Calling all Poets.

Calling all Poets.

If we were a travelling band of poets, last nights poetry collective would fit in the back of the obligatory white, rusty and battered, Ford Transit van.

7 in the back
2 in the front.
Gus Johnson would be doing the driving
John Togher hopefully booking the gigs in.......

Yes There were a total of 9(10?) poets. (setlist please)
Why low figures?

Not sure, pub trade is down, nights are cold, Wigan is poetically isolated it seems. Only the hardy remain, with the exception of the injection of a few new and most welcome poetry talents, WIGAN TUDOR WOL last night was a whos who of the Wigan scene. If the credit cruch bomb dropped on the town that night, we would have lost the last remnants of the Lancashire hero's.

However,
with Darren Thomas opening with his 'you said, I said' the scene was set for the confident and board trodden ensemble to begin their show. A last minute instalment of Gus Johnson as compere introduced a whole new concept in 'off the peg' designer compering. Sporting a Bright Red 'Next Gentleman' Scarf, Gus was baptised into the Tudors Ringmastery with its spilling audio and loud sounds that have come to characterise the room. Yes, I'm talking about the sounds from the bar. Where was the Iron curtain, the thick hotch potch of duvet covers and quilts that usually hang between the doorway, thus Gus drowning those bar sounds? Missing MIA, no problem I hear our poets say, just adjust our volume levels, and whooosh we were away, and not with the fairies this time. Seems we were all sober.

Infact, not having the curtain in this case was a benefit, i'm 50/50 on the whole curtain affair, i'm not so sure we actually need, better to take the challenge and bring the whole pub into the fold, lets not separate this thing out, lets just turn it up to 11.

Or make ten louder.

Poetry, poets, yes once done with Darren, we dispatched him to the bar to collect his thoughts, for him to reflect.He likes to reflect. He likes to absorb.
He likes the tudor
He is part of our team.

The room was actually filling up. Darren s deep and dick dasterly voice had awoken some slumbering poetic audience newbies, the place begin to fill, Gus introduced the poets and away we went..............

We didn't have much, but what we did have was a confident little bunch of poets. Quite a tight packed little crew actually. Gus was a welcome change as compère and his personality and 'out thereness' made him an instant favourite . I did notice Julian have a word, something to do with the mic, all part of learning how to grab that room by the small parts and whip it into shape. The key with the Tudor is volume, clarity and engagement. You have to reach out, right to the back of the room, if you get those audience members on board, the rest just cascade into place. I think by a third of the way in, this was achieved and equilibrium was in place.
The Tudor is a challenge, its a little leftfield, the scenes 'safety zoners' have called it 'the bear pit'. I like that. I like the poets whom I performed with last night. I like our team. I like what we have.

I like the Tudor.
but it needs constant energy input, possibly more promotion.
I'm very aware of the WOL ethos on newbies, and I think the Tudor needs an injection, its relies on regulars, whom whilst keeping it diverse, cant offer the thrill of seeing new talent. That said all the poets I saw last night are never short on confidence, new material and performance technique, and are always entertaining. I particularly Liked the Mental Health poem and a superb pun poem about Paper Recyling.


So, thanks John and Gus for running this little show, and oh I forgot to say, we were limited to just one set. Just one half, the night was split into 2, shared with some excellent music talent. Could this be the necessary credit crunch condensation package we need in times of quiet streets and locked in home, wide screen, cheap beer, asda armchair entertainment
?.

Should a quiet WOL become just an hour?
Musicians, comedians and poets sharing one Bill?
A mix?

should it be reworked?
Re Jigged
Im going to make some suggestions, soon.

OR is Wigan WOL to remain pure poetry? , in which case PROMOTION PROMOTION PROMOTION

I suspect the latter, so now we need to establish why attendance levels are down. Its not like we are short on talent.

anyway, luckily the atmosphere was up there, enough to lift, to make it social, no tumbleweed......plenty of signs of life.
and they have heating.

we will get there, we will keep the thing alive.
come on everyone this has got something, lets not let it slip away.


Great stuff, well done all poets, special thanks to Gus and Julien

btw

I had no idea at the time of me reading, that this Nights set was one half only, hence my stumbling finale, one poem only? an encore, you kiddin?, ooops unprepared (preperation, poems on the bar, thank you Howard for bringing it over, yikes ooops where my finished poems ahhh.. bugger maybe next time)

That's my excuse.

over to you poets

Hi Pete - great contribution by the way…


I’ve just confirmed with the OED the correct spelling for the word ‘disillusioned’. So, here goes.

Last night’s poetry event at The Tudor mustered as many poets as I can comfortably fit down my trousers. Probably, at a push, at the same time. We flopped into double figures. In fact, at the start of the event, there were eight of us. Eight poets!
So, on reflection, it’s only fair to ask - ‘why was this the case?’
I’ve no idea - but I can speculate.
Credit Crunch? Mist and fog? Maybe it’s something to do with the people who attend regularly that dissuades others from attending at Wigan? I honestly have little, or no idea.Who really cares?

Last night John and me blew bubbles of disillusion and balloons of disappointment at the overall attendance numbers. We accept that ‘poetry’ is not the be all and end all of a Thursday night in people’s busy lives - but it still feels like a swift kick in the rhyming couplets when attendance borders on, shall we say - embarrassing? Yeah, why not. I felt embarrassed.

I don’t know why, maybe it’s just my insecurities beating me over the buttocks with an cat o’ nine poets. Maybe I take it far too personally because I enjoy Wigan’s poetry events so much and hate to see them flop like dysfunctional erectile tissue.
It wasn’t all bad - it never is. We had ten poets (eventually) that gave as much as they possibly could in these crunchy, demanding times. Their audience was made up of their fellow poets and a few, but very loquacious, acoustic music fans. Pete has already mentioned what went on. The Tudor is notorious for being a demanding venue for performing poetry - not to mention reciting poetry, even into a microphone. There are distractions - but if you capture the crowd’s attention it can be a rewarding experience - at least that’s what I’m told - I’ve never done it myself…


At one point - after most poets had melted into the mist - I was troubled by a thought. The type of thought that orbits occasionally inside my head before it’s often dismissed with the pursing of thin lips and a slow but deliberate raising of a pair of over generous eyebrows. But last night, it dwelled a little too long in my conscience - and it sounded something like “why do I do this?” In fact, that’s exactly what it sounded like - but by the time I’d uttered this thought to John Togher it’d turned into “why do WE do this?” John stirred, his eyes like red boiled sweets, and with as much enthusiasm that dejection can muster, he twitched his shoulders towards the heavens. His face told me everything - but said nothing.

Why, indeed?


So I’m off on holiday, and travelling on the good ship HMS Disillusioned and on toward the island of Zaminashuns...

ohhh , first time i am on discussion and look i can select a happy sad or angry face :) if only life were so simple ,, i dont have much to say except where is this advertised , do you have posters in college ? tescos ? asda ? at the hospital ? bus station ? train station ? waterstones ? the coven ;)

and on the subject of the blocked off door , as an audience member i dont like the blocked off door , it has made me stay out more , and be more self concious about going in , and i prefer it when whatever is happening is piped around the building too . or at least here and there .

now hmm a face , nope there isnt one that suits so i will have this little fellow he looks like he needs to get out more

As I said yesterday evening in my post in Discussions>Chit Chat, I received a last minute phone call telling me that I was babysitting last night. I had even had my tea early so that I was ready to hop into the car and go to the Tudor. The Wigan night is my favourite night, and I love the challenging audience - I used to do stand up and used to love seeing a good act succeed and to see people who weren't putting the effort in die on their arses - that only happened to me once, and it quite amused me when it did. I love seeing both happen at a poetry night, and Wigan is the only place I know where it regularly does.

To keep the audience and poet numbers up, you probably need to send round a piece of paper for people to put their names and email addresses on so that you can advertise the next one to them. And if they're new and they come and perform and their rubbish, you have their email address and you can threaten them just in case their thinking of coming back - nothing gets rid of a general (non-poetry) audience like a bad poet.

I'm staggered. Who would ask YOU to babysit? Do the police know?

The attendance of poets was down on previous months. From the feedback forms I put out, which were filled in by non-poets, there was a general feeling that they'd enjoyed the night and would come again and they also left email addresses.

The room still had an audience made up of poets and non-poets, and this is what is good about the Tudor. It's not
just a room full of poets closed off from the public, it's open and inviting to anyone.
Ok, a poet may get ignored on stage sometimes, but that's the challenge of the Tudor, the 'Bear Pit' as some have called it. Most poets would like a 'safe place' for their words, but at the Tudor it does feel that you are taking your verse to the public.


As far as promotion:
- I can't always get an article in the paper (though it is listed in 'listings'). The articles I get in normally bring in around 10 extra people on average, a few who are poets.
- Places like Tesco and Asda will not put up the posters.
- The Library has in the past not allowed the posters/flyers to be put up/out, saying they don't want to be promoting trade for a pub.
- I have placed flyers/posters in the college in the past, but most college kids are under 18 and for the amount of flyering/postering, the return in numbers is not great.

To be honest, I've lost a bit of enthusiasm too, in this event. It maybe has something to do with not writing any poetry for over 6 months now.

Life gets in the way for many people; perhaps that's why, not just this event, but most events go in peaks and troughs. It was only a couple of months ago that the Tudor event was jam packed and many were raving about what a smashing night it had been.

Why do we do it? I can think of about 3 or 4 really good nights from last year, out of however many I attended.

Enough for now.

hoping to experience the bright lights of Wigan next month

i have a bear outfit too : )

john , my comments werent meant to be a criticism , my husband too runs an open mic music event and they are very unpredictable in spite of using the same publicity from one month to the next , sometimes its full , sometimes very low on numbers . and i should say , i have had some crackin' nights in the tudor.

I went to the Tudor in November and thoroughly enjoyed it, some fantastic poets, all were enjoyable and worthwhile, a good atmosphere and an entertaining compere (DG). It was a good turnout. Would be a crying shame to lose it, come on people make an effort next time.

I agree with the comments made here! We surely need to think of new ways to promote and keep the tudor night going! my sister and I have been attending for a year in feb. and love the venue and the event.

We are always plugging it to friends and hopefully in time will see a return on our efforts.

We are still relative beginners but have picked up inspiration and courage to get on stage from people like John Togher,Pete Crompton,Dermot and the like.

Even when life has been admittedly shite,the tudor event shines like a,well,a kind of fading bulb through aeons of over-use,but the spark is still there!!

i feel dead guilty i missed it now!

I hate the Tudor - and love it in equal measure; like one of those relationships where you can't live with and you can't live without.
If you can crack the Tudor you can crack anywhere.
More people used to come; fact. Why don't they come now? Will they come again (like one of those relationships)?
Do we care? Yes.
The Tudor is the only place where we get an audience - young people - so that's good innit?
But we really could do with getting half a dozen more people each month.
How?
Is it the pub? Are there people in Wigan who would love to read poetry to each other but would not want to go into the Tudor?
Would another Wigan venue make a difference? If so, where and why?
would it help if we got more help from local people as a kind of team or committee: Write Out Loud Wigan plc (poetry lovers' cabal)?
Our experience tells us that you need about 40 - 80 people who come several times a year to make it a viable monthly effort.
And you need a mixed constituency of gender/age/class/background.
I think John has done a great job in pluggin away to keep it going and trying new formats.
We would be delighted to get your suggestions.
julian@writeoutloud.net

Speaking as just one who started attending the Tudor event regularly, the problem i have with it is that it rarely starts at the stated time.
The last few occasions, the few people who do sit in the area of the stage were continually asking, "when are we starting?"

When i went to John, his reply was, "we're waiting of everyone sitting down."

Seems to me that everyone was waiting for everyone else to gather in the area where the poetry is read.
Because of the layout of the Tudor, people tend to gather around the bar or outside in the smoking areas to chat.
It needs the compere to get up and start the proceedings, then everyone starts to filter in.

Relaxed atmosphere is all very well, but it's a bit too relaxed at getting going.
I realize John works hard and puts a lot of time and effort into the night and the Arty types show too but i know i'm not the only one who feels it's lacking in control of the proceedings. Sorry if this upsets but Julian did ask for ideas and opinions.

Janet. ( ex but possibly future poetry reader at the Tudor.) :-)

It's the Wigan night this Thursday and there id a Valentines theme with it being so close to the 14th, so bring out your verses of love, hate, lust, sex, unrequited passion and impotence.

Stevie Turner compères.