More Than Words Festival - Day 2
Poetry, comedy, music and art are celebrated during the second day of the More Than Words Festival.
The Riff Raff Choir perform music at the More Than Words Festival
The University of Bristol's Merchant Venturers building hosted a whole day of workshops inspired by the festival's theme of the "art of listening" yesterday, including poetry workshops, a guide to writing radio comedy and a masterclass with Jonathan Dimbleby.
Many art and audio projects were showcased, including the innovative sound installation "field song" by Harriet Bowman, Ben Socrates and Charles Gershom, where participants walk through a magnetised framework of hanging metal sculptures to play music.
Harriet Bowman demonstrates her innovative Field Song project
On Twitter we asked festival goers toÌýtell us aboutÌýtheir experiences. @noseyparkyn went to the comedy workshops and commented "". @MaryWL1 added "" and @ZenaMarks commented "".
Ben Baddoo performs in the Merchant Venturers Building
Throughout the day live music was performed in the atrium of the Merchant Venturers building. Performers included the Riff Raff choir, a capella group Original Sing, Ghanaian percussionist Ben Badoo, Ö÷²¥´óÐã Introducing's Alice Jemima and Irish band Perfect Cure, who provided some very fitting music for St Patrick's Day.
Clive Anderson and the Loose Ends panel
The Ö÷²¥´óÐã recordings continued in venues across Bristol. On Saturday morning the children's section of Bristol Central Library, usually home to readings of nursery rhymes, was taken over by A Load of Nonsense with Michael Rosen. St George's hosted Loose Ends, where Clive Anderson was joined by former Blur member Alex James and Aardman's Peter Lord. Lynn Truss also spoke to Clive about her play "Tidal Talks", which is being recorded on Sunday at the close of the festival. There was also a performance from music legends the Stranglers.
Matt Harvey performs at the Wondermentalist Cabaret
In the evening an episode of Matt Harvey's Wondermentalist Cabaret entertained the audience at St George's with comedy-infused poetry accompanied by music from one-man-house-band Jerri Hart. The audience were invited to crowd-source a poem during the interval, with everyone writing one line of poetry each.
Matt Harvey and one-man-band Jerri Hart
Other shows recorded include a new adaptation of the ever-popular Sherlock Holmes mystery Hound of the Baskervilles and Owen Shears' poem Pink Mist, a dramatic poem set in Bristol about a soldier struggling to return home.
Today (Sunday 18th March) the workshops continue and there are more Ö÷²¥´óÐã recordings including Broadcasting House, With Great Pleasure with Cerys Matthews and the drama Tidal Talks.
To celebrate Radio 4's More Than Words Festival, I will be blogging from Bristol during the weekend. Previous blogs can be found on the Radio 4 website. I work as a producer on the Radio 4 and 4 Extra Interactive team - CM
- Visit the More Than Words website to see a full schedule of shows and workshops
- View the More Than Words page and follow Radio 4 on
- Visit the Loose Ends and Wondermentalist Cabaret programme pages
Comment number 1.
At 19th Mar 2012, Caitriona wrote:The More than Words festival was great. Nice to see the Ö÷²¥´óÐã making good on the promise of more things happening outside London.We managed to go to Loose Ends, enjoyed the banter and music from the Stranglers (brilliant) and Cry Baby(new to me but excellent). Then to Broadcasting House, which was enough to waken us from our post St Patrick's day bleariness. Back again to hear Cerys Mathews host With Great Pleasure. She was a revelation and the format of poetry and music was so uplifting.
Do it again soon.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)