Morden Tower

Last night I went to Morden Tower. Bob Beagrie and Kalle Niinikangas were reading from Perkelle, accompanied by Milo Thelwall and Shaun Lennox. The night was compared by Kate Fox. I went along to show support, but ended up being asked to read at last minute (good job I washed my hair afterall before I went out.) It was an odd night, a night of powerful performances of poetry with music which I enjoyed, which was overshadowed by a feeling of disappointment on my part by the lack of audience. The quality of the poetry and its pairing with the music, made this a really magical night, and an enjoyable one- so why people didnt come I don't understand. The event was plugged in various e-mails, and has been plugged at other events-so I have no idea. It makes me sad for the Finns who have come so far more than anything else, but makes me a little bewildered as to where all the poets are (if we assume there are no poetry fans, that every poetry lover is infact a poet- which i am starting to believe.) Is it a case of cliques? Do people only to come to events featuring their friends? (which would explain why poets from Middlesbrough and Darlington are unable to get an audience in Newcastle.) It saddens me particularly because what poets like Andy Willoughby and Bob Beagrie are doing with musicians is so good, unique and entertaining (yes, entertaining, I can't say that for all the poetry readings I've been to unfortunately.) (Isn't it sad that when we think of poetry one of the words that doesn't readily come to mind is 'entertaining' come to think of it, if we are to expect people to sacrifice their time and energy coming out to things we should make the effort to make them entertaining more often.) I'd feel better if it was only OK, reasonable poets and the music was alright, but there is something so disheartening about knowing something is good, and not being recognised sufficeiently. Once again i will give the poetry scene of newcastle the benefit of the doubt, and say that perhaps people didn't come because it was Good Friday, and people tend to go away for the weekend at Easter. (To be honest even i wasn't enthused about the prospect of having to put some slap on and leave the house, when I would have rather liked to chill out in comfy clothes with a can of beer, but it was worth it.) A friend suggested to me that maybe people think Finnish poets and assume it will be boring,but I don't think most people have enough of a concept of what the Finn poets are about to reach this conclusion.

The tower opened the portal and magic happened, as it is prone to at the tower. When faced with disappointment the poets stepped up a notch and pulled out all the stops. I particularly enjoyed Andy Willoughby's performance of Sexy Baz's Birds, with a punky accompaniment (this really is a great poem anyway though, check it out in his collection 'Tough'.) I read first, but to be honest not very well. I wasn't expecting to read, and I hadn't had the advantage of working with the musicians in advance of the gig. I could have read better if I had read poems from Hardcore which I had previously done with Shaun, but I felt that this would be a cop out. Seems that the one advantage of having so few audience is that an intimate space is created, where you can experiment and share new work. Since there seemed little point in plugging the book with so few there, that's what I opted for. So my performance was decidedly average, but I was pleased to get the opportunity to read some of my new poems. I'm still not sure what anyone thought of them (people aren't that good at coming forward to say what they think , and I think my bad performance might have prevented people wanting to say what they thought of the poems, or of course there is the possibility that people just thought the new stuff is shite- which is always what you are gonna have buzzing about in your head at a later date.) (Also, other people's launches aren't good places to read new stuff I suppose, since you're just sort of something people have to sit through before they can see the main turn.) Anyway, it was a good night other than that, and I was pleased to have the chance to try out reading poems I've never read before.