OneTaste at The Bedford

OneTaste at The Bedford

13 March, 2009
by: Joshua28

There's a reason you probably haven't been to a OneTaste night before; it's in Balham. That's right – another spoken word/music event happening in those parts of London affectionately known as 'turn left past the middle of nowhere'. Luckily, once you do get to Balham station, The Bedford (where OneTaste is held) is only a hundred or so steps away.

The Globe Theatre at The Bedford is something like The Roundhouse's little sister, but with heaps more personality and much better acoustics. There's lots of chairs, a lot of them reserved, the food and drinks are cheap and the main stage is visible from everywhere, upstairs and down.

Tonight, there are five acts on, which rather rings that big 'Overkill!' bell, until the host/co-founder explains that each act performs two small sets in two halves, the line-up randomized in the second half. At least this is, if nothing else, an original way to avoid artist tedium.

Now the acts: poet Dockers MC – aka Laura Dockrill – is quirky, but not in a 'wow, that's odd, I must avoid this madwoman,' way. Her delivery is unique, her stories are contemporary, with sometimes bizarre yet true insights into modern life. That's all you can ask for from a poet.

The other poet on the bill, Ross Sutherland, reminds me those poetry teachers I had in uni, except he's much cooler. One of his poems – about a night out – uses words containing only the vowel 'o'. A kind of 'Oulipo' poem, it's a lot more interesting than it reads.

Park Bench Poet is not a poet. It's a three piece acoustic/spoken word band. Imagine (insert your favourite singer songwriter here) doing an album with Mike Skinner on vocals, warts and all. They're great sounding, though the lyrics do sometimes err on the 'airy' side.

David Goo, plus seven strong band is, for want of a better pair of words, fricking awesome: a gospel-funk-gypsy-ska mix topped with surreal, brilliant lyrics. They've got a lot of kick. Genuine danceable kick, mind: very rare.

And then there's Bridget Amofah, who has apparently just come in from a long tour with Candi Staton, and it shows, as a) she and band are drop-dead professional, and b) she seems a little weary on stage. She has an amazing voice, and gives a competent performance, but it's not quite as lively as the others.

This is only a small blemish though, because otherwise OneTaste is definitely one of the best spoken word/music fusion nights in London. And thankfully, they're now doing more shows closer to central London, like at the Jazz Café in Camden on Friday 13th March. Yay.

Click here for all London live music.
Click here for all London poetry events.
Click here for things to do in Balham.

Joshua28