradition.

To end, a song that was started on the Ukrainian border and finished in a field in Dorset, where a man fell into a fire wearing a mini-skirt. “Dance Me ‘Til I Die”. A frenetic Arab/Gypsy dance rhythm. A song celebrating “seizing the moment” in love, pleasure and life….
You can hear downloadable tracks and learn more about Phil at http://www.myspace.com/philbabermusic

PHIL BABER

Rhiannon Buck(?) gave us a poem which united the Ukraine, Dorset and my notes include phrases such as “natural world invites us to dance - jaws on fire - oceans of desire…” naturally this is followed by philosophical, insistent and powerful from this performer.

Mark Gartside gave us quite a long song, looking at mortality - sadly the mike stand took him literally and almost expired.

Sean Saye. First a soft and gentle song addressed to his precious daughter followed up by a rhythmic shaking of the tree.

Andi gave us another world view of those musicians in her life through her poem ‘Ironing Mountains’. No irony here at all as she is a person who can certainly iron mountains too…

Karl gave us a piece called ‘Life’s Journey’ all swept forward through the instrumental keyboard.

Caleb Parkin entranced us with his words (or was that David Berkoff’s words) no deceit here intended just that I did not quite catch the introduction. I was really taken with the lauding of Boudicca. This came across clearly although the haiku to the upside deodorant completely phased me. How I love poetry… anything can be poetry as this was.

David Bosankoe filled the room a unique rhythmic and curiously ancient sound perhaps this is the music that could accompany ancient ceremonies at stone circles  He played small, medium and large Jaws Harps.

Josie let us all into her world with her unique combination of song and soft jazzy scat. Telling us about the strange differentness of New Zealand’s sea breezes. As ever she invited us to take it easy while she was on her way to Ireland.

JOSIE

Vincent , an acoustic night virgin gave us two tunes on his guitar with a delightful falsetto on Eve’s behalf followed by a song asking that we question we all respond to “Who is crazy now?”

VINCENT (we have your AC/DC t-shirt!)

Another Acoustic Night where the small bank holiday audience were treated to a fine evening of performance.

Our backdrop is missing as Halo moved the wall in and we have to wait for the render to dry before we can replace our cable.

Thanks to Gary Death and Hazel Hammond for the blog. We are delighted when we can get a member of the audience to write the blog. Fancy a go? Talk us when you arrive.

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE         36
PERFORMERS     19
VIRGINS             5

Andi Langford – Woods welcomed everyone and then introduced:

Steve Graham – a veteran from the Croft days who always went on first and did so here.  He performed two old songs – a springtime story “teasing life into many things” “losing nothing – now’s the time to free your soul” and a slower softer song (for and ex-lover? “I’m hoping you’ll find the love that you need”. Great to hear from him again.

John Terry said his second piece was rather weird so his first was something nice. It was. It was about two people making one perfect jigsaw box picture. “The art of falling” (about the Clifton Bridge but no relation to “32 feet per second per second”) had “squad cars disgorging a buzz of wasps…the laws of nature reject me”. This second piece gave Andi vertigo.

John and Alix – dual voice plus guitar – performed a John Prine song (“Souvenirs?) which talked of “broken hearts and dirty windows” and then “the first song we ever sang together” (Crosby Stills Nash and Young’s “helplessly hoping” we think).

JOHN AND ALIX

Simon Leake who writes good words but is really bad at self-promotion performed “Wilting Stone” (“within two hands I hold opposite scenarios”); and then read the lyrics to “Out of Time” by Blur (“Because I’m spending way too much time on the internet”).

SIMON LEAKE

Everton brought along another protégée (Sam) and borrowed Steve Graham’s guitar for versions of Son of a Preacher Man and Get Happy two different covers performed with distinction & understated guitar.

SAM AND EVERTON

Lucas Hadley from the Bath posse gave us “Boy Can Rhyme” in which he examined his own performance style: Anna Freeman then told a story of “my superhero” – a friend on the streets of San Francisco wasted by a fifteen year old with a BB gun. More quality writing and performing from the posse and not the last of the evening either.

Sean Saye played two songs with adept guitar accompaniment – “I don’t wanna fall in love” and “I believe in you”. Romantic, itinerant fool! (Who may be a special guest before long.)

SEAN SAYE

Helen Gregory – poet and co-organiser of Acoustic Night – surfaced all too rarely with a touching poem for her brother (saying that other girls might say they loved him like a brother but she was there first) and a new piece (inspired by a friend who had written forty poems about fish) which was one poem about forty fish (and about eighty sometimes painful puns). You’ve gotta laugh or you’ll groan!

BREAK

Following the break, our guests from The Studio Upstairs took the stage and took over for a while. Hazel, Steve, Carmen and Brian (together with contributions in absentia from Alison and Sarah) performed poems about Turkish Delight and perfume bottles, bikes and blossom and boxes. The performance was particularly effective when two or three successive pieces shared a title but varied considerably in style. It seems churlish to mention one piece ahead of another, especially since the whole performance was even greater than the sum of its talented parts.

STEVE

CARMEN

BRIAN

Pete Lloyd – on his last week in Bristol – played two pieces of sensitive and emotive Spanish guitar music. Bon Voyage Pete and good luck in the future.

Two more Bath poets came up next – James Davey performed “Death Is” (about death, surprisingly) and Molly Case performed an acutely observed poem about misguided but urgent teenage passion and first night nerves (and Matthew Kelly).

MOLLY CASE

Charlie Ansell – a strident soul in a red bandanna and t-shirt – sang and played “Barbara Allen” – a traditional folk song reworked as if by The Levellers. He then sang of a highwayman called “Alan Tyne” – rewritten as an anti-capitalist thief.

Agatha and Jake Tuckman represented the Bath posse next. She performed “Tribal Song” (“I roll into my female skin with ease…Our twisting guts remember chains”) and he followed with “the ginger gene” about the trials and tribulations of being ginger (and wasn’t very nice about Manchester).  Another neat pairing of very different poems.

Phil Baber (the biscuit-taking neighbour (c AL-W)) played Cantos Nuevas and then, with assistance from David Bosankoe’s Jew’s Harp playing, Dance Me Till I Die. See him next time as our special guest.

David Johnson “avoiding poems about death” gave us “A fairytale for our time” by the Brothers Grime and a tale of a visit to his therapist “a Valkyrie of rages “ which did not go to plan.

Pete E read “Invisible learners (“Ride poet ride and confide in your words”) and his poem in honour of Ginsburg, “Still howling, Alan.”

Kimberley – who never arrives early enough to get on the list but this time claimed to have been “doing an essay all day” performed “On the toilet” (“cos that’s where I wrote it”) and a piece about lovers who “lie restful in ambiguous memory”.

Rene performed powerful and personal pieces: “Fire Come No More” and a second piece which drew attention to negative images of black people in the media - slightly uncomfortable listening for some of the mostly white audience and probably quite right too!

RENE

David Bosankoe gave us two more short pieces of Jew’s Harp.

Ian Sills stepped up to read “Lost Weekend” (as today is his Dad’s seventieth birthday (Hello Dad!)) and (left until second) “Procrastinate”.

Dave ? performed a strong poem about addiction and lifestyle.

DAVE?

Pete E returned with a new piece “The Struggle” and the struggle was ended.

Thanks to Ian Sills for the blog.

ACOUSTIC NIGHT STATS

AUDIENCE         43
PERFORMERS    30
VIRGINS            6

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