Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Reading at The Blue Velvet Bar - Overload Poetry Festival

I'm doing a pretty special reading tomorrow night at the Blue Velvet Bar, 60 Smith Street, Collingwood, as part of the Overload Poetry Festival. Haven't done a reading without the band in Melbourne for a while. I'm also debuting a brand new piece of writing that will be appearing in the next issue of Voiceworks, called 'You Voted Zebra, I Voted Cow.'
It's a fantastic lineup of other readers too and I can't describe them any better than the convenor of the event, Mr Geoff Lemon.
So, here's his personal breakdown on the whole event in his own words below.

Nanoarts.
7:30
Thursday 9th August.

The readers.

ðO

Transliterated as PiO for those who never did Year 10 trigonometry, this man is an absolute legend of the poetry world. His business card simply reads "World Famous Poet", and frankly, that's enough. My father used to watch ðO dominating poetry readings back in the early 70s, and we're still watching him today. ðO was writing in dialectical English two decades before Irvine Welsh was hailed as 'revolutionary' for Trainspotting. This is his only listed performance for the Overload Festival. Do not miss it.

Thomas, Jack of Hearts (aka Citizen Tom, aka Tom Keily) (NSW)
Citizen Tom is jetting down from Sydney on the day itself to perform under his new title. If Prince could do it, why not Tom? This gentleman is a prince, a jack, a knave of spoken word, and captained Housecat Havoc to back-to-back Australian Poetry Slam victories. Hispoems are richly lyrical, shot through with the rhythm, rhyme and flow of Australian hip-hop. A master of the fusion of these two great arts.

Emilie Zoey Baker

EZB is Melbourne's First Lady of Sass, a comedic tour de force, and last year's winner of the Nimbin Poetry Cup. Some of you would have seen her storming through the Melbourne Slam at Glitch last December, some would've seen at her at Babble under the guise of DJ I Was Young and I Needed the Money. Some wouldn't have seen her at all cos she's just too damn fast. Here's your chance. Check out some of her poems with music at myspace.com/emiliezoeybaker

Sean M. Whelan
Sean's poetry has been going gangbusters over the past year since his teaming up with rock band The Mime Set, including the rare privilege for a poet of going on tour. In fact, such has been the buzz that we haven't seen him reading solo for a long long time, and his regular gig Babble had to go into hibernation. Now we get to see the man solo, unadorned, in the raw essence of his manhood. Eww.

Meg Dunn
One of Melbourne's loveliest. Poet, artist, and winner of Best Spoken Word Performance at the 2002 Melbourne Fringe. Some would describe her as impish, some as sweet. If she didn't like it, she'd stab you in the kidney. But in such a charming way you'd love her nonetheless.

Preacherman Says (aka Phil Norton)

Part beat poet soulman, part blues troubadour, part film noir hero, Phil Norton mixes poetry with music, visuals and anything else he can find. He even featured on a couple of tracks on sonicanimation's last album. At Blue Velvet, Phil will don his new alter ego for the first time just for us. Who knows what to expect? I have no idea.

Helen Child (WA)
Jim Morrison said, the West is the best. We have one of their finest. Helen is a veteran performer, poet and comedian with a definite penchant for the wrong, the twisted and the macabre. For us...who knows? She might do poems about why pigeons are pretty. But I wouldn't count on it.
Plus the usual hosting and cameos from myself, and you may even catch a glimpse of Mr. Overload Director Steve Smart in the flesh.
With the long line-up, we'll be starting earlier, the sets will be shorter, and things will bang through at a dynamic pace. Entry by donation in the five dollar region.
Doors open at 7:30, drink specials from the word go, and we will kick off a bit after 8:00. PLEASE come by then, or you'll miss some of the awesomeness. And there's really nothing on that bill that you can afford to miss. I'm excited. You should be. Hope to see you all packed in (another reason to get in early, if you want a seat).
Much love to everyone,
Geoff Lemon

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