DIY poets plus Joey Chickenskin, Chi Tea and cans of Red Stripe. In no particular order.

Jim Willis - Out of the traps first again. Sharp, thoughtful, reflective with a clever turn of phrase and an orthodox approach. Good kick off.

Dwane Reads - old punk bloke with a diamond personality, a wry smile, an ultra-surreal world view of the inside of your average Joes head. Nice reflections of the RD Lang concept that ‘only the insane are sane in an insane world’.

A Sole - Wonderfully off kilter. Best summed up by his poem Muhammad Dali, ‘sting like a butterfly. Float like a boot. Rumble art Rumble’. The mans a genius, a fruit cake but a genius. 

Clare Steward - Back with her hormones readjusted and surfing the wave of anger.  Clever and personal, up close and she will survive. A serious poet with a twinkle in her eye.

Frank McMahon - Eclectic subject matter of well structured verse. Was stopped in tracks mid way by fellow DIY poet heckling. However was able to continue race and crossed the finish line with much applause. The quiet ones are often the most dangerous.

Miggy Angel - The young Blake takes the stage and is wearing his, cockney boy turned out alright, creative heart on his sleeve. Good set of contrasting imagery, probably inner city Byron for the street wise. Optimism within reality, flowers in the cracks.

John Humphreys - Another cockney doing verse about life and culture, music and some art critic referring to Billy Childish - use of swastikas in his heart as fun. This was much to John’s disgust and he joined in with Billy - railing like Don Quixote at the windmills of Tate Modern.  Fair play to the chap.

Eagle Spits- Should not be allowed out in public. Shouting, stomping, raging about injustice, nestle, etc. etc. etc. bloody etcetera. He started off with a short poem entitled ‘Ode to Pam Ayres’, it merely consisted of ‘I wish I had kicked in your teeth’, pathetic, it’s not big and it’s not clever and I won’t have it in my house.

Two young lasses did a short poem each next, Lytisha and Kate, welcome on board girls, you were good too.

Joey Chickenskin - One man, one saw, one guitar, one washboard tie (yep a washboard thing you wear round your neck). Funny as you like. Spontaneous, did a great song about hate, involving the names of three people which were shouted out by the audience, Thatcher, Cameron and somebody else. The political satire was cutting and highly amusing. His cover of ‘take the skinheads bowling’ was top notch. I’ve never seen anyone play a saw so well. Echoey and intense but the whole thing was permeated by hilarity. There seems to be a ton of high quality, very original live music in Nottingham at the moment. Mr. Chickenskin is up there with the best. It’s very DIY; very do what the hell you like. Punk was originally very much about doing your own thing but like all good things crap creeps in and taints it. So be original, do your thing, make some noise, basically in the words of class war “just do it”.

Overall another great night put together by DIY poets. A friendly bunch who welcomed me onboard a few months ago. It is an honour to be associated with them.

Review by Eagle Spits- (17 February 2013)