This week has been remarkable. It started as any other week — bran flakes and coffee — but I soon found myself buying business cards, getting a spot to read some of my poems in Waterstones Piccadilly with Poet In The City and then I get an email from WordPress to tell me a post of mine is being featured on the Freshly Pressed page!
But what was most remarkable about this week was my Thursday night. I wanted to check out some poetry gigs in London and stumbled across Bang Said The Gun through Time Out. The name caught my eye so I went on to their website and immediately fell in love with their manifesto:
It’s like mud wrestling only with words.
It’s poetry not ponce.
It’s not pornography but it’s still pretty good.
It’s Live every Thursday.
When I arrived at The Roebuck at 8pm last Thursday, I went up the stairs and heard the music blaring from the function room where this event was going to take place. But I also heard something rattling. After entering and paying £5 on the door, I saw there were milk cartons on every table and people were shaking them in time to the music. The organisers of the event — Martin Galton & Dan Cockrill — were wading through the crowd and shouting along to the music in a way that made me think I had entered a very pleasant circle of hell. It was loud and it was mayhem and it was entertaining. Martin would every now and then walk towards the bar and stamp his hand down in time to the music. Dan is the host of Bang Said The Gun and he explained to the newcomers that the object of the night is to make as much noise as possible so that the old lady across the road comes and makes a formal complaint. Good thing they give the audience some homemade noisemakers:
The night opened with some feature poets – notably Rob Auton, who was marketing his new book, In Heaven the Onions Make You Laugh. He was a wonderful public speaker and performer – his set was half stand-up comedy and half poetry. Have a look at his website here (particularly his poetry section) and I would highly recommend his wonderful book. It’s a gem.
The poetry readings were broken up by little distractions — ‘The Bang Bar Staff Big Book of Banging Banter’ and ‘The Balloon from the Back of the Room’. It was playful and I won’t spoil the surprise here — if you head along to their next event, you’ll see what it’s all about.
Returning to the words-part of the night: Kemi Taiwo was the headliner – and she was incredible. She is the host of Lyrically Challenged and also runs the Facebook page Poetry in London. For any poetry fans out there, have a look at her blog, too. In typical me fashion, I was so mesmerised by her performance I forgot to record anything. Thankfully I found a link to one of her older performances on YouTube and just so you can have an idea of how talented and wonderful she was to listen to, I’ll link it here -
When the night finally came around to the Raw Meat Stew Open Mic, I was shaking. But Dan, the MC, had gotten the crowd ready for the newbies by playing some loud music and rattling some cartons and reminding them that most of the Raw Meaters might not have been on stage before. There were 5 readers in total, and whoever the crowd felt was the best would get the Golden Gun Award and a 10 minute slot at the next gig. It was a lovely quick-fire round of readings and my friend Ann maria recorded me. Once we negotiate with technology, I’ll put a link up here so you can have a glance at what the event heralded.
[Edit: Here's the video!]
When we left The Roebuck, my friend Annmaria turned to me and said, ‘That was different, in a lovely way,’ and I think that sums up a night with Bang Said The Gun. It’s a wild, raucous affair but very welcoming and inclusive. More than anything, I think it’s a great expression of freedom to be able to say whatever you want, however you want and still be supported.
Have a look at the Bang Said The Gun website and check out their Twitter feed. Hopefully I’ll see you there next Thursday!
