Some people I've seen recently no.1

Hello

This is the first of a few posts which I'm going to do featuring some performers who i've been lucky enough to perform with recently, who, for various reasons, I've been really impressed by and probably learnt a thing or two from.

First up, is Cate Ferris I saw her when we both performed at Hector Hears back in April, which is a night run by Lyrix Organix. The whole night was pretty special but I thought Cate was pretty sick. I've seen a lot of people use loops but she took it to another level for me. Multi instrumentalist, great voice and good lyrics. Have a butchers.

The first bank holiday in May I was at Streetfest in East London, this time courtesy of Ash and Music Is Remedy. I was on the un-signed stage and was one of only 2 spoken word acts, the other being Rik The Most. Outdoor gigs are never easy, particularly when you're an accapella act, you have to really hold the audiences attention as best you can, and it's especially hard when it's a festival and there's loads more things to go and go and experience, but Rik stepped up and did the business. To top it all he's a very nice dood and we wound up gigging again a few weeks later. He co-runs a monthly spoken word night over in Stoke Newington called Forget What You Heard.

New poems on the Soundcloud

Hello!

After that good stretch of gigs, I've loaded a few new bits up on the Soundcloud. Enjoy

P.S I thought England did alright to be honest. I was pleased to see them actually trying to pass the ball between them and attack, I'm pretty sure the last 6 years the only goals England ever seemed to score were from dead balls...

Lost Days Lost

Rhythm

 

Turbo Breeze

Appearance on Croydon Radio, Poets Anonymous show

Last few busy days have nice and busy, what with the gigs at Tate for the A And The E show, Lyrix Organix at Filthy's on Saturday, Hammer & Tongue Camden on Monday, but also this appearance on Croydon radio for the Poets Anonymous show.

HERE IS A LINK TO LISTEN BACK / DOWNLOAD 

Poets Anonymous are a collective of poets and writers based around the Croydon area that have been running since 1990, when I was a wee nipper obsessing over David Platt's goal against Belgium, during the world cup. I attend one of their monthly sessions at Matthew's Yard  and they kindly invited on their monthly radio show and I dually obliged. Had a wicked time. I was on the show with Nick Alldridge. These guys have been writing years and have tonnes of knowledge and experience which I don't have, so it was a pleasure!

After the Hammer & Tounge on Monday marked the end of the best run of gigs I've ever had, which has seen me share of stage with lots of new and old performers, I'm gonna, over the few weeks be featuring these on here, almost as a record for me, it's been a memorable few weeks. Enjoy the Football....

Late@Tate's Friday 6th June

Hello

This Friday I'll saying a few words and that as part of the The A & The E curated segment of Late At Tate at the Tate Britain. Pretty excited about this one. Tate and all that. There's some other performances on that night too so should be fun.

Line up:

Greta Bellamacina
Rena Meownegishi
Leti Mortimer
Hadiru Mahdi
Belinda Zhawi
Bridget Minamore
Paul Cree
Andrea Phillips
Giulia Loi

and 

Rivah Feseha (Work It)

Here's a little video I did at a The A & The E event back in December.. 

New old bits on the soundcloud

Hello

Over the last few few months, I've been slowly loading all the old bits that I've been performing out, plus a few extras, over the last few years onto the soundcloud. Stuck a few more up this week.

The Plight of St George

I wrote this story prior to the last 2010 World Cup. Football fascinates me for a lot reasons. Some good, some bad. I've met a lot of people over the years who talk with a genuine intelligence on the game but would never be considered intelligent in some circles. Shame that

The Irony of it All

This was written for the final of a slam competition I was in called Manorlogz back in 2010. It was boracdcast on a SKY channel way up in the high numbers. I never perfomred it again afater that.

Misc Stuff, like the Poejazzi app and some gigs and that

Hello

It's a Monday and I'm reflecting. Last week was a good week, so I'm going to do a little roundup.

Poejazzi App

Those nice people over at Poejazzi have produced this sweet little poetry app, which has recorded audio, text, illustration and a whole host of banging poets. They are featuring one in each week and it was my turn last, (well actually it was the week before..). The piece I did is called Highland Blues, which I wrote probably about 2 years ago and is about growing up and seeing my father in myself, and that kind of thing. So far to feature has been Gareth Lewis, Molly Naylor, James Massiah, Rachel Rose Reid, Hollie McNish, Alex Gwyther, Catherine Martindale, Sean Mahoney, Anna Lee with more to come. You can download it for free from Itunes Google Play Samsung Apps

Gigs

I'm pretty fortunate to be on a really good run of gigs at the moment, the best one I've had in a long time, possibly ever. Over the last month I've featured at BoxedIn, Hector Hears, Streetfest, Come Rhyme With Me Crawley, but this Thursday I'm going to be heading up to Birmingham for the first time to feature at Hit The Ode  a night which is run by a great poet called Bohdan Piasecki  and Apples &Snakes. Then the friday after is the Brighton leg of Come Rhyme With Me.

Other Stuff

Last Thursday I was invited down to Christ's Hospital school in West Sussex to run a workshop. This came off the back of a Poetry From The Heart completion, where I met 2 of their students, Kobby Adi (who won the competition that night) and Leeza Awojobi. They told me about a Spoken Word club they run at their School and after a few emails from Leeza, I eventually went down there and met the group, who are all aged between 13 and 18 and have around 25 people that turn up each week to thier sessions. It's hard not be impressed by the school itself, which is a collection of huge old buildings set in the Sussex countryside, where they still preserve the old traditions of the school, like the tudor uniforms, however, what impressed me most was the group themselves. They run it all off their own backs and host their own events within the school.  There was a lot of talented people within the group, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of them start appearing on the spoken word radar in the near future.  I had a very nice time!