Write to Speak at Hull Truck - Wednesday 27th May 09 (2/2) By Mark Walmsley

(1/2), (2/2).

As mike left the stage, a pint of iced water heavier, Joe Hakim prowled on. I thought, 'this is a serious guy!' with his sultry entrance. A bit unnerving at first as he stalked around the floor just weighing up the crowd. In my mind, Joe's first poem was really deep, in total contrast to Mike's upbeat lively performance and I felt the mood of the auditorium turn flat and anticipating. Joe seemed to have this serious malevolent cloud above his head as he recited his moody, soul searching lyrics, it was only after the first ten minutes or so I realised that the 'mood cloud' was no more than a prop Joe was using to create an ambience for the nature of his work in the beginning, which in fairness was a lot deeper but no less enjoyable than Mike's.

If I had to create an analogy for Joe it would be Jack Dee's approach to his set when he walks out on stage all dark and moody, just waiting for the audience to break the ice, which it did, and Joe went on to entertain me with his well thought out work as he got further and further into his set.

I thought the encore, where the audience was invited to the bar to buy them a drink, ask them a question or 'glass them' quite thought inspiring as I imagined I would be worn out by Mike, depressed by Joe and arrested for kerb crawling with Mandi. In short, I was really inspired by what I heard from Anne Summers, Tyson and Jack Dee as importantly it gave me a yardstick to measure my own work by (it obviously pales into insignificance to what was on show) but it gave me goals and ideas to work towards and a renewed spark of enthusiasm.

Write to Speak was a real eye opener from my interpretation of what poetry and poems are and how they can be delivered, especially by these 3 talented performers and if I had to sum up the night in a few words, the only fitting cursory I can give to my first experience of performance poetry would be Rock 'n' Roll.

thisisUll.com Featured Writer Mark Walmsley
Click for Home Page	Click for Index Page

Reviews, Theatre - Wednesday 19th March 08 - The Bat Trilogy at Hull New Theatre By Steve Rudd Photos by Matt Rudd
	Back in black and ready to rock the venue from the rafters to its foundations, Steve Steinman vaulted into an epic rendition of Life is A Lemon without delay, the incredible power of his vocal delivery reaching the row furthest from the stage with ease. I should know: that's where I was sat, yet the sights and sounds even from back there were to be savoured. Having mimicked Meatloaf for almost twenty years now, Steve Steinman's Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Saturday 2nd February 08 - Steve Steinman's Bat Trilogy at The Futurist Theatre, Scarborough By Steve Rudd
	Pulling out all the stops to put on an electrifying show, Steve Steinman and his hard-rocking entourage pulled into Scarborough on what was a freezing cold night. Fortunately, fans of Steve and his Bat Trilogy tour showed up in their droves, crowding into The Futurist to witness one of the first shows of his new tour... and with some scandalously talented Read more...

Reviews, Out of Town - Wednesday 6th February 08 - Open Mic Night at The Locomotive Inn, York By Michelle Dee
	A bit of a thisisUll gang night out this one, with Cilla Uberwebfuhrer, Jane Fozzy Foster and Michelle the scribe Dee. Representing Ull tonight Joe just got signed Hakim and Mike, mad as a bicycle Watts. Our trip out to York began with a vicious nasal assault, as we got stuck behind a fertilizer tractor just before Market Weighton. In the back of the car it smelt as though a rat Read more...

Reviews, Cinema - VUE HD Digital Cinema, Princes Quay By Dave Fox
	I feel a bit of a naughty writing this, considering my friend is running the new cinema in St Steven's Square (sorry Sal) but I am so impressed with Vue, the new cinema on the top deck of the Princes Quay. I've just recently got into the High Definition at home with Blue Ray and HD TV so I was buzzing when I heard about a brand Read more...

Reviews, Events - Wednesday 19th December 07 - Off The Road at The Adelphi By Michelle Dee
	Jane Foster opened the show by taking a traditional Christmas poem and bringing it right up to date. So 'Twas The Night Before Christmas was set on a decrepit council estate with characters more attuned to Christmas spirits rather than the spirit of Christmas. Jane delivered the five minute piece with a cool ease and her references to local Read more...

Reviews, Books - Pleading Guilty by Paul Genney (Dedalus Books) Reviewed by Nick Quantrill
	On the face of it, Henry Wallace, barrister in Hull's Whitebait Chambers, has it all. A well paying job and a comfortable life, but when solicitor's runner, Pauline Dawson, enters his life, everything changes. Overcome with the pressures of a changing work place and his growing lust, Wallace starts to overheat. Feeling guilty and angry, his relationship with Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Saturday 13th October 07 - Vampires Rock at Hull New Theatre By Steve Rudd
	It's safe to say that Steve Steinman is one of the hardest-working singers and performers in the UK. No sooner did he finish his Bat Trilogy tour on the brink of summer, and he was getting back to grips with his other great show - Vampires Rock - in anticipation for the current Autumn tour that's sweeping up and down the country in style. Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Monday 15th October Disposable People A Croft Creative Production By Andrew Pearson and Thom Stridd At The Boatshed Hull Marina (show runs from 15th - 20th October) By Michelle Dee
	Monday evening, inside a cavernous boat shed on Hull marina, a tale of international importance and concern is unfolding. A terrible tale; a tale of modern day slavery, which the general public support, without a moment's thought, on a daily basis. That new leather bag you bought, those shoes, Read more...

Reviews - Thursday 20th September - Poetry And Music - ThisisUll At Babylon Bar, Cleethorpes By Michelle Dee
	Having missed so many of Joe Hakim's recent out of town dates (Harrogate, Camden, Southend) I was sure as hell not going to miss this one over the river in Cleethorpes. He was joined by Mike Watts who has recently been accompanying Joe on his excursions and flying the spoken word banner himself somewhat. Also supporting Joe on this rare Read more...

Reviews, Events - Wednesday 22nd August Off The Road Poetry Performance Music Adelphi Club
	Got in to this late due to being on the radio so first off apologies to all the acts I missed. I'm quite sure you were brilliant and zany in that order. To be honest I have it on good authority that performance poet Mike Watts who opened the show was indeed all that you can read more of his poems in the poetry section on this site. I also know having seen his zany act at Umber Gob Part 1, that Read more...

Reviews, Events - Sunday 19th August 07 - ThereplicagooseEgg support Chris Mayo at Durty Nellys
	Hull's brand new comedy sketch group ThereplicagooseEgg had just over a week to prepare for this, their first ever live show produced by Carnival 69 and they didn't disappoint a packed Durty Nellys. Even though not one of their 4 members had ever had any stand-up experience, their unique, clever, yet twisted approach to comedy carried them through, with a little help from Masked Dan. Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Lord Of The Rings The Musical By Andy Dykes
	Lord of the Rings the musical arrives on Drury Lane after a popular stint in Toronto. Riding on the coat tails of the Oscar winning trilogy of films and billed as a visual spectacular, the stage version is hotly anticipated by the London crowd. Tonight the Theatre Royal is packed with theatre-goers eager to see just how Tolkien's voluminous tale Read more...

Reviews, Books - Daniel Mayhew - Life and How to Live it (White Horse Publications) Reviewed By Nick Quantrill
	Writing successful novels about music or bands is a notoriously difficult thing to do, and something that rarely succeeds. Step forward Daniel Mayhew to prove the exception to the rule with his debut, which tells the tale of Serpico, the band formed by flatmates, Reilly and Jacob, and the adventure that ensues when Reilly takes a week off work sick, and binging Read more...

Reviews, Films - 300 By Lee Cassanell
	Due to the extreme cheapness of pirate DVDs it is often tempting to hand over a couple of sweaty coins to a council estate heavy at Walton Street market rather than pay six English pounds for a seat at your local cinema because that way you can smoke your lungs black, order a pizza, sit in your pants and not have to brave the uncomfortable chairs, Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler at Hull New Theatre By Becky Martin
	How The Vagina Monologues reflects wider anxieties and atrocities in modern society. Thank God for Eve Ensler! Finally a strong female figure with the tenacity to stand up for and work to protect women and young girls all over the world, initiated by her wonderfully comic and complex tales of women's experiences of their own sexuality Read more...

Reviews, Games - Mr Smoozles Goes Nutso Reviewed by Daniel Chaplin
	The game was very enjoyable and I think that the game was created for 6-12 year olds. The playability of the game was extremely good but on the other hand I did not understand on how to play the game because I could not find any instructions. The game is about an alien attack that brain washes one of Mr. Smoozles' friends and kidnaps another. Read more...

Reviews, Books - Mark Frankland The Long and Winding Road to Istanbul (Glenmill Books) Reviewed By Nick Quantrill
	It's 1977 and Liverpool FC are set to compete in their first European Cup final. For football crazy 13 year old Mickey McGuire it's the night of his life. Elder brother, Frank has different plans, as he starts working his way up the criminal career ladder alongside local hard-man and minor criminal, Eddie Tate. Volunteering his brother for a Tate job, Mickey is introduced to Eddie's sister Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - October 06 - The Northern Theatre Company - Thoroughly Modern Millie By Dirk Snatch
	It was a Monday and after a cruel weekend of amphetamine abuse and barely legal sex, all I wanted to do was to slip into a Night Nurse induced coma and dream of Monica Bellucci's backside. However my rat bastard agent informed me that unless I produced a theatre review within the next 24 hours, he was going to stop paying my liquor bills and feed me to the poor and so it was, Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Damned United By David Peace Reviewed By Nick Quantrill
	This latest work from Yorkshire born Peace is another slice of his distinctive style that combines fact with fiction to boil down the story to its true essence. Previously tackling the Yorkshire Ripper investigation in his Red Riding quartet, and the miners' strike in GB84, this time Peace turns his attention to Brian Clough's turbulent 44 day reign of Leeds United Read more...

Reviews, Books - Perfume - The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind Reviewed By Laura Kilvington
	Perfume - The Story of a Murderer was recommended to me by a friend who described it as, one of the books you just have to experience before you die. Now, after reading it for myself, I have to agree. Perfume is a bildungsroman (a novel of education), which tells the story of Grenouille who is born into the slums of Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Night Gardener By George Pelecanos Reviewed By Nick Quantrill (Available 10th August)
	The 14th novel from George Pelecanos, The Night Gardener sees him weave an ambitious story that aims to lift him up and beyond the conventions of the crime-fiction genre. Pelecanos has never flinched away from tackling difficult social issues, and his remit here is to take a broad look at how crime touches the lives of those outside of its direct consequences, Read more...

Reviews, Humber Mouth 2006 - Friday 30th June 2006 - Galloway: A Language Of Dissent? A Personal View By Pablo Luis González
	Having watched the rather impressive performance that George Galloway MP put at Hull Truck Theatre on Friday 30th of June 2006 as part of the Humber Mouth Literature Festival, where he spoke without notes or sitting down for nearly an hour, in spite of the rather fancy white leatherette chair provided for him on stage. I was enthralled not only for what he Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Northern Broadsides Company at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough - Wars of The Roses by Patrick Henry
	Battles depicted by semaphoric flag-wielding and huge rattling drums, vigorous balletics, sack-barrows deployed as steeds or track-turning tanks; speeches characterised by robust Northern or Midlands accents, and their inherent ironies and wiliness; intrigues concocted rapidly and sadistically, mirroring statecraft strategy related to our day now. Such are the best Read more...

Reviews, Humber Mouth 2006 - Saturday 1st July - Germaine Greer at Hull By Laura Kilvington
	As a enthusiastic follower of feminist literature, I attended the talk by Germaine Greer with the expectation of an intense, second wave feminism discussion like the, all societies on the verge of death are masculine (Greer:1984) type opinions which I associated with her. Instead, the rubric of Greer's discussion was Anne Hathaway, the older and greatly overlooked Read more...

Reviews, Humber Mouth 2006 - Friday 30th June - Galloway Trucking in Hull By Martin J Deane George Galloway Photographs by Ben Gurevitch
	George Galloway, MP for Tower Hamlets in East London played Spring Street Theatre, Hull on Friday. Despite introducing himself as having spent 6 hours in the back of a car suffering from food poisoning he delivered an entertaining, insightful and though-provoking show. Here is a flavour of it! It's not verbatim but from notes so any errors are my own! Read more...

Reviews, Humber Mouth 2006 - John Pilger at the Ferens By Martin J Deane
	Blair is the most right wing Prime Minister I have ever known. And that includes Thatcher! In a wide ranging talk on Tuesday night, John Pilger shared his experiences of nearly 40 years of investigative journalism giving a flavour of the man who, over 40 years, has made it an art. In his opening remarks, John Pilger said how he used to cover northern England for Read more...