Word Soup Five

Hello Word Soup Fans!

It has been too long, (which is entirely my own fault), since the last Word Soup review, so thank the Preston weather that it's here. Excitingly, courtesy of our newest PWN friend, Norman Hadley, it's also got some new fangled video content which means if you missed out on the night, you can catch up right here.

The night got underway with music from Harvey Lord, who, after a brief fight with the mic stand which I promised not to mention here, impressed by sounding like a mix of Nirvana and the Beatles.

The theme for the night was revolve which was observed as loosely as ever. First by poet Michael Molyneaux, who I'm not sure mentioned the theme at all but did read several poems from his new collection "Selected Poems." These ranged from haiku to the epic "Ode to Lorca"

Peter Wild, writer, editor and reviewer had written something especially for us at Word Soup. Only he didn't like it. So instead he read "The Summerplace," a moving story about a man who experiences the best moment of his life with his wife by a tree in the summertime and the slow decline of everything that comes afterwards.

After a break and some more music which I shall post right here

It was time for the open mic slots, this month's readers were:

Mark Charlesworth: who read poetry from his collection which is coming out soon

The ever lovely Simon Baker: who wore a tie (effort with attire is always rewarded in this column) and performed stand up comedy (very loosely) around the revolve theme

Chris Billington: member of Preston Poets who read poetry based around the blues rhythm about death and jam

Paul Sockett: Actor and poet who read "I Love You" and "Happy Anniversary." My personal favourite of the night and one to watch for at future events.

After some 12 bar blues from Harvey Lord, it was the turn of Sian Cummins, Manchester creative writing graduate and author of Fluids. She read a tense extract between the main protagonist and another character Mavis over a dead cat. Have a look below

And finally, genuine Prestonian Andy Duggan read two extracts from his novel Scars Beneath the Skin which has been reviewed by PWN right here. He read part set immediately after 9/11 but came into his own when capturing the narrator's childhood in East Berlin.

Word Soup 6 is on the 20th October and will be, I am assured, a spooky special. Keep checking the blog and twitter for more details.

PS. I love to get comments like a small child likes to get post so keep in touch! Leave me your thoughts on Word Soup 5 or just say hi