Megan Taylor and Nicola Monaghan. Photo James Walker.
On 3rd October, LeftLion hosted the first ever Canning Circus Festival which basically entailed taking over eight pubs in this area of Nottingham and putting on over seventy bands, live graffiti, a thriller tribute band and various other funky stuff. As always, Joe Public didn’t have to pay a penny and we made nothing out of it other than a few close heart attacks organising and finalising details. As an independent magazine that has never received funding of any kind, we live and die by advertising. We are now five years old and the featured pubs and bars at the CCF advertised in our October issue which should keep us breathing for another year or so. And they were right to, five out of the eight made all time record takings on the night and numerous members of the public avoided a scrap down the Goose Fair thanks to our cultural offerings.
I organised our first ever spoken word event in the gallery above the Hand and Heart. Naturally I was very excited as it meant broadening our wings that little bit further and offering another avenue for writers to promote their work. Most pleasing of all, it gave members of our WriteLion creative writing forum the opportunity to appear alongside some well established names. It did surprise me that a few of our creative writing forum left early. Most up-and-coming writers are desperate for such opportunities, if not just to get to meet other writers and have a chat. Having said that, I guess they were relieved to get it over and done with. That’s certainly a feeling many of the organisers felt at various points though out the night.
The LeftLion spoken word event went well and drew in a good and varied crowd. Although Nicola would be the natural top billing at any event, I felt it was unfair to put anyone after Al Needham who is simply hilarious – a sexualised version of Nick Hornby if you will. Having read his blog and heard his escapades in the porn industry, nobody could follow him. He was also the natural end to our event, leaving the public upbeat. I’m sure a few females would have felt a little uncomfortable with his subject matter, but I think most found his honesty refreshing.
Now I’ve had one day off it’s time to plan for the Hockley Hustle on the 25th October. I don’t know; you wait all your life for one LeftLion spoken word event and then two come along at once…
Our line-up was…
4.00 – 4.50 WriteLion forum
4.50 – 5.40 Megan Taylor (How we were Lost) and Nicola Monaghan (The Killing Jar, Starfishing)
5.40 – 6.50 Nottingham Writers’ Studio poetry featuring Mike Wilson; Marion Bell; Wayne Burrows
Aly Stoneman and Milk.
6.50 – 8.00 Sexy Saturday with Rebecca Dakin and Al Needham