Hello again friends!
Apologies first of all that this update has taken so long - there’s been a fair bit of organising going on behind the scenes, as well as some more personal stuff. But here we are with the latest one - once again, it will be full of updates, and we have a good few for you.
A touch of Wanderlust
The March edition of Speakin Weird saw the return of the Wanderlust Women to our stage, five years and two venues later, to promote their new book ‘She’s Some Woman’, their second collaborative anthology together. In keeping with the nature of their latest volume, they offered us a wonderful collaborative set in which they each took it in turns to deliver performances of their work. It was a real pleasure to host them. (Unfortunately we didn't get a photo of Linda Jackson’s set - sorry, Linda.)
Lesley Benzie performing as part of the Wanderlust Women set in March. Photo by Dáibhí Armitage.
Donna Campbell performing with the Wanderlust Women for the March edition. Photo by Dáibhí Armitage.
A month of firsts
This was the first month hosted fully by the new team, and we’d like to think it went well. It’s fine for there to be three of us to split our various responsibilities, and so far things seem to be running pretty smoothly. We’re working towards finalising our dates for this year and the headliners we’ll have for each month, and we’re managing to fill our calendar pretty quickly. We still have a handful of dates left over for the later half of this year, and we’ll eventually have to look into next year’s dates as well, so if there’s anyone you’d like to see headline with us please get in touch via our social channels or drop us an email on [email protected]. Thank you all for your support and understanding as we navigate our next chapter - it means a lot.
Co-host Hannah Nicholson introducing the first half. Photo by Dáibhí Armitage.
Esmond Sage, previously our relief co-host, now a regular one. Here he is hosting the second half of the open mic. Photo by Dáibhí Armitage.
Aron Smith, aka Brutha Voodoo, our resident DJ, is now also a member of the hosting and organising team. Here he is taking a break from his playlist to read one of his poems. Photo by Dáibhí Armitage.
It was also the first time we tried an earlier start to proceedings, following previous feedback about how late things sometimes finish especially when we have a busy open mic. With this month also being busy we ended up finishing at around 10pm, and the number of people able to stay to the end had definitely risen compared to previous months. It seems to have been well received by attendees, and so we’re going to be sticking to this from here on in. As always anyone who is unable to arrive in time for open mic sign up can contact us in advance through the usual channels.
Finally, last but not least - this was the first time (in a while) that we had a resident photographer on duty. Dáibhí got some great shots, and with this being his first photography engagement we’re pretty happy with them. We’re certainly glad to keep letting him practise with us and he’ll be back with us next month to keep snapping - as usual, if you don’t want your photo to be shared on our socials please let him or us know. Meanwhile, more photos are available on the photo gallery at the bottom of our main page. We are working on getting another site going to use as a public gallery - we will of course update you with this when it happens.
Our new resident photographer, Dáibhí Armitage, adhering to our mask policy. Photo by Aron Smith.
April edition
Our next edition of Speakin Weird will be held on Monday the 13th of April, and we are absolutely elated to be able to say that our headliner will be the wonderful Fiona Robertson, fresh from her win at the I Am Loud slam heat for Aberdeen. We’re excited to have her with us before she goes to represent Aberdeen in the final later this year (yay!) and we hope you’ll join us in wishing her all the best.
Fiona delivering her winning set at the I Am Loud Aberdeen heat - we hope to see more of this as part of her headline set. Photo by Jack Hinks via I Am Loud’s social media pages.
As always, entry will cost £5 or £3 for students / unwaged folk, and we accept both cash and card on the door on the night. We will also be continuing with our mask policy for attendees - we give these out free on the door as needed.
If Stitch and Shoormal can mask, you can too. (Although Stitch seems to have grasped it better than Shoormal - bless her, she’s got the spirit.) Photo by Dáibhí Armitage.
Our poster for the April event, created as always by Aron.
Light the Blue Festival
We are also delighted to be able to tell you all that we’re collaborating with Light the Blue Festival for this year’s programme. Our event with them will be held on Thursday the 4th of June at 7pm at Big Sky Studio within the Music Hall, tickets will be £5 or £3 for attendees under 30. As well as our usual open mic spots we will have a special guest headliner whom we hope to announce very soon. (Disclaimer - we’re aware our wonderful regular Lucy Beth is on the publicity material for now, however she is there as a placeholder until we can announce the actual headliner. She’s still really cool though, and it’s a great pic of her, and we like any excuse to sing her praises.)
The poster for the Light the Blue event, made once again by Aron. We will distribute an updated version with our headline act when they are announced.
That’s all the news we have for the time being. We look forward to seeing you on the 13th of April, and we also hope to confirm our Light the Blue headliner before long too.
Hannah, Aron and Esmond