The first gig on the tour has to be a bit special and I made it local, but not as comfortably local as last time. I had met all but two of the performers and knew three well enough to count them as friends (they might disagree). A complacent place to be. I had a performer pull out with about 18 hours’ notice and managed to replace her three hours before the gig. The closest I’ve been to running a ten poets ten minutes with nine performers yet. I got to Halifax four hours early and the general response to this was, you go here too early, why did you do that? I meant to explore a bit, but mainly found pubs and takeaways. I had a slow pint in The Railway Tavern thanks to William Thirnk-Gaskell for that direction and they had my favourite pint Copper Dragon’s Golden Pippin J. Simon Zonenblick: I love the fact both Simon and Freda kicked off the tour superbly with fully space-themed sets (I set an optional prompt of SPACE). Simon is also the second person who has mentioned Vasco Popa to me in the last week. On my look into list now 🙂 Sun ‘I am tangled emotions into one. Soils vibrate with slugs alive with hunger.’ Love the fact his tree-house dens were Jedi Houses. – ‘grottoes holed out of the tangles’ https://sites.google.com/site/ryburnramblings/home Nasser Hussain: Nasser stood in at two hours’ notice and was amazing. In ‘Outside the Box’ I love the fact he is a teacher,  but ‘the student is still in me.. In ‘How to be brown now.’ The perfect creepiness of the line: ‘What if I could imitate your voice perfectly?’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmZgVtNzKvI https://burningeyebooks.wordpress.com/2014/09/18/new-title-out-now-boldface-by-nasser-hussain/ Geneviéve L Walsh: I always love ‘You sometimes fall off chairs’ poem, the fact ‘women who are walking contradictions are endearing.’ Ah!  and her ‘Lass Grenade’ poem – less of a woman and more of a lass grenade’. I’ve only met Mid once and her energy and her poetry are legendary for a reason. Midnight Shelley is due to be a guest at Chesterfield Quiet Compere on Friday 15^th May 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t-Of-yrRXc Gaia Holmes: Loved the orange raincoat ‘Loud and kistch as a Warhol tangerine.’ and the idea of going up to the wind-farm to scream. ‘We stopped trying to talk and raised our arms and screamed…….’ https://gaiaholmes.wordpress.com/   Drew Lawson: ‘When we were hipsters.’ Amuses me, mostly because I live in Chorlton  The idea of ‘making your feelings out of plasticine’ is so Chorlton! ‘Trying hard not to end up in Stretford, but ending up their anyway’ I love the mention of the local places, especially when they are more local to me than the audience  ‘ We laughed in the face of the Apocalypse and hid in blanket forts until it went away “kids that didn’t know when to quit/ who laughed in the face of the apocalypse/ (then hid under blanket forts until it went away)” www.andrewlawsonpoet.wordpress.com Steve Nash: Steve warned us there would be ‘no filthy songs’. He told us he wanted to have books with folded pages and to look like they’ve been read. ‘Show me a book with scars’. He told us a story about a soldier who spent 22yrs in the army and his one scar was from a penguin. ‘You thought twice before waking up a feral dog to see your reflection in its eyes’ http://starlighttocasualmoths.blogspot.co.uk/ John Darwin: In ‘Cuckoo’ there were some stirking lines: ‘They name bars after illness around here’ and ‘a town full of strangers who self-medicate’ is so bleak. He performed show-pleaser ‘I just like art galleries and getting pissed.’ Give it a listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLZxTgl6r8I Freda Mary Davis: I was amazed and impressed that both Freda and Simon did full Space-themed sets. Freda tackled inner space and the space between people, taking the optional space prompt in interesting directions. In her poem Alice I loved the line ‘swooping close to human’. No Link. Keith Hutson: Told us a poem about a ‘dame-shaped crater’ – ‘ the sea sneaks into everything, takes shape as dawn begins another morning’. Keith has recently won third place in The Yorkshire Prize of the Poetry Business Competition. Keith is in Kim Moore’s blog here: https://kimmoorepoet.wordpress.com/2015/02/15/sunday-poem-keith-hutson-2/ Char March: I was fascinated by the detail in Char March’s pieces, like the fact that Hitler used green ink (especially as I bought a green pen last week). After noticing purple and green in her set, I want to go back in my head and discover a full rainbow hidden in poems. She used the word purple 35 times in the poem rant below about colours a presiding officer can and cannot wear: http://thestaresnest.com/2015/03/09/char-march-the-presiding-officers-choice-of-clothing-narrows/ http://www.charmarch.co.uk/ Firm of Poets video here, featuring Genevieve L. Walsh and John Darwin: https://vimeo.com/114012604 Facebook page for them here: https://www.facebook.com/AFirmofPoets Most of the audience stayed for a beer or two and there was excellent post-gig banter. John Darwin is hosting Write Out Loud Sale on Tuesday 17th March and Steve Nash is a guest. Don’t miss this if you live nearby. I will be there with my ale goggles and non-compering hat on. Say Hi! The other special guest is Anna Percy. https://www.facebook.com/events/1406049146369735/ I stayed at Steve’s house and revelled in sharing the Prosecco and the post-gig buzz, rather than sipping the Prosecco alone, turning off Eastenders in a scruffy B+B and reading through the feedback forms until 1am. The Quiet Compere Tour is ‘Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England’