About ‘Utter!’

About ‘Utter!’ - Spoken word events, MisGuided tours, writing group and more…

Spoken word with a good sense of humour, comedy with a poetic sensibility

‘Utter!’ grew out of a community writing group started in Wood Green, North London, in 2002 - an offshoot of Word for Word Crouch End. One year later, we put on our first successful live shows above the Lordship pub featuring writing group members alongside more established spoken word acts like Abe Gibson, Steve Tasane and Rosemary Harris, and music and comic poetry acts like Ritchie Scurvey. The night was co-hosted by group Co-ordinator Richard Tyrone Jones and Lee Nelson from Luton.

We soon moved down the road to the Salisbury Pub and gained Arts council funding for its first season of nights. The open mic slots grew into the Paid Gig contest (previously ‘Ajar Mic’), where the audience decides which of four acts they would like to see return to do a full, paid slot, thus nurturing new talent. Bringing all your mates to vote for you is positively encouraged, but there are always surprises! Acts who performed for us at the Salisbury, in the back room which we shared with a kitchen, included Iain Sinclair, Zena Edwards, James Kettle and Stewart Home. The joint winners of the first ‘Utter!’ Paid Gig Grand Final were Sejal Chad, Niall Spooner-Harvey and Alison Brumfitt.

We started doing themed nights for our second tranche of Arts Council funded events in 2008 - ‘Utter!’ Youth, ‘Utter!’ Disability(?), ‘Utter! Gingers, etc, which proved a big success. We also made the move to the more central Green Note cafe in Camden while putting on events in Brixton, slams at the Hackney Empire and the Arcola Theatre Dalston, featuring the likes of Simon Munnery, and Clare Pollard. The winner of the Paid Gig Final 2008 was the very talented Mr George Chopping.

Also in 2008 Richard Tyrone Jones started the ‘Utter!’ MisGuided tours in Archway and Crouch End. In 2009 these expanded, with funding from the Arts council, to cover Stoke Newington, Hackney and Brixton. A mixture of cultural and literary history, live poetry and tall tales, these have seen Ernesto the nake dpoet strip off in a pub, poetry in playgrounds and outside Tescos, to their Security’s chagrin…more are planned for 2010 if funding is available.

In 2009 we rammed the Green Note for a ‘SylviaPlathdeatheve’ special, ‘Utter!’ Chopping, hosted by George Chopping and featuring John Hegley, ‘Utter!’ Baldies and our Edinburgh preview… which featured none of the acts in the Edinburgh show.

Edinburgh has been our biggest project to date. We were part of the PBH Free Fringe at Fingers Piano Bar from Sat the 8th - Sat 29th, with a new show daily, at 5.30pm. Please see our ‘Edinburgh’ page for our report and fantastic line-ups!

In September 2009, back in London, we bade a fond farewell to the Green Note and started events upstairs on most third Thursdays at the Cross Kings, 126 York Way, King’s Cross, a 200-capacity venue. ‘Utter!’ Evolution featured Robin Ince and Wimbledon poet-in-residence Niall O’Sullivan and the 2009 ‘Ajar Mic’ final in November saw ROB AUTON beat 8 other fantastic poets to win the £100 prize money - he will program his own ‘Utter!’ in 2010.

We also be extending the Paid Gig contest to comprise most of our events at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, where floor-spots can win a slot in the final. This started with the successful ‘Utter!’ Cats, continued with ‘Utter!’ weirdness, Utter! Prime Numbers and ‘Utter!’ film featuring Simon Barraclough, Nick Helm and HotDoctors. These should continue on Thursdays in 2010.

Our aim is to provide thought-provoking and entertaining spoken word events and writing group which encourage new talent and a sense of community. Richard Tyrone Jones usually hosts events, with help from talented friends like David Floyd, Sarah Verrinder, James McKay, Niall Spooner-Harvey, Tim Wells and James McKay. For more information on upcoming events, see ‘London Events”. To book us, see ‘Book our talent’. We have some big plans for 2010, so watch this space…