This evening, at The Melting Pot Cafe in Redruth, David and I will be hosting the second ‘Words and Music Performance Evening’. The first of these evenings took place in May and was a great success with both musicians and poets saying how much they enjoyed it. I hope that in a day or two there will be photographs to post but, just to give anyone reading this, some idea of what goes on, here is a review written by Peter Jenkin of ‘Cornish Literature’.
Spoken Word Success at The Melting Pot Café
A large gathering enjoyed a mixture of serious and humorous verse at The Melting Pot Café’s new Spoken Word night.
After an opening musical interlude from David Rowland, Abigail Wyatt was the first to kick off the evening’s poetic entertainment. Performing two poems covering both the serious – the miscarriage of justice that killed Carlos de Luna – and the playful – George Galloway’s recent election attempts, she set the tone for the eclectic and high quality work that was to follow.
Duncan Yeates then took to the stage, opening with his poem: “A Small Work of Questionable Worth” which examined the sincerity of poetic declarations of love. This was followed by a poem looking at the same theme from a different perspective, reflecting as it did on Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s artistic reactions to the death of his wife, Lizzie Siddall.
The serious and intellectual tone of proceedings was reinforced by the anti-capitalist rhetoric of Craig Taylor-Broad’s poem, “Creation for Currency is Corruption” which was followed by some ribald but direct examinations of a failed relationship.
Craig was followed by Lorna Hosking who performed her understated and atmospheric poems entitled “March Moody Blues” and “January 2012” which received a warm and appreciative reaction.
Rather than taking to the stage, Sue Farmer offered an engaging mix of ukulele playing and political commentary from amongst the audience, causing many amused smiles with her forthright opinions on “The Sun” newspaper.
Other literary highlights included novelist Patricia Finney’s humorous but acute take on everything from the appeal of chocolate to the responsibility of bankers for Britain’s double dip recession. This more playful approach was also developed by Collette Loftus who managed to entertain the audience with some amusing personal reflections whose wittiness and insight was a refreshing change from the solipsism that can be found in more personal poetry.
Finally, all credit must go The Melting Pot Café’s house band: Mr Bones Presents as their lounge style musical productions never fail to delight. In addition to this, David Rowland, Aston Drees and Ice ‘n Slice all provided diverse and engaging musical interludes in a variety of styles.
The next Spoken Word night is scheduled for 22nd August. For further information, please visit the website at http://www.themeltingpotcafe.co.uk.
Abigail Elizabeth Ottley (previously Wyatt) 