Our showcase spot this afternoon was Luke Wright and he blew the roof off the tent, funny and sincere in equal measure he peformed pieces with only the vowel ‘i’ and then with only ‘u’ in them leading to lots of chat about ‘Ruth’s mum’. He told us that ‘life is often brighten, life is more good than bad’ – something all of us need to remind ourselves daily at the moment! He ended with a gorgeous little hymnal to his ‘missus’, after ten years he’s still ‘moonstruck for [his] missus’!
Luke’s lovely set was followed by equally beautiful performances from the stellar Zohab Khan, Kevin P Gilday and Brenda Ray. Lush words to soak up on a sunny afternoon.
Then followed perhaps our hardest working poet this year – Scott Tyrrell, resident artist, sketcher and owl-poet creator. Scott has been at the side of the stage all day sketching away, and he delivered a beautiful set full of politics and humour and heart. He acted out his anti-slam character, Malcolm Odour – officially the worst poet in Britain! He is hilarious but also heartfelt, he talks about his wife’s disability ‘a true hero with a blue badge’. Scott has contributed so much to the stage this year and we’re very lucky to have him, he’s been ‘forever destroying the myth that men can’t multi-task’!
Lastly, we were blessed with a rammed tent for a wonderful, funny, musical, mirthful set from John Hegley. He gets the audience to cheer and woop and holler and feel good. They choose the page numbers to decide his setlist. He whacks out his ukulele and transforms the whole tent into the Luton bungalow he grew up in. Our flowers become his dad’s garden, the bunting his mum’s washing on the line , his parents themselves are the stage monitors nestling at the front. As we sing along in three part harmony ‘lalalala Luton bungalow’, we feel wonderful content and full of worth and full of words.
Thanks for another gorgeous day in our corner of this beautiful, unified, wonderstruck field – more from us tomorrow! xx