It's almost a tour...
a series of gigs in February
Last Saturday, as part of Wolves Lit Fest, I gave my Fringe show Sweat and Mugs and RocknRoll its first proper outing. I was stepping in off the subs’ bench after one of the artists who was originally booked to perform fell ill (get well soon, Rob!) and while I’d rather he’d have been able to share his work with us, my last-minute elevation to the starting line-up never looked – despite my nerves – like being a car crash, and didn’t even skirt with the possibility of disaster. Reader, I’m pleased to report it went really well.
The show is about how I fell into life in the music business and never quite got it together to fall back out again. It’s about growing up. It’s about what we want from life, and what we get. And it also looks at how a galloping lack of ambition and a dogged refusal to do the sensible thing can lead you to some interesting and unexpected places. Oh, and there’s some music, too, for the audience to tap their toes along to.
With Saturday’s performance under my belt, I’m looking forward to sharing the piece with the good folk at Heron Theatre (Beetham, Cumbria) on Friday Feb 20th. I’ll be one half of a double-header of Fringe shows that night, as fellow pandemonialist Emma Purshouse will also be performing her show Poet Laureate in a Pandemic. Tickets are on sale here.
The following night, both of us are guest poets at Verbalise, in Kendal (open mic spots also available) and if you rewind to Wednesday Feb 18th, we’re doing two gigs a little closer to home. In the afternoon, we’re part of A Pocketful of Poets at the library in Newcastle-under-Lyme (2pm start, free entry, booking essential) after which we scoot across to the Poetry Pharmacy in Bishops Castle to be the feature poets at Verbatim. All the details for both these gigs are on the posters below. Gigging in February… at least I’ll get to see what rain looks like in different parts of the country. Snorkels and wetsuits optional.
