POETRY FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T LIKE POETRY.
Building on the success of taking the Bloomsbury Theatre by storm with monthly sold-out shows, Bang Said The Gun are set to perform two of their biggest poetry extravaganzas to date at London’s Udderbelly Festival on the 9th July with special guests SALENA GODDEN (“the doyenne of the spoken word scene” Ian McMillan, BBC Radio 3) and LUKE WRIGHT (“performance poetry’s key revivalist” Metro), which will be followed by a show the Leicester Square Theatre on the 5th October (line-up to be announced).
Starting as an antidote to dreary poetry and even drearier poetry nights, co-founders DAN COCKRILL and MARTIN GALTON established the spoken word club around 17 years ago in a pub in Soho before it transferred to a pub in Bermondsey. The rich mix of new talent performing alongside some of the most established names in poetry, trademark makeshift maracas and anarchic spirit quickly gained a cult following and was soon being played to packed audiences on a weekly basis. Since January 2016, the raw, fast-moving and highly-energised night has continued its rise, playing monthly to sell out audiences at the Bloomsbury Theatre.
Previous poets hosted at Bang Said The Gun include: ROGER MCGOUGH CBE (BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please presenter), KATE TEMPEST (Ted Hughes award winner), HOLLIE MCNISH (over 3 ½ million hits on YouTube), IAN MCMILLAN (BBC Radio 3’s Verb and Adverb host) and SIR ANDREW MOTION (ex Poet Laureate), as well as poet/musicians such as former Pulp frontman JARVIS COCKER and hip-hop duo RIZZLE KICKS.
Bang Said The Gun has had 15 films broadcast on Channel 4 and an anthology, Mud Wrestling With Words, published with Burning Eye Books. The show has also performed to audiences in the North-West and across the Atlantic with Bang Said The Gun: Manchester and Bang Said The Gun: New York.
Additional Bang members include ROB AUTON (shortlisted for Arts Foundation Spoken Word Award and former Glastonbury poet in residence) and LAURIE BOLGER (shortlisted for Young Poet Laureate for London and former Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park poet in residence).
COCKRILL says: “we have dragged poetry kicking and screaming into the 21st Century”
GALTON says: “the night is a rollercoaster of emotion…It’s loud and raucous, as political as it’s trivial as serious as its funny.”
What has been said about BSTG:
A raucous combination of poetry and comedy The Telegraph
Grabs poetry by its shoulders and shakes it until dirty, funny words fall out Londonist
Bang Said The Gun is regularly described as the UK’s premiere spoken word night Newsweek
Like all the best things in life, BSTG is done with belief and passion Phill Jupitus
There has never been a show quite like this before. It’s time is now Murray Lachlan Young
LISTINGS INFORMATION:
Venue: Udderbelly at Southbank Centre / Leicester Square Theatre
Date: 9th July / 5th October
Time: 7.45pm / 8pm
Twitter & website: @bangsaidthegun and www.bangsaidthegun.com
For more information and press tickets, please contact: Victoria Wedderburn: victoriaw@avalonuk.com / 0207 598 7222
