This event provided a fantastic demonstration by our comperes, Jefferama and Louise Fazackerly.
It was their debut night and they did a great job, both reading their own work as well.
Even though there were less than the usual numbers, there was a couple of "virgins" to Wigan who performed with assured confidence. Or so it seemed to the others.
There was laughter and a good number of general public watching too.
Later at the bar, there was a few stayed for drinks and chat.
All in all, a very friendly atmosphere.

We did us proud!

One point was made by almost everyone though.
Where were the write out loud organizers?
The general concensus was that at least one of them could have been there to support the event.

“All in all, a very friendly atmosphere”.

Well, I suppose so. If you compare that same atmosphere with that of the moon.
Maybe next year we could wear outrageous looking space suits and leap around in slow deliberate steps feigning zero gravity. I believe these novelty nights work well in places like, say, Oldham.
Wigan lacked a vital ingredient that would go some way to help celebrate National Poetry Day - poets. Ok, we had the bread and butter of a loquacious social night. We had the award winning talent of Loretta’s legs. We had the thirty yard curlers of DG’s convoluted imagery. Both sides of the Janet Ramsden poetic coin. The unfettered cheese of Gordon Zola. The soft silkiness of Melanie Rees. The arachnid formerly known as Mark. The unidentified female poet wearing a putrid coloured blouse. The enigma that is - John Togher. The beauty of Jefferama and the self depreciating wit of Louise Fazackerly. There may have been others hiding behind empty stout bottles but they shall remain nameless.
Overall, the night lacked its usual oomph - no matter how hard we tried to generate a spark of excitability on the Van-der graf of apathy we failed. You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear but to those who did attend, I’d like to say a big thank you for treating us to an absolutely fantastic night of original and inspirational poetry.
I’d like to…

What was a topic of conversation, albeit briefly, was the absence of a Write Out Loud ‘figurehead’. Mentioning no names, Paul and/orJulian would usually make the effort to venture behind enemy lines and show their support. Even if it’s sitting in the audience, their contribution is always felt and appreciated by the insecure die-hards of the Wigan poetry scene. I’m sure that there were reasons for their failure to attend. Indeed, there doesn’t even need to be a reason. We’re all grown adults and nobody is under any obligation to do anything - least of all attend a prominent evening in the poetry scene calendar on National Poetry Day.
To satisfy some members, perhaps we could invest in several inflatable effigies of Paul and Julian and place them in the appropriate venues across the North West - although I suspect that this may have already been done on previous occasions.
I think that some of the names that were being uttered last night were really quite unfair. Paul and Julian are busy, busy men. Julian has recently emigrated across the Pennines into Yorkshire and this alone will take a significant period of recovery. Paul has his own life.
Now come on. Let’s move on…



...and before you start to throw wordy mud balls. I actually thought the poetry was good and that the loose lace of poetic strings were beautifully tied together by Louise and Jeff.

Darren would "like to ".. thank the poets for a fantastic night of "inspirational" poetry...

Well what else did one expect when some unknown being in the universe of poetic justice decided in their unfathomable logic to choose the topic of " WORK" for said day.
After all's said and done. There were a good number of last nights poets had been to work before performing and getting up early next day to go to work again. I'm sure most would agree, they write and attend these events to get away from work.

However, i do agree that Julian and Paul are busy men and they too are entitled to visit or not, any place they choose to. My comment merely stated that their absence was noticed.
To be fair, John Togher is the co-ordinator for Wigan, and he did attend and took the trouble to thank the poets and the comperes for their attendance too.

See? No wordy mud balls included. x

Dear All

From a joint compere's point of view, I think we had a damn good night!! I'm sure Louise would agree. Maybe it was a bit quieter than usual but as well as helping me make my debut as MC, also helped everyone get a good hearing.

Yeah it would have been nice to see P or J get there, but we had the rest of the hardcore and there was some fine stuff, and I also like to think we encouraged 2 new bods to make a debut which as we all know aint easy!!

Thanks Janet and Darren for your comments, I can't tell you how much i enjoyed it. In fact I was so looking forward to it I didn't know the national poetry day had a theme!!!

Oh well, I'm sure my witty co-compere the Lovely Louise will agree with me, from a debut point of view it was great, thanks to all who performed and watched making it so!

Yours (are you sure you've got the compliments the right way round Darren?) the Beautiful Jeffarama!! X

Hi everyone
thanks to Jeff Dawson and Louise for being fabulous compères.

I cant recall a great deal but the parts I can remember where fabuloso


I have instructed everyone to stop me drinking
it is beginning to destroy my work now so It must stop.

what a great night, sure it was dead but we closed ranks and made it special.

Paul im sure belives the excellent Mr Togher is big enough to take it on.

Just hope Wigan is not forgotten.
We took the mancs on and won.

Maybe, I was a bit harsh about the evening. However, at risk of dipping my curly toes into the warm waters of nostalgia, I remember the Wigan poetry nights when the Tudor was filled to the gills with poets and performers alike.
A small good crowd is not the same as a large good crowd…

Darren, the crowd is spread across loads of different nights now.

even if events don't fall on the same evening people save themselves for the event closest to them.

more poetry nights but not proportionally more poets.

Wigan needs some PR

where we left for dead that night then?

Hi All,

LDM, great to see you on thursday, as sexy as ever - weren't so bad yourself! Ha! Appreciate your support as always!

You have a good point there. I wasn't around when Darren talks about a packed Tudor House, and as you know I'm new to all this anyway. I must admit thought there is so much going on you can't go to everything. I have been really surprised at how much interest there is in poetry, I'm sure it doesn't mean interest is waning that there were a few less, and obviously there was some do at Oldham.

To be honest, there is that much going on, its hard to get chance to keep up with the other poets stuff on WOL and to write some bloody stuff in the first place!!

Look forward to my next effort and see you all soon Jeff

Sorry Julian and I weren't able to attend the Wigan event but we were running an open-mic event in Oldham's central library. I had hoped to drive to Wigan after the Oldham event but was kidnapped, taken to a public house and made to drink some filthy liquid that seemed to make me fall over a lot.

I don't know whether to be glad or concerned that folks missed us. Blimey, I didn't know we added so much to the atmosphere (allegedly).
As has been said, John is the co-ordinator for Wigan (not Paul, not me), and: he did attend and took the trouble to thank the poets and the comperes for their attendance too.
That is why John is there as coordinator: because we can't be all the time; and because of his local knowledge. Oldham was a paid gig (for Write Out Loud not us personally) so we were trying to earn money to keep the whole thing going.
And, yes, there is an issue about the 'market' becoming saturated with poetry events. I suspect that we are now competing with ourselves to some extent. Any thoughts, please send them in. We welcome (helpful) advice.
As for Wigan, we need a bigger constituency or it will atrophy. It needs regular steady pushing of the night to more people.
The Howcroft operates with over 100 people who turn up irregularly, and a core who are more regular. How do we get Wigan to that core?
Is the venue a problem? Wigan is the only place where we have had several newcomers arriving and never coming back. It is intimidating for newbies and some more experinced folks as well.
Can Wigan support the open mic scene.
Darren is right. Last year we had bumper numbers in July and August, incredibly. But we have not repeated that this year.
John would love to hear your ideas on how to boost the numbers and who to target, where can we put up posters or recruit more poets?
Nice to be missed. If there had been a full house I doubt we would have been. what can you do to help us get more poetic posteriors on pub seats?
Thank you for your forebearance.

The Wigan event was decent. Around 16 poets and around 30 in the room by the end of the night.

We had a few new readers who had seen the article in the paper, who enjoyed it and said they would come back; whether they will or not we'll see.

Horace the Spider, a newcomer last month at the Tudor came back and read his excellent King Rat poem which was very funny.

Plus I have to add how great the debut compère's were; well done Louise & Jeff.

The issue with the Tudor:
I don't think there is one. It has a great stage, great lighting; good atmosphere, great beer; it also has a different feel to any other of the nights in the North West.

Unfortunately, a lot of people in Wigan will say (and they've said this to myself before) "Poetry?! This is Wigan. Stop being gay and eat a pie!" and this tends to be a lot of people's opinion. I'm open to ideas on how to improve the night and if anyone wishes to help get in touch.

I'll add my litte take on this discussion-

Jeff was a great, natural first-time compere and I would love to see him as compere again. I didn't enjoy doing it myself- only the money and the hope that I'll get better with time will tempt me up there again...

These are my suggestions for encouraging new people to come:

Target the colleges- the up-and-comingers doing 'A' levels and performance subjects. Have a little talk at the beginning of the academic year when they're finding out what enrichment they can do. Ask can you pop into a session. John is approachable for that age group- it's people that draw people in- not flyers and adverts.

Target the big workplaces like the council, the NHS, bodies of potentially creative professionals like our local teachers. Newsletters and talks.

Target the people that go to Wigan Community Adult Theatre, the am dram societies, the adult education sessions, the yoga people- these are the people that want to get out of the house in the evening and find something to do.

I also think we need to talk to the new poets and their friends to encourage them to come back. I always bring an odd bod or two to support me and generally no-one talks to them. I struggle getting them to come back sometimes because they think it's boring. Much as I love poetry I think two halves is too much. 4 quarters would work better for my attention span- bar break and stretch my legs :-)

ps. i think the tudor is a cracking venue- but i've not been elsewhere eg bolton, manchester etc.

and if you need help with promotion you need only ask :-)

Thanks to everyone who helps organise the Tudor.
Some very important points made on this thread
important and very workable.

Louise, super ideas there, thanks

To be fair I have been to many poetry nights that have suddenly just died for no apparent reason (poetry party was hit and miss, urbis) even the Howcroft has had very quiet nights.

Its not Wigan, its the scene.

Louise has made the most important points in targeting those venues (unis etc)

EVERYTHING is promotion promotion promotion (preparation preparation preparation)

I think ive missed only one night since it started, national poetry day was the least populated WOL Wigan event, no idea why.

Hmmmm I need to think about this.

Time to get serious about this night.

I want it to work I like it.



lets build it up.

What Louise?
Do you mean to say WOL pay people to compere?
Why!! I would have thought more poets or even some of the ones who attend these events just to watch and listen might be interested in compering occasionally.
I've spoken to a few people who do music gigs, who might do it for the experience of being in front of an audience, and performing. Even a compere, to be good, needs to have some idea beforehand, who is likely to be performing, so that they can prepare their delivery in a more professional manner, or to ad-lib with a little humour which doesn't offend and adds to the event over-all.
Sorry if i'm waffling on a bit.

Why not post a notice, asking those poets who've been to the Tudor once or twice,why they haven't been since?
It's one way to find out how changes or what improvements need to be made to make this 'great' night, a fantastic night. Once more.

Loved the national poetry day event at the Tudor! Been a few times thru this past year and have read two or three times but not on the past occasion.

Normally my sister,Christine comes with me,and we both think these nights are groovy and necessary to lift the spirits of us Wigan folks!

In particular I enjoyed the Lauretta De Mar B and Q piece!!

Looking forward to coming back and possibly sharing my rants about the drudgery of working as a manager in a small mini-market!!

See you all soon,

Jonboy Walton