Bang Said the Gun is a weekly "stand up poetry" night at The Roebuck in Southwark, a poetry night for people who don't like poetry. We went a couple of years ago and found it hilarious and rabid, political and trivial. And a lot of fun.
Now the Bang Said team has brought out an anthology of poems by regulars. Covering subjects like the nightly news, aliens, immigration, supermarkets and Chris Huhne, by spoken word stars like John Hegley, Hollie McNish, Kate Tempest, Ian McMillan and Polarbear, they leap off the page and rattle through your head with a force similar to them being read aloud. Which, of course, is what Bang Said the Gun is all about, and this collection comes as near as damnit to making black-and-white type turn technicolour.
It's a fabulous anthology featuring 24 poets all with distinctive, modern voices. Some funny, some touching, all powerful. Poetry: it's the new rock n roll.
Bang Said the Gun: Mud Wrestling with Words is available from Burning Eye Books, £12 inc UK p&p.
