Open Mic without the Mic
Friday 16 May 2008
Better Read Books, Ellon [Venue 13]
The microphone was dispensed with at the Wordfringe Open Mic Event at the Better
Read bookshop in Ellon. No need for amplification in this intimate and friendly
venue where poets and musicians were always only a few paces away from all who came
to listen and enjoy. Local poets have used the bookshop for occasional poetry evenings
over the past four years but now it is becoming known and visited by the Dead Good
Poets group who regularly meet at Aberdeen's Books and Beans
All seats were taken early, leaving latecomers standing for an evening of relaxed
and informal poetry, music and song.
Two accomplished members of the Ythan Fiddlers group, Kim Hay and Shona Jamieson,
opened both sessions with a selection of lively hornpipes and jigs and Michael Molden
closed with some poetry and a song giving the evening a real ceilidh feel.
Bernie Briggs MC'd with a light touch allowing poets from the city and shire to
deliver a varied potpourri of poems sad, sensual, sentimental, saucy and serious
— with some silliness provided by a reading from Roald Dahl's Dirty Beasts.
Colin Stewart Jones read from his latest collection of haiku, the Portal Creative
Writers dipped into their recently published AB24: Poems from a Postcode
— the youngest contributor Nadia Denoon very ably read her poem to a discerning
but appreciative audience. Local flavour was added by a good sprinkling of Doric
— altogether a great night out.
Haworth Hodgkinson — Festival Director for Wordfringe — commented on
the attendance as being ‘one of the best for a small venue during the festival’.
Bill Kelly
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