spoken word & music | awritersfountain

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!

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Peter

Bethany

I found out about an event hosted by Joanna Skelt. An idea to bring music and the spoken word together around twilight to ease the transition from day to night. A mellow gathering in the winter. It took place in the REP Theatre on the Mezzinine floor away from the general bustle but still in a public spot. It was a great evening.

Fantastic performances and inspiring poetry, it was great to hear more of Joanna’s material. We were joined by two former laureates Jan Watts and Charlie Jordan and I was able to share some of my recent poetry too.

I met some people there who had seen me perform before (back in October) it was lovely to talk about poetry and writing.

I left on such a high that I didn’t actually leave the city straight away. The Frankfurt Christmas Market is there this month and the weekend Mr G and I were supposed to go we were too tired and never made it! Last time I was out in the city for a Book Launch I didn’t go and look at the stalls as I knew I was coming back a few days later with Mr G (which, as mentioned – never happened!)

I didn’t fancy the bustle of the main market – the crowds were thriving and I didn’t want to be in them on my own. The top part of the market used to be a few stalls up from the food court and bars. This year it practically meets the library – well it would have been rude not to.

I bought presents, tasted samples, avoided buying large sausages and bags of Pork Scratchings or 2foot liquorice – I was so hungry! I did buy 2 gorgeously unique (ish) poetry dresses for next year, my incentive to get fitter and lose weight!

For a free gig it turned out quite expensive 😉 the happiness has lasted for hours though.

I hope Johas another go at organising a night soon.