poetry

Last night I was guest poet at the London final of the Hammer and Tongue Slam. Anyone who knows me knows my official position on slams is I’m not fond of ’em. This may be because I rarely do well – I’m a bit of a waffler, and I like having time to jaw with … Read more

Oh my goodness. What a busy bee I am this week. And yet apparently making as much impact on my workload as an actual bee. They’re not even heavy enough to operate a keyboard. So, look. Why not read this week’s performance poet interview, with the very witty, very tartan Elvis McGonagall? How did you … Read more

Coo. It’s all go here, isn’t it? We’ve already heard from eight very different performance poets, spraying their opinions everywhere, making jokes, being all arty. This week, pray doff your cap and stroke your beard for Scroobius Pip. How did you get into performance poetry?It was a strange one really. I had been in various … Read more

After a week off due to me fannying about the UK feeling all whimsical and introspective, flipping off beggars then getting poorly, pray doff your hats for the triumphant return of The Performance Poet Interviews. At least it’s not me having opinions for once, thank whatever interventionist deity presides over blogging (probably some sort of … Read more

It’s that time of week again. While I lie, sleepless, in my sickbed, clutching at the thick air and phasing in and out of languid fever dreams, you get to enjoy the erudite opining of Ross Sutherland. How did you get into performance poetry? I’ve written poetry since I was five. My gran and I … Read more

So, in case you don’t know, I’m kicking off a pilgrimage to open mic nights big and small all over the country (and a few beyond). I’ve got a tentative itinerary, although given that these events are mostly run by diligent amateurs, I’ve got to expect that I may turn up in a couple of … Read more

Since you asked, Cone O’ Tragedy‘s most popular feature is my weekly interviews with UK performance poets. We’ve heard from Dockers MC, Polarbear, Nathan Filer, Yanny Mac and Nathan Jones. This week, it’s the turn of Joel Stickley. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjBUymEywto] How did you get into performance poetry? I saw Luke Wright perform a few poems at … Read more

How did you get into performance poetry? There were some important men in my life early on. Mainly Ginsberg, then Gershwin lyrics, then the terrible Thomases (Dylan and R.S)… and Eliot! Where am I going with this? Through certain half deserted streets, probably. So anyway reading Eliot really gave me a kick up the arse … Read more

Previously, we’ve heard from Dockers MC, Polarbear and Nathan Filer. This week, I spoke to gravelly-voiced raconteur Yanny Mac. Yanny Mac has performed at Glastonbury, The Edinburgh Fringe, Latitude and the Port Eliot Lit Fest. He compered the Poetry Arena at Latitude in 2007, with his buddy Pikey Paddy, and until recently, they both hosted … Read more

In an act of either laudable pecuniary acumen or savage recklessness, the Arts Council have elected to underwrite the beginning of my forthcoming project. If you take a peek at my Myspace page, you’ll see I’ve already got a nice little run of gigs coming up in April and May. But most of them aren’t … Read more

Last week, I talked to Polarbear, the week before it was Dockers MC. Today, it’s the turn of Nathan Filer. http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2458754&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1GOTH vs EMO from nathan filer on Vimeo. How did you get into performance poetry? Ten years ago I was living in Greece and working as an hotel entertainer. I was utterly useless. One holidaymaker … Read more

As some of you may or may not care, I just finished a mini-tour of our show Found In Translation, the story of my, Ross Sutherland, and Joe Dunthorne’s attempts to infiltrate the infamous French experimental literature group, the Oulipo, a group so radical and misunderstood that many people still don’t believe us when we … Read more

Last week, I spoke to Dockers MC. This week, it’s the turn of the prodigiously talented Polarbear. How did you get into performance poetry? My best mate told me it was just rhyming without a beat and that I should get on stage at a poetry night in Birmingham. He had no idea what it … Read more

Dear Andrew Motion’s agent, I am writing to offer my services as the new Andrew Motion Laureate. For just £500 per annum, I will compose poems in response to every major Andrew Motion event. Here is my first poem, in honour of the poet, Andrew Motion.Ode To Andrew MotionAndrew MotionO Andrew MotionYou damnable fucktardTake the … Read more

In contemporary page poetry, rhyme occupies an uncertain position in the technique hierarchy. If you’re a performance poet, it’s pretty much indispensible. That’s not to say that every poem you write need be in pat, metrically-tight couplets, but even if you’re delivering a prosey monologue, if you want it to flow satisfyingly you’ll need to … Read more

Hey folks. Here’s the first in my promised series of weekly interviews with the great and good of the UK performance poetry scene. Hopefully they’ll build into a nice little collection for anyone looking to find a new fave poet or find out a little more about an old one – I might give everyone … Read more

Over the coming weeks, I’m going to be running a series of interviews with the great and good of the UK performance poetry scene. The nice thing about doing stuff online is that I can embed videos alongside the Q & As, and turn appropriate sections of their replies into hyperlinks so that, for example, … Read more

BBC4 are starting a new season called Why Reading Matters. Reading and literacy are Good Things, I think we all agree. But it was a line in the Radio Times, previewing the season’s launch programme, where ‘Children’s Poet Laureate’ Michael Rosen ‘does for literacy what Jamie Oliver did for school meals’, that thumped one of … Read more