When I first started doing gigs with Chris, we mooted the idea of gearing up to doing a slam at some point. It never really happened, though.

When I first mentioned it to some of the poets who were performing with us, one of them said that it just wasn’t his style. When I asked him what he meant, he thought that Poetry Slams were all about doing ‘a capella rap.’ Then I played him some of your stuff and we hosted to an Elvis McGonagal gig, and suddenly he saw that poetry slam could be something totally different, if only all types of poets went to it.

Another poet who I suggested slams to wasn’t so sure. But, one day she was in Oxford and signed herself up for Hammer and Tongue, Steve Larkin’s poetry slam. Of course, she won it. Since then, her performance improved greatly and now she’s doing full on shows of her material.

So, for me a poetry slam is like an open mic night, but all the performers have really, really, really worked at the poems they’re going to perform [where as I'll use open mics to try out new material] because they know it will be judged, and it’s the compeitive nature of the slam that really makes some of the poems come alive.

Bryce