I’ll be doing an extract from Part I of ‘Time Is Running Out! (restart your system now)’ at Say Sum Thin III on Saturday 31 October at Nottingham Playhouse. This is the first time I’ve performed anything from this piece since originally putting it on in Sheffield in October 2009. We got an amazing reception that night, with some wonderful comments afterwards, my favourite of which was, “I could go on listening to it all night”. At twenty minutes, I was slightly concerned that it might be a bit long, but clearly no need to worry.
This’ll just be a short extract at the Playhouse, with no musical support from Ella Luk this time. However, we hope to get together to put on the full performance again soon, either in the UK or possibly in Berlin.
Say Sum Thin III also features former UK slam champion Kayo Chingonyi and a group piece by Mouthy Poets which, judging by a snippet I caught at Speech Therapy the other day, looks very promising indeed.
Here’s the info (below) about ‘Time Is Running Out!’ first time round. I’ve pinched it off Google Calendar, which seems to be getting a bit buggy at the moment. An extract from the rehearsal (naturally, I forgot to press ‘record’ when it came to the actual performance!) is available to listen to on the Spoken Word Antics Sound Archive.
Time Is Running Out! A performance of words and music
Text and Music, The Riverside Cafe Bar, Sheffield, 27 Oct 2009, 8–10pm
Time Is Running Out! is a new collaboration for Sheffield’s Off the Shelf Festival of Writing and Reading, mixing poetry by Robin Vaughan-Williams with the deep rhythms and ambient textures of the Ella Luk music project.
Time Is Running Out! follows two people on the run from the all-devouring trappings of modern life. As they are propelled through a world of home improvements, burgeoning inboxes, and work-related stress, their trajectories accelerate until one day their paths cross, and suddenly time expands.
Now based in Iceland, Robin spent 9 years in Sheffield where he ran Spoken Word Antics for five years, developed the Antics radio show, and organised a series of site-specific sound and poetry performances. More recently he started exploring collaborative poetry improvisation, and first worked with Ella Luk on the poetry-collage performances ‘Verbiage’ (2004) and ‘Demolition’ (2005).
Ella Luk is a solo project of Reykjavik based Andraya, the singer and bassist of ambient noisecore group L.Minygwal. For this performance she will be joined by Berlin instrumentalist Thomas (Arc Twin, L.Minygwal). Their music creates surreal stories and bizarre landscapes using lo-fi samples, voices, and unusual instrumentation.
Also appearing on the same night will be Linda Lee Welch performing Beyond Childhood with her band, Jackalope Tales. Beyond Childhood is a multi-media performance that was commissioned by Signposts for Off the Shelf in 2001. Linda Lee Welch has written a chronicle comprised of poetry, script and songs, which looks at growing up and the childhood memories we take with us into an adult world. She will read and sing, accompanied by Jackalope Tales.
Linda Lee Welch is a prize-winning poet, novelist and musician and a lecturer in Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University. As well as the novels ‘The Leader of the Swans’ (2003) and ‘The Artist of Eikando’ (2005), published by Virago, she has contributed to a number of poetry and short story collections and has performed regularly at Off the Shelf and other spoken word events in Sheffield.
This will be the second of two text and music nights; the first will take place a week earlier on 20 October, and will feature Bat Detector from Elizabeth Barrett and Robin Ireland, and a collaboration between Shelley Roche-Jacques and The Only Michael.
Organised by Signposts.
Ella Luk: www.myspace.com/ellaluk
Off the Shelf: www.offtheshelf.org.uk
Riverside Cafe Bar: www.riversidesheffield.co.uk
Signposts: www.signpostsonline.org
