The People’s Mass

I went to The People’s Mass last night, an event organised by The Oubliette at Limelight Church – squatted and made into a venue, complete with automatic-sensor-flush toilets and a fully stocked bar.  A nice stage space was also set up with a curtain backdrop and plenty of seating.  I was greeted with a warm welcome from fellow performer Alain English.  His energy made me realise how knackered I was but it was really nice to see him.  I then got my travel money and drinks tokens from Catherine Brogan, the host of the evening.

It started pretty soon after I arrived and I was first on.  There were a decent amount of people there, and whilst loads more people arrived throughout the night I was glad I read earlier in the night because some people appeared to be there for the wrong reasons and just would not SHUT UP!  I hate that, it’s so rude, Catherine even had to tell people to be quiet so she could perform a poem.  It was also really annoying that people smoked in there.  Anyway, I felt a bit nervous and under-prepared when I started, and didn’t feel like it was going too well, probably because I was doing a poem I’ve done about once before a year ago.  I got more into my set and think it ended up being okay overall as both Catherine and Alain described it as ‘beautiful’ and a lady in the toilets told me I should sing more… oh yes, I sang again – I did Fix It for the second time.  This lady I later realised was another performer, Helen Walford, who was one of many great singers of the evening.  Although there were technical difficulties for some of the time, it was a really good night.

Amongst the poets, I remember enjoying Captain of the Rant, but E.Amato made me want to buy her book, and I would have but I forgot and had to leave early so dashed off in the middle of Poeticat who I always enjoy, yet am jealous of Cat’s musicians.  I was glad they did the Moomin Song before I left though because I love it loads!

So, I’ve been catching up with writing my diary which took over two hours as I had a month’s worth of news and I don’t think I even got into everything.  I’m going to be posting quite a few blog posts in the next couple of days… or at least I intend to… everything always seems to take longer than planned.  I hope to write a few I won’t post up until later so it’s not overloaded, but we’ll see.  I also have left my camera lead… was about to say “at home” but I meant to say “in Norwich”, but anyway, it means I won’t be doing video blogs for a while and won’t upload my poetry readings for a few weeks.  I’m really wanting to move out as soon as possible after the summer and really hope to get on this UEA London Creative Entrepreneurship MA course!  I was talking to Alain about how all the poetry shizzle seems to go on in London and it got me thinking… I’d really like to live in Norwich.  I can always stay with my parents and friends when I’m in London and it’s not that far away.  It just seems a shame, as much as I love London, that everything has to centre around it.  Especially as UEA is meant to have an amazing reputation for writers… the city itself doesn’t seem to offer as much and I want to change that.

Anyway, I’m beginning to digress! 

Adios

xxx