Our next Chill Pill (27th Sep at The Albany) is set to be the biggest show yet! Here are the names gracing our stage.
Soweto Kinch
Soweto Kinch is a British jazz alto saxophonist and rapper. He has won numerous accolades including the Rising Star Award at the 2002 BBC Jazz Awards and the prestigious White Saxophone prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 2003 and 2007 he won the MOBO prize for Best Jazz Act. In the same year his debut album Conversations With The Unseen was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, but Kinch lost to grime MC Dizzee Rascal. The year 2004 saw Kinch win two BBC Radio Jazz Awards: Best Instrumentalist and Best Band, along with the Peter Whittingham Award for Jazz Innovation.
Sabrina Mahfouz
Sabrina Mahfouz is a poet, playwright, performer and person. Her debut solo show Dry Icewas nominated for The Stage Award for Best Solo Performance at Edinburgh 2011 and called ‘in a different league…astonishing’ by The Times. Her new play One Hour Only won the Old Vic New Voices Edinburgh Award and will be presented by Made From Scratch at Underbelly in Edinburgh 2012.
Jive Poetic
Host of one of the biggest spoken word venues in the world, (The Nuyorican Poets Cafe' in New York), Jive Poetic is featuring at Chill Pill! Jive Poetic is a poet, teacher and
DJ, he has toured Australia, Canada & Europe. His CD Perpedenctive and poetry music videos and have received rave
reviews and he is published and translated in several anthologies.
Chill Pill poets Simon Mole, Raymond Antrobus (Feat: Alex Patten) & Mista Gee will also be performing on the night.
There are also 6 Open Mic slots on a first come first served basis.
If you haven't seen this video you MUST! Mystro's 2011 wrap up.
In short, Mystro is a UK Hip-Hop Legend. He blew up in 1999 alongside Skinnyman,Rodney P & Blak Twang, and during the 'Golden Era' of UK Hip-Hop that followed he had a quality album released on Low Life Records. He has been on the grind, working and touring around the world since. I remember my early teens was all about DJ Skully on Kiss 100, it was my UK Hip-Hop fix and Mystro was a regular on his playlist. On March 29th he's one of our featured acts at Chill Pill at The Albany Theatre... Alongside the amazing...
Rachel Rose Reid is an award winning storyteller and as you can see in the video, she is widely acknowledge as a tour de force on the Spoken Word/Theatre & Storytelling World. She will be performing with the amazing REC Choir.
Hopefully you'll agree we're breaking new ground with the mix of styles on the bill - we're excited to see how it all comes together!
There are also six Open Mic slots available, arrive early to bag yours...
I've done a few shows with Anthony Anaxagorou this year including this rather brilliant sell out show featured in the video above.
Anthony will be featuring with his band at the next Chill Pill at Soho Theatre on Oct 3rd alongside myself, Sabrina Mahfouz (her one woman show Dry Ice got rave reviews at this years Edinburgh Fringe Festival) . Also more from the Chill Pill Poets (Mista Gee, Simon Mole, Deanna Rodger) and poems from respected emerging London poets Sonority Turner and Anna Le (organiser of the brilliant poetry show 'Sage & Time).
Since the London Riots I've heard some of the most outrageous, outright racism mainly from (educated and unappreciative) white middle class people. This weekend I did a gig at a Festival in Bath and got into a conversation with a lovely (white and higher educated) lady who works for a bank who had this to say.
"What on earth do these ethnics have to complain about living in this country? Its not like South Africa is it? no! we have a fair and functioning society with free health care and welfare state. It's disgraceful and they should have bought in the army" etc
I asked her to expand on the South Africa comment and she said
"White people know about oppression, my friend is a white South African... I mean sure she has black maids and the rest of it but she's having a hard time as a white person out there"
I've not seen South Africa for myself but I'm going out there to work in a township for two months in November. I'll comment on this when I've seen it for myself but I think I know enough to be sure this is a shallow and insensitive comment.
Now, lots of people I know personally have shocked me with some of their twitter comments and facebook updates and I couldn't help but be a little conscious over my own social standing as a young, Jamaican and British male born and raised in Hackney (in a single parent home).
I used to do voluntary work in Hackney Youth Clubs and I've grown up attending quite a few around London. The comment made by a Politician about "the kinds of kids that got involved with the riots aren't the kind to want to go to university or play ping pong at a youth club" is a horrific statement to make.
I've seen kids who despite carrying knives and smoking weed on the (youth club) premises, responded positively to the youth club environment. It kept them off the streets and many of them were pretty good at ping pong. (ha!)
Anyway, after seeing Starkey's comments which has angered and embarrassed as many white people as it has black. I couldn't help but once again be made aware of the horrific prejudice that has surfaced from the skins of our society in this past week.
This video from Nabil Abdul Rashid is on the money!
Here's a poem by Chill Pill's Mista Gee which featured on BBC Radio the other day.
The LEANO - Folk/Hip-Hop Band Based in London. After appearing at Chill Pill's Scream Bar shows last summer and completely blowing EVERYONE away we HAD to welcome them back to our space.
ADAM Kammerling - Brighton Spoken Word Slam Champ.
Equally at home in the furnace of a Rap Battle as he is on a poetry stage, Adam’s verbal arsenal and range is very impressive. Whether exploring serious ethical issues or illustrating the frustrations of working in a cake shop when you’re hungry, Adam writes with a lyrical rhythm, rhyme and humour that complements his naturally relaxed delivery and amply showcases his poet's eye for the important absurdities and minutiae of urban life.
Jessie Disco Biscuit - 18 year old Cambridge based Slam Poet.
Jessie Disco Biscuit is a name you want to google as soon as you hear it. She's been rocking poetry nights in Cambridge and word got out to us that she's "the next Kate Tempest". Making her official London debut at Chill Pill - We bring her to you LIVE!
Chill Pill created by Mista Gee (BBC Radio 4 - Bespoken Word, Rhyme & Reason host) Raymond Antrobus, Deanna Rodger, Simon Mole and Kim-Leng Hills.
A night of Word based entertainment. Due to Chill Pill's major success after a run at Scream Bar, Chill Pill is relaunching at Soho Theatre on March 30th.
Tim Clare is a writer, stand-up poet and musician. His autobiographical book about having one last shot at your dreams, We Can’t All Be Astronauts, won Best Biography/Memoir at the East Anglian Book Awards 2009. It is out now from Ebury Press. He has written for the Guardian, the Times and the Independent, and has appeared on BBC2, Radio 1, 2, 4 and 6. In 2005 he presented the Channel 4 series ‘How To Get A Book Deal’.
Greeds (with Key notes) G.R.E.Ed.S (Generating Rhymes to Engage the EnlighteneD Soul) A performer, a poet, an entertainer with a love for music. Poetry provides him with a therapeutic space that has no boundaries where he can create his own pace, and tell his story his way. His journey is taking a new twist... Follow him as he shares this with you.
Harry Baker is a phenomenal 18 year old performance poet and winner of the online European Slam. Harry says he's on a whirlwind adventure since winning the poetry slam at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2010.
Vanessa Kisuule is a performance poet and was a regular at Chill Pill, consistently burning the place down. Don't worry Soho have fire exits.
Keith Jarret is a national and international Slam Champion. A Chill Pill favourite. Camden based poet, teacher and short story writer.
Zayna Daze did this video for me a few months ago... total fluke really.. I'd written the poem and she just so happened to be around and she said "I got my camera.. lets go to Victoria Park and film it" and that we did.
Also, here's an amazing video by my lovely friend Kim-Leng Hills featuring Polarbear and David J.
The first series of the Q&A comes to a close… Mighty thanks to Paula Varjack, Jon Sands, Paradox, Hollie Mcnish, Bohdan Piasecki, Deanna Rodger, Rob Auton and Simon Mole for your thoughtful and honest answers… I salute you!
Meanwhile... myself, Mista Gee, Deanna Rodger, Kim Leng Hills and Craig Tomas have been working hard developing our weekly Spoken Word Poetry and Music night ‘Chill Pill’ at the top of East London’s Brick Lane.
It’s been a smash hit. The first three weeks we had a room of an average 25-30 people a week…
we’re now cramming them in at an average of 50-65 heads a week after running for two and a half months…
Spoken Word Poetry is on the rise and it’s as cutting edge as ever!
Here's some shots of some of the poets we've had down the last couple months...
In my first ever performance in a Slam Poetry contest, I was shouty, monotone and over-animated but I somehow reached the ‘Farrago UK Slam final’ head to head with the energetic, loose canon ball that is Deanna Rodger.
Deanna has this charm she carries to the stage, her nerves hold her face in the widest but shyest of smiles. You don’t quite expect to witness the breakage of a storm... but you do... and I take no shame in losing that final to such a wild force of nature.
She has this way with stretching out a multi-syllabic metaphor and delivering four lines in one breath while steering you through the heavy winds of emotion contained in the voice of her poems.
She’s a natural and unconsciously pulls off some of the finest crafted Spoken Word poetry London has to offer.
Q. Yo Dee! Remember when we met? How the hell did you end up at the Farrago Slam that night?
Dean Atta who was my sort of mentor at the time told me to go down and do it, so I did!
Q. I was so amazed when you said you don’t read much poetry and you couldn’t name many poets – where on earth does your fire come from?
I could name a poet I just didn’t have an interest in it! I have always been a bookworm and still read an awful lot, but I didn’t read poetry unless I was in a classroom. To be honest poetry found me, I never thought of myself as a poet and I certainly wasn't searching for it. I think I have always had something to say but was never really able to speak it with sense. Poetry was a safe way to do that.
Q. Got a favorite poet yet?
Ah I'm ready for this question!! I got given a book of the entire collection of Langston Hughes and I am enjoying it, I even memorized a quote! I try not to have favorites. I don't think I've seen enough (defiantly have not read enough) to put a name in paper. Though there is a sonnet by Shakespeare I really like.
Q. I know you are uncertain about whether you can have financial stability and an active career in Spoken Word – would you believe me if I said in ten years time poetry is going to make us RICH!?
Q. You have got into events organizing; you did the Lyric Lounge with Dean Atta, which was a big night! How’s that movement going?
It's grown and left home! We are focusing on a new night called 'come rhyme with me' which launches on the 30th July and features some of the hottest fiercest talent in the scene. Excitingly Bothyself and Dean (Atta) are associate producers of a festival in association with Richmond MENCAP called Play at the Waterfront which will be on the 7th August. I've also linked up with you and Mista Gee to organize a more accessible weekly evening 'Chill Pill' which is a beautiful thing! I'm trying to try everything. I'm young, I'm still learning. Luckily I have got some very good supportive and inspiring people around me!
Q. Where do you see yourself in 4 years?
Lord knows his plan for me; I can't be trusted with it just yet! I can only hope to be more everything than what I am now.
Q. Spoken Word has taken you all over the nation and to parts of Europe – Germany, France etc how has travelling influenced your performance and writing?
(smiles!) I think this question is better suited for a conversation! In short though, travelling has shown me that there is no limit to what you can write and perform! The slammers in Germany are very performy! And it definitely makes their performance universal. In France I was lucky to see a world of talent and styles and I would say that although I'm still writing from me, I feel like I am a richer writer able to draw from different societies. Visiting different lands also helps me to put my own life into perspective and reflect. Q. If you have kids would you like them to follow your footsteps as a Spoken Word artist– if that is what you pursue?
I will have kids! And obviously I would love for them to be writers and to be creative but that could be in anything they love. I don't want to put ceilings over my kids. Boundaries yes, but not ceilings.
Q. Finally, you’re sick, and the London Spoken Word circuit needs you – you know that right?
Ahh that's nice! I don't know about need me. I think that's a bit too much pressure, I think I am good at what I do and I love what I do, I just want to do my bit, encourage other young talented writers, have fun, make friends, create experience, make money and a name then bounce and make space for the younger’s!
I’m setting up a night of Spoken Word and music with Mista Gee and Deanna Rodger. A few weeks ago Gee asked me to be part of a pilot for a TV show called ‘Power Of The Pen’ with Tony Benn, Alexi Sayle, Ross Sutherland and a rapper with a smile called The Leano. It was a blast! The film crew were great and I can’t wait to see the show aired.
Anyway, I got to know Gee a bit better and I think we really clicked, a couple weeks later he tells me he’s got some ideas. We met up at Rich Mix and right there we schemed a night of Spoken Word and music, I decided to add a face to it and thought of the superstar Deanna Rodger, we both performed for the first time on the same night back in 2007 (pictured), we were slamming and both went through to the final (she won) but we clicked and became friends.
We haven’t got a name for the night yet, but I’ve bought in Craig Tomas as a resident documenter and (fellow PiP member) Kim Leng Hills as resident acoustic artist... SOLID TEAM!
got some new Spoken Word recordings up too - www.myspace.com/raymondantrobus In other exciting news I've been booked to perform at The London Literature Festival, Keat's Festival and Secret Garden Party (with Poe Jazzi)
