We’re thrilled to announce another string of UK tour dates for Toria Garbutt and Dr John Cooper Clarke. One of the best-loved and most iconic spoken word artists in the UK, Dr JCC has been winning audiences’ hearts and minds since he burst onto the punk scene in the mid-late ’70s.
Late last year, he published ‘The Luckiest Man Alive’ with Picador, which was his first poetry collection in decades. These tour dates feature content from the new book plus some of his old classics.
Toria has been regularly supporting The Bard of Salford since April 2017, and is rapidly establishing herself on the UK’s flourishing spoken word scene as a result. Copies of her début album ‘Hot Plastic Moon‘ will be on sale at the dates, as well as her début collection ‘The Universe and Me’.
Luke Wright ‘Twenty’ is released on 1 March | Click here to pre-order
Luke Wright is one of the highly renowned artists on the UK’s spoken word scene, and on 15 January 2019, it marked twenty years to the day since he first performed his poetry on stage. Since then, he’s gone on to become a multi-award-winning poet and theatre maker and has toured the UK extensively as well as gigging around the globe.
“Wright is a clever playwright and a charismatic performer … ‘Frankie Vah’ is all the richer for its political and poetical layers … Wright succeeds in finding new and beautiful ways of expressing the everyday.” The Guardian
Following the release of his ‘After Engine Trouble‘ pamphlet on Rough Trade Books, Luke is currently touring his new show ‘Luke Wright – Poet Laureate’ to high acclaim. His previous shows ‘Frankie Vah’ and ‘What I Learned From Johnny Bevan’ chartered new territory for spoken word-based theatre shows, and he continually raises the bar across a range of mediums.
Nymphs & Thugs are delighted to be releasing this 2LP gatefold vinyl album, which features some of his best work over that twenty-year period as well as some brand-new unreleased work which captures Luke at the very top of his game.
“I’ve always wanted to release a vinyl of my stuff. A pink vinyl with a huge picture of my face on it. And now I have. It’s a double album and I’ve called it ‘Twenty’ as 2019 marks the twentieth anniversary of my first gig. I’m really delighted to have the album out with Nymphs & Thugs – Matt Abbott is a tireless promoter of spoken word and he’s done wonders with his label. I loved settling down in my office and putting my friend Salena Godden‘s record on last year – if people out there can enjoy mine as much as I enjoyed hers then all is good in the world.” Luke Wright
Copies of the vinyl are available to pre-order here, as well as being on sale at Luke’s shows, gigs and festival appearances and at N&T events. The digital album will be available directly from N&T, as well as through all major digital providers including Google Play and Apple Music.
“When Luke expressed an interest in releasing something on N&T, it was an absolute no-brainer. I’ve always been a big fan of his work – from his poetry sets to his theatre shows and books – and it’s great to introduce some to our catalogue. Having released Salena Godden’s ‘LIVEwire‘ in 2017, I’m honoured to now have two of the UK’s leading poets on our label.” Matt Abbott
We’d like to say a colossal thank you to all of the poets who performed at our ‘LIVEwire’ events in 2018. We staged a UN Women #HeForShe event in London in March, we delivered the ‘LIVEwire Salon’ to Byline Festival in August, and plus a quarterly night at Seven Arts in Leeds.
The ‘LIVEwire’ events will be a big focus for us in 2019, and we’re excited to hear from potential festivals, venues and producers. These events champion troubled poets; rebels and renegades; personal and political voices that rally against the establishment. We pride ourselves on programming a diverse range of acts from around the UK.
Following the huge success of the ‘Pessimism Is For Lightweights’ t-shirts (on sale here), we’re delighted to be releasing the ‘Live at Byline Festival EP‘ from Salena Godden.
The tracks were recorded during Salena’s Saturday night performance at the festival, which received an extensive standing ovation and was one of the stand-out performances of Salena’s career.
You can purchase the album on CD or digital download from £5, and both purchases include a high-quality video of Salena’s Byline performance of ‘Pessimism Is For Lightweights’.
You may have seen that Matt Abbott published his début collection via Verve Poetry Press on 4 October, with the 22 poems from his ‘Two Little Ducks’ show plus 15 additional poems in a ‘Selected Poems 2015-2018’.
We’re thrilled to be stocking copies of the book in our online store. And not only that, we’ve also released a studio album featuring recordings of the poem from the show. The studio album is a download only release.
You can purchase the book alone for £10, the digital album for £5, or both together for £12.
