Hitting a High in the Capital

Home turf. Home venue. Home crowd. Easy game, right?

It’s becoming well known that people are watching the pennies at the moment, and holding off until the last minute before committing even small amounts of cash or time. The Spoken Word crowd, to add to uncertainties, is one of the most last minute in the country, but that doesn’t mean you can just sit still and hope for the best, right?

A couple of weeks before the London show we had sold a meagre 25 seats, out of a capacity of 300, out a joint PinC and A&S mailing list of almost 8,000. They just weren’t biting in the usual way. But we didn’t just want the converted, we were on a mission for new sets of ears, news minds to open to an underated (and to it’s detriment sometimes under presented) art form.

So if you know spoken word, where from? Was is a hap-hazard low key event, with a highly variable level of performance? Or was it someone inspiring, enthralling, that made you think, that tapped into something you always felt or that challenged your perceptions, that pulled at your heart strings or opened you belly to deep roaring laugh.

And if you don’t know it – how do you know what to expect? How can any of this be imagined from a two-sided coloured paper flyer that falls through the door, that’s looking at you from a coffee table?

Suddenly we had a lot of work to do, in all directions – through lucky connections we got some great PR on London Radio, the venue, being home of the Guardian newspaper, placed a listing in the Saturday press, and we rounded up a group of volunteers and supporters, new recruits and old faithfuls, to get out to their companies, gigs, clubs, schools, music industry contacts, the local hospital, to reach as many people as we could. Can you think of another poetry event that would go to the trouble? If you can I would like to know!

King’s Place is wonderful, I know I’ve said this before but it’s a great new venue/concert hall/office/restaurant/gallery/cafe. I’m proud to have worked with them and true to form, the technicians and stage managers were on top form. The artists were a little nervous, as is natural, but they needn’t have been. Chris Redmond had joined us again since Latitude, and the combo of him with OneNess, Kat, Kate Tempest, Crisis and Jason was superb.

Kate Tempest is a brilliant performer. She has a habit of stealing the show a little however, partly because she is spectacular to see and hear, but also because she can run away with time, get completely absorbed in her monologues and endless energy until she finds the end. But everyone struck a chord with the audience, which through all our combined efforts hit the 200 mark! An excellent turn out in the end if I may say so.

Chris introduced a genius and hilarious new piece about the need to slow down, and it was a delight to see his Flaccid Jazz duet with Jason again. I don’t get tired of hearing the poetry in this show, each time there’s something new, depending on the vibe, a new or an edited line here and there, a different inflection in tone making the difference of a big laugh from the audience, a small chuckle or an acknowledging hmmm.

All in all, this show was a corker, we got the new audiences, we got the converted, and we got the glowing responses that assured me we’re on the right song sheet, keep singing!