Tag Archives: BHG

Jan17

Thank you for the Music (and Mouth)

Posted on January 17, 2016 by Nina Lewis

Mouth & Music

My most local venue for a night of spoken word and music, always fun and entertaining, has come to a temporary close.

On the 12th January we all went to the BHG to celebrate 4 years of Mouth & Music with hosts Heather Wastie and Sarah Tamar, it was also a goodbye to the current landlords. Mouth & Music itself is taking a six month break and then Sarah Tamar is hoping to start up again.

Heather Wastie (Worcestershire’s Poet Laureate) hosted the evening which was headlined by Humdrum Express (Ian Passey) and Sarah Tamar.

It was a lively evening of music and poetry celebrating the Boars Head and Mouth & Music.

Here are some photos taken by Peter Williams

MM heather

Heather Wastie

MM Mogs Mogs

MM Mike Mike Alma

Maggie Doyle MM Maggie

MM Kathy Kathy Gee

Nina Lewis & an absent Tim Scarborough MM Me2

MM Bert.JPG

Bert Flitcroft – Current Staffordshire Poet Laureate

Headliners ~ Ian Passey MMIan Passey &

MM Sarah Sarah Tamar

As a tribute to the years of Mouth & Music (my first visit came at the end of 2014) I have gathered together my favourite bits. From Collaboration to Clog Dancing – thank you for the poetry, song & music!

2013

Dressing up as Aladdin for the Pantomime themed night and my first Mouth & Music.

Humdrum Express headlined alongside Tim Cranmore (who was then Worcestershire’s Poet Laureate 2013)

Read all about it here MM 23

Sarah Tamar as Mrs Claus Christmas Laureates Present and Future

2014

Mouth & Music March 2014 in which I discovered the wonderfully talented Adrian Mealing, Headlining as half of The Very Grimm Brothers.

Mouth & Music: Current Affairs

In April my first collaboration was born thanks to the Dualogue theme, Tim Scarborough and I worked together to enhance my poem Rainwatch – using a mood drum and wrote Social SatNav together. A turning point for me. A collaboration I would love to explore again sometime.

Mouth & Music – What a Great Night!

mnm tim

We collaborated on new material in May for a Gallery exhibit by Najma Hush, at this point we were potentially taking bookings.

MUSICAL COLLABORATION M&M (May 2014)

Nina Lewis & Tim Scarborough

The amazing ‘Body Hair’ themed Mouth and Music and the Moustache poem was born, moustache mm alongside a Hairy Toe poem.

Tim & I took the act on the road as far as Birmingham.

After this Tim and I don’t perform together until 2015 and although we are both open to collaboration, haven’t managed anything since. One day…

Captivating Clog Dancing accompanying Sirkel.

M&M August

In the month I celebrated one year of Poetry – One Year A Poet M&M brought us Ben Norris.

This was around the time I got my first feature slot in Birmingham and was working on a commission for Birmingham Literature Festival 2014.

October 2014 and Saffron Toms came and shot amazing photos. This was also the month my Birmingham Poets came to support Jasmine and I saw my two geographical poetry worlds combine.

2015

January Spark Off saw me captain a team and perform with Tim again. Which was all superb despite no rehearsals and was great fun even after I lost a laureate from my team (two, is too many) and generally lost to the other side, having not bribed the MC/Judge (who will remain nameless, ahem! Mr Passey) with pints of virtual alcohol.

What’s that? Bitter? Me? It was OVER a year ago! Tusch. (HA HA)

https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2015/01/18/mouth-music-3rd-birthday-spark-off-special/

Minus our props

Mouth & Music KAF Special – Slightly Circus August 2015 – a definite highlight!

© Heather Wastie 2015

© Peter Williams 2015

Maggie Doyle, Nina Lewis, Heather Wastie & Dave Reeves

I think I have only missed about 3 or 4 M&M events over the years, there are more posts about Mouth & Music than those linked here, go and have a click about to find them.

Mouth and Music – 3rd Event of the Month

Mouth & Music Tuesday 10th: New Material – Great Night!

M & M July

Fergus McGonigal & Humdrum Express

Jun14

Mouth & Music Tuesday 10th: New Material – Great Night!

Posted on June 14, 2014 by Nina Lewis

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Another wonderful evening of spoken word and music. The theme this week was ‘adjectives’, I wrote my poems late on Monday night, using lists of adjectives for the initial stimuli.

They went down well, one serious one about mental health and a humorous one about form filling.

I had seen Peter Wyton at Confab Cabaret earlier this year, a funny Gloucester poet, he has published a number of books and is a prize-winning poet who has appeared at Cheltenham Literature Festival, Glastonbury and Ledbury. He also reached the final of Radio 4’s first Poetry Slam.

Bethany Weimers was great, she is doing a tour of the area at the moment, Merlin her partner is a painter and Tim Scarborough and Suz Winspear are now the proud owners of personalised artwork, them performing. Sadly I was on before he picked up his paintbrush! I would have loved to buy one, that would have made my night.

This month we even had a write up on the Mouth and Music page, traditionally it has just been the headliners who feature in the review. Chuffed with this mention, so am pasting the review here;

Every M&M has its own character because each one is a unique combination of people. Last night had a really special quality to it. At least half of the 14 open mic-ers performed something brand new and there was some cracking humorous stuff from Nina Lewis, Mike Alma and Fergus McGonigal in particular. Billy Spakemon drew us into his dark Black Country tale and Tim Scarborough brought his own recorded backing for a very moving, personal piece. Thanks to all open mic performer…s for adding to the mix and apologies to Suz who hadn’t been warned about the Cinderella chimes ….

Featured poet Peter Wyton gave us a splendid set which was hilarious throughout. He had us hanging on every word. Bethany Weimers drew us into her delicate guitar playing and expressive singing. Her songs are intensely powerful and intimate. Both she and Peter stood near the audience, foregoing stage and mic and this enhanced a feeling of ‘sharing’ rather than ‘performing’.

Bethany’s partner Merlin was busy secretly sketching throughout the evening. Suz and Tim are now proud owners of brilliantly evocative drawings of themselves in action on stage. Merlin also gave us the drawing below. Thanks Merlin! (Merlin Porter Arts)

As an experiment, we put Bethany on midway through the second half. It seemed to work. This meant that Peter Williams’ beautiful song somehow echoed the mood created by Bethany. Peter will be our featured musician in October. Sarah finished with a poem heralding next month’s theme – Summer! Thanks to everyone who was there last night. See you in July!

Angie Belcher – Don’t Miss Her Edinburgh Show!

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Nina Lewis

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Last night was a real treat, I went to watch Angie Belcher testing out her Edinburgh show, ‘Settle Down’ at The Boars Head Gallery (BHG), Kidderminster.

She is a stand up, (not a stand up Manager for a tanning salon) and a poet. She has supported John Hegley – which as far as I am concerned makes Angie a success!

Angie (her own website)

I love discovering new acts and Angie is someone I will be looking out for in the future, she is based in Bristol, UK and regularly performs at festivals. Look out for her and buy a ticket if you get a chance (even the £8.00 proper ones), go and see her. You will laugh, that is guaranteed.

A great mix of poetry and stand up. A great combination of talent and a very funny set.

The poems are ones you sit there listening to, wishing you had written yourself. Her humour witty and wide appealing not one mention of Women’s Lib…the men in the audience enjoyed it as much as the women.

A great show – Enjoy it Edinburgh!

Angie Belcher was supported by Heather Wastie who treated us to a 20 minute set. Inspired by Angie, Heather tried to find which poems of hers included rude words – which is funny because language is something Heather keeps on the clean side of. There was audience participation from the off and later a chance for us to choreograph our own actions for a chorus of another poem. A great way to warm the room up ready for Angie Belcher to take to the mic.

And all for the bargain price of £3.00! I had a great night!

Kidderminster Creatives Poetry Slam – UPDATED

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Nina Lewis

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Sunday night saw the May Bank Holiday Inaugural Poetry Slam hosted by Kidderminster Creatives at the Boars Head Gallery (BHG) – I was so pumped when I got home, this is why I want to be up to date with blog posts and write in real time! To be fair I was still excited when I woke up on Monday!

It was my 1st ever slam, Fergus asked me to take part. I am not real a slam poet, my material is not that click, beat variety…. After this experience I am tempted to follow the winners lead and write just 1 slam poem! The lovely thing about this slam was that everybody got a prize. 13 poets took part.

Those bowing out (like me) in the 1st round took a 2nd hand poetry book, the 2nd round, shiny new books & the winner a gold jelly man trophy, a book & £50! 3 poets in a round – apart from mine that had 4… There were 3 poet laureates and several slam champions for us Slam virgins to pitch against.

It was great fun & entertaining. I was happy with my 2nd hand copy of Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters and having the freedom to drink and be entertained as 5 (highest scoring runner up + winning poet from each group) became 2, Math Jones and Maggie Doyle went through… to entertain us with a brilliant final.

It was a superb, hyper night!

Maggie Doyle WON!

Congratulations Maggie, who can now be seeing taking Oscar to many events to be photographed! She was up against tough contestants and many who had won slams before. And has written a tongue in cheek beat poem since last weekend, influenced by some of the more ‘beat’ participants!