Extraordinary Authors

Last night spent in raucous literary abandon at The League of Extraordinary Poets, http://leagueofextraordinarypoets.tumblr.com/ a night of leftfield poetry, music and comedy from Tim Clare, Byron Vincent and Ben Mellor, supported on the Ukelele by Uke Attack!! Uke Attack!!. My sides are still sore from laughing at poems and songs touching on subjects as diverse as love, fighting, vicks vaporub, lethal £1 cocktails, Macdonalds and the X-Factor. These funny, furious and often downright filthy poets know what they want to say and aren’t afraid of offending Simon Cowell in the process. Coming from the mainstream side of books and publishing it’s refreshing to see people doing things their own way and sticking two fingers up at The Man. Tim’s book, We Can’t all be Astronauts, charts his chaotic journey into the echelons of publishing in search of a book deal, and is a reassuring and funny read for anyone who’s ever wondered whether it’s worth it. It is! Ben Mellor’s collective Pen-ultimate will be touring London in November with A Night on the Tiles http://www.thepublicreviews.com/a-night-on-the-tiles-contact-theatre-manchester/  a poetic foray into the murky world of Gangster Scrabble. I will definitely be checking this out. And if you need cheering up then I can recommend no better remedy than three men cheerfully strumming the Pet Shop Boys on their ukeleles. Not so much West End Girls as West End … what? http://www.myspace.com/ukeattackukeattack