Poets Express Review 11/07/2009
Hosted by the beautiful Kylyra from ‘Dark World International’ -
Poets Express is the first of a annual night off Poetry
performance hosted in Bantry, Southern Ireland.
‘Dark World International’ for those not in the know is
a independent label in Southern Ireland that has being in
force since 1993 or so I think and has released a host of
albums by acts as varied as Deemed Psychotic,
Future Dialogue, Tor’s Angst, Kylyra and
Dream Quest to name but a few that
over my dealings with them has produced a body off work
that has never ceased to surprise and delight as it
jumps all over the musical landscape.
I first met Ky from Dark World International back
at the end off 2007 over the net and had a great
time with her and her brother, Tor over in
Southern Ireland in September 2008.
Since then, the pair of us had swapped stacks of
poetry over the net, and pushed each other without
even realising into totally different directions.
Fast forward to 2009, Ky agreed for a poets event
in Bantry in the true Dark World International fashion
where it would not be a performance poetry night
like what I was used to in Manchester where it
would just be one man or woman with
a mike but designed to push the boundaries
just that little bit more,
The difference was evident off with the opening
act, Shaky Dawg which was I believe was Dark World
itself’s latest signing which was designed to
do something different.
Sounding like honest to god like Johnny Cash fronting
Nine Inch Nails, the band were great and surprised me
in a really good way with their opening track ‘Road Trip’
which sounded like a road trip that Jack Kerouac
could well have gone down if he had being alive in 2009.
After a wonderful start like that, it certainly left me
wondering how unpredictable this nigh t was gonna
go in a good way like my own night ’Poets and..’
frequently does.
First up on the open mike slot was a young
lady called Rowena Doak who Ky described
as her best friend and as the Poetry Chef
as she was looking after the refreshments
that night.
What really impressed me bout Rowena (besides
the fact she made some lovely food) had never
performed her poetry before and if my memory
was correct had never even showed before to
anybody. I found her poetry was sparse in a
good way and clearly were very personal
which are not always a good idea to share
but I liked the honesty in her writing and
made me think she should certainly carry
on writing.
After that in the first major slot was a
young poet from Belfast called Dale Mawhinney
who I was advised by Kylyra had designed the
logo for Poets Express and had had a number of
exhibitions in Northern Ireland.
I missed part off his set as I am ashamed to
admit as I was ordering cake from Rowena and
tormenting a bit, but I felt Dale I felt delivered a
confident set which went off in different ways
which I wasn’t expecting frequently. This included
most memorably for me a long introduction poem
which I recalled him telling me after was heavily
influenced by Spike Milligan about the first
seven days of man. Nice stuff.
Another open mike slot followed by a local
writer called Eric Rhodes who I was advised
had wrote and published two books to date
’Oasis of Love’ and ’The King, the
Father and the Mother’.
Eric I felt delivered some really thoughtful
pieces during his short slot which I felt
shown a lot of skill in more page based poetry
than actually the performance which I have
no objection to as I felt it added a
nice balance and contrast to Dale’s set.
I found out afterwards this was Eric's first reading
and in places, if I am honest his nerves did show a little,
but that is no bad thing as I can well remember
my first few readings and I was a good deal more
nervous than he was. A small tip for him in
Future would be to keep doing these open mike
slots to help him get these nerves.
I myself found doing these on a number of occasions
During my early performance days to build up my
Confidence as I think he does really have something
there and it would help there.
There was another open mike slot after that from
a gent called Tom Jordan who I think was from
Cork City who was the official photographer
for the event. Tom’s set surprised me also as he was
Walking on stage he borrowed an acoustic guitar from
I think the soundman (Tor again), and he did just
one poem and one song, both of which had a very
haunting sound to it, which I would like to have
heard more.
Tomas O’Carthaigh from Country Offaly the author
of two books to date ‘Writings in Rhyme’ and ‘Passing
By our planet’ was next. I had had some dealings
with Tomas from the website Write Out Loud
and on the social networking website facebook previously,
and was looking forward to seeing what he delivered.
Tomas has a very unique style certainly which in
places of my own style from a couple of years
when I wrote a lot of very philosophical,
short poems. On his set, he delivered these with
agust and on more than a few of them certainly
were pieces which could have being read again and
You could have got a totally dfferent meaning from.
Nice stuff.
I followed next. I’m not ging to write about my
own set in a great depth a I don’t think it’s
particularly fair I write aout my own set much.
I will add for the record however I thoroughly
enjoyed doing the set and think the mix off
Music I had with my pieces and
guest vocals (Ky and my friend, Antonioni)
surprised and delighted the audience in equal doses.
Straight after that, we had a very short reading from
Siofra Martin who had recently won the Eurochild
award for best young poet 2009.
Siofra I felt was fantastic and showed stacks more
courage and ability than I would have done at her age,
and I would have certainly liked to have heard more.
The Kids Express winners were announced next
and like with Siofra, I felt the two winners
(Ruby Sullivan and Erin Barclay) both wrote
brilliant, thoughtful poems which had to
be among some of my highlights of my night.
That was officially the end of the first half,
although the Dark World act ‘Future Dialogue’ did
then provide a interlude with their more acoustic
based offerings. Sadly I however missed their set totally
as I was talking outside to a lot off people.
The second half was started by a 4 piece
performance troop called Screaming Blue Murmur
who I was advised had toured Australia, the United States,
New Zealand and Kuala Lumper to name but a few places.
Their mixture of poetry, acoustic music and drumming
and singing was a sight to be seen and bloody hard to
describe, although It was excellent and well worth
checking out.
My friend, Antonioni followed next on the open mike stage and he
did three spoken word tracks backed with music which I felt got
a excellent reaction from the crowd, in particular the last song
Body Song which got half off Shawky Dog, Ky and me as a
chorus.
The night was rocking by that point, and a last minute addition
to the set, Andrej Kapor was next who I believe was a friend off
Cah-44 who had to pull out of the show owning to personal
problems.
Andrej’s set for a headline act perhaps seemed a bit
briefer than a lot of the other acts, this was understandable
perhaps because of the notice, but to give Andrej credit
I felt he rose to the occasion and held the audience
beautifully in the palm of his hand.
There was another open miker after that, Adam Ormes
who I believe came from Bantry itself. Adam’s set
was surprising probably in part because he didn’t go
to the stage itself and instead jumped onto the seats
in the audience and launched into a song with a
couple of quick poems straight away. It was a brave
move all in all, I felt in hindsight and one that
I felt worked as it proved the point that material
can be read anytime, anyplace.
Derek Fanning, author of ‘The tunnel’,
‘Epic poem’, and ‘Journey through elvish realms’
and a journalist was the last invited guest after that.
Derek followed the musical approach by Adam
by launching into a solo song with a amazing voice
to start off his set, which I am sure he also closed his
set with.
In-between Derek in contrast to what he was
led to between from his published stuff launched into
a set that wasn’t filled with some long, epic poems - instead
reading much to my surprise with limericks and short poems.
to give Derek credit, I loved them and thought his delivery
was pitch perfect, and enthralled me. Excellent stuff all round
which went down a storm with the audience too.
Kylyra should have finished the night after that, but much to my
surprise there was a last minute open mike slot from a Australian
mother and son I think called Kerry & Thomas.
Kerry & Thomas delivered a short set with a venom that
surprised me in contrast to nearly everybody else.
There is nothing wrong with venom in a set, but the duo
however made two major mistakes which affected
the quality of their set hugely.
First, they delivered that went well beyond the
5 minute slot that they were meant to do. The point
behind shows is simply the fact that slots are
split into set times. If everybody went and did double
what they were meant to do, we could have being
there until three or four in the morning.
That of course is a minor thing as it does happen,
but their second error which was a major flaw, and
something all poets should bear in mind as a general
tip was well they really fell down was they delivered
a very adult set with a fistful off bad language
which was ill-advised considering this was advertised
as a all ages show and there was a number
of children still in the audience.
Ky herself finished off the night and bought it to a
suitable close with a 15 minute or so set with three
Pieces ‘Interview’ which purred with a defo.
Grace Jones feel, ‘Clutched and..’ which was dedicated
to the beat poets and felt like it too before concluding with
the more playful ‘Poets Expresss’ which bought the night
to a suitable close. (I know Shaky Dawg
Came back out for a few more songs but I
was gone by that point).
On the whole, I felt it was a excellently ran night
with a lot of stirring performances from
nearly everybody there. I don’t know yet whether
this will be a ongoing concern but I think it
will be!
I look forward to it and encourage everybody
To get involved for 2010!
