As the nights draw in, we have a lovely selection of events to entice you out for an evening.
Grant Sharkey launches his 21st (we think! album of his 20 year project to make 40 albums – 2 per year. We host a special open mic to remember local poet and regular at our Moving Voices event, JPF Goodman. Stuart Blakeledge returns with some musical improv comedy and we welcome Watching the Buzzards, Sine Star Project and Lucy Kitchen for an evening of music – rounding up the month with the return of Spitdust and Moving Voices featuring special guest Bryony No.
Saturday 5 November
Grant Sharkey ‘The Right Kind of Love’ Album Launch
Political commentary sung one-man-style with double bass.
The challenge was to write love songs who Grant Sharkey finds morally sickening – in that idea ‘The Right Kind of Love’ was born. Beautiful music, horrible lyrics.
Suella, Boris, Nadine, Nigel, Liz, Jacob all get the treatment as do a few more. There will be big laughs, but don’t eat too much before the show.
Supper comes in the form of an abridged snippet of Jeu Jeu La Foile’s Testy Manifesto – comedy, poetry, theatre, activism and puppets!
Thurs 9 November, 7.30pm
Remembering JPF Goodman – an open mic fundraiser
Local poets gathering to remember one of their own in the best way – by sharing poems.
Join us for an open mic celebration of poetry including that of the late JPF Goodman – and raise some funds for the Stroke Association at the same time. An opportunity to remember and praise in verse those close to you, those who have been close to you, and those who may yet become close to you! A eulogy to life as much as a remembrance of JPF and others who have gone. Hosted by John Bruce, who will read some of JPF’s work, and run as an open mic – all contributors welcome!
Friday 10 November, 7.30pm
Improv Musical Comedy with Stuart Blakeledge
Shouty, ridiculous and off-the-cuff musical comedy.
Join comedian, broadcaster, lead singer of The Sweetchunks Band and full-time shouty man, STUART BLAKELEDGE as he creates a live album on the fly with ideas from the audience and stories from his successful run of festival shows including Beautiful Days & travels around the UK, using only his disturbed mind and tiny guitar. (Or is it the other way around? – Bik)
Joined by special musical guest Brian Stone, expect a quick witted, unique and hilarious evening of music, improvisation, surrealism and stories from the cardigan-wearing eccentric troubadour* where the audience are part of the show, adding to the madness. Each show is raucously different and not too be missed.
*We have asked that he wears more than his cardigan this time.
Sat 11 November, 7.30pm
Watching the Buzzards + Sine Star Project + Lucy Kitchen
Alt-folk, Americana, avant-garde rock from local musicians.
Watching the Buzzards (acoustic set)
Watching the Buzzards are a Hampshire based band featuring the music and lyrics of Songwriter Mike Davies (Spitdust/Alaskan Pipeline). Reminiscent of classic English folk and Americana. Sophisticated compositions and bleak lyrics reflect a growing disaffection with the modern world.
Lucy Kitchen
In a musical world that seems ever more dictated by fad and fashion, driven by bluster and bombast, concerned with big statements and immediate responses, it is reassuring to know that there are still artists unaffected by such concerns.
Lucy Kitchen is everything that the usual modern approach is not. Her songs are deft and delicate, built on clean-limbed and gentle lines and embellished with only the absolutely essential sonic details. Beats are minimal, textures subtly woven and the music feels nothing more than gossamer and smoke-like layers skilfully interlaced to maintain a musical weightlessness.
Sine Star Project
Sometimes something comes along that jumps out of the speakers and hits you right between the ears. Sine Star Project sound like they’ve been beamed down from another planet, which is the sort of statement that can get you into trouble if you haven’t got the songs to back it up.
Peter J Croissant – multi-instrumentalist, multi-talented creative savant, is one of the few true originals of modern music, although tellingly, neither he nor anyone else quite knows it.
Sine Star Project is the sound of avant-garde rock music played with a free jazz attitude and a razor sharp set of songs with soaring melodies and breathtakingly beautiful words.
Sat 18 November 7.30pm
Spitdust
Spitdust create cinematic soundscapes from a patchwork of modern experimental rock and original dream-like folk from the fields and hedgerows of the British countryside.
The resulting futuristic sound takes you on a journey quite unlike anything you’ve experienced before. They often draw upon the retro-futurist nostalgia of 1960s and 1970s counterculture and science fiction. Their 2019 album Mirror People was a reimagining of traditional English music in a post-industrial age. In their latest album The Silent Star, the world has come to an end, its echoes drifting through outer space.
Friday 24 November, 7pm
Moving Voices poetry & song open mic with special guest Bryony No
Our longest running event, poetry and song open mic.
Moving Voices is Southampton’s longest running open mic, for poetry, song, storytelling and all things spoken word. Featuring monthly special guests and loyal regulars alongside total newcomers, this evening never fails to inspire and uplift with voices that will move you to tears and laughter.
Hosted by RKP with special guest Bryony No
About our special guest:
Bryony No is a self-diagnosed Wizard: hewn from the bleak limestone cliffs and rusted iron of Portland, brought up on a diet of peregrines, ravens and slow-worms before being tempered in the long, loud, lonely darkness of Weymouth’s musical nightlife. He slept in the slow, suburban solitude of Bournemouth before finally finding a voice, a home, and a people amongst the diverse, unapologetic, powerful poets of Southampton.