Yes it’s here, (drum roll…drum roll) the long awaited open mic night run by John G Hall (Citizen 32 editor) at the Urbis in Manchester. For a first event this was OK if less well attended than the previous “Guest” event.

Undaunted the Word Army edged nearer to the scene of action with bayonets fixed, new recruits ready for the fray and all guns blazing.
It was pure open mic hosted by Matt Panesh, a political poet who infuses his words with passion and belief (and swearing). John Hall himself kicked us off with a few rants about the modern world and the third part of his excellent “The war goes on” poem (love it), but it was the word army that made up the core of the open mic acts.

To begin with we sent shock trooper Gordon Zola into the fray who did battle with his poems about folk singing (yes he was shocking and we were all forced to sing along at gun point). Anwen Lewis rocked us with her funny yet frightening “found” poem. Hilary Walker came out of her corner and knocked the audience out for the full ten count with a particularly powerful personal poem about adoption. One of our new but very powerful recruits (and secret weapons) Abi strafed the crowd with her powerful, subtle words that hit straight to the heart. Matt could tell that the crowd was being overwhelmed by the sheer quality on offer so he called for a break in hostilities (and the Officers duly rushed for more ammunition from the bar).
Battle was rejoined when Scott Devon took centre stage with his comi-tragic “Dancing Boy” which totally stormed it – this boy just seems to get better and better. Scott read from his collection Modern World Musings and pointed out helpfully that it was to date, unpublished (wink wink). Then the crowd was hushed, the spotlight fell, the breath quickened and it was time for our brand new recruit to show us what she had. A performance virgin, Toni Marshall gave us a big surprise with a strong, well delivered piece. Yes she was a nervous first timer but showed a lot of promise and is certainly one to watch.
But we still had our Heavy Brigade to unleash; Paul Blackburn (they don’t come much heavier) kept us pinned to our crosses with his poems about having a policeman in his head and simultaneously being a psychopath, (powerful, if confusing stuff from the
Idiot Poet). Dave Morgan and Julian Jordan both gave it there all to win back more of no mans land. And the night was rounded off by Tony Walsh who was the A-bomb of the night (I trust this is a good thing, ed), leaving us all knowing that we wouldn’t see better than that tonight. The result, another easy victory for the growing word army.
An excellent night that is open to anyone, the word army will return, see you there soon.