Hello again!
We write to you still basking in the afterglow of our event with the Light the Blue Festival this year - and we’re pretty happy with how it went, not just because of our amazing headliner.
The fireplace really added to the atmosphere.
When we were first approached by the organising team for Light the Blue some months ago about a collaborative event with them, the initial plan was to simply stick to the format we knew - except that the open mic would only be for the 18-30 age group which the festival caters to (‘Railcard rules’, as Esmond put it on the night). We allocated eight spots for each set as usual, to bookend the headline one from Len Pennie. However, when we went to try and sign up potential willing open mic acts from our audience as they entered, a total of five acts put their names forward. After some discussion with the organisers, we changed tack and structure. The open mic was populated by four regulars and one newcomer, who had come all the way up from Glasgow. We decided then that they would have their own set, and that we would let Len read for longer than originally planned. This then is how the final set list looked.
How our final set list looked after a measure of tweaking.
After confirming plans, we got going, and our newcomer, Dev, opened proceedings. He is a big fan of Len’s work and had travelled up from Glasgow not only to see her but to perform on our open mic, having heard about us previously. I never thought to ask him who’d told him about us, but it’s good to know our reputation precedes us and we do hope we’ll get to welcome him back again some time. Our other four open mic performers, Evie, Finn, Essa and Lucy Beth, are all seasoned regulars, with the latter two being previous headliners. We therefore got a quality set from five incredibly talented performers and we couldn’t have asked for a better way to open proceedings.
(Side note - this month’s photos were taken by Aron as our regular photographer, Dáibhí, was in hospital. He is now out but will not be back to photography duties quite yet. We wish him a speedy recovery.)
First timer Dev reads us his work.
Evie was the first regular we heard from.
Finn treats us to his work.
Some lovely work from our seasoned regular and former headliner Essa.
Lucy Beth, also a previous headliner, rounded off our open mic set beautifully.
After a quick refreshment break - where Christie of Somerville Books also had a stall where she was selling both of Len’s wonderful books as well as some by other Scottish poets - it was Len’s turn to take the stage. Because we had so few open mics we told her she could have as long a set as she saw fit, so she ended up delivering 40 minutes instead of the usual 20 we give headliners. As always her performances were funny and poignant, touching on a range of subjects in both English and Scots. She chose a variety of verses from both her books, ‘Poyums’ and ‘Poyums Annaw’, and they were well received by our audience. Following the end of her set, the audience members headed back out to the cafe bar where they were able to buy copies of both volumes and have them signed.
Len Pennie’s performance was wonderful - and we got twice as much as originally planned. Bonus!
We really enjoyed collaborating with Light the Blue and we hope those of you who attended enjoyed it also. We’d like to say a big thanks to Len for headlining, Annabel Lunney and the team behind the festival for inviting us to take part, the Music Hall and APA for hosting us, and of course our wonderful open mic performers.
In less than a week, we have round two of this month’s proceedings - we’re back at Gaelic Lane Cafe this coming Monday, the 15th of June, at our usual time (6:30pm for a 7pm start), and this time we have Ian Spring headlining.
The poster for our second June event, made as always by Aron.
Ian is a writer, historian and publisher from Glasgow, based in Perth. He has written several works of non-fiction, fiction and crime fiction as Simpson Grears. “Seal Song” his first poetry collection is published by Tippermuir Books. He’s been a judge for Scotland's National Book Awards, appeared at many book festivals & runs Rymour Books, an award-winning small press.
We hope we’ll see you there.
Hannah, Aron and Esmond
