Skint & Demoralised and Byron Vincent are the latest acts to be confirmed for Phrased & Confused’s festival tent at the Summer Sundae Weekender (August 14-16).

Byron is your perfect festival poet.  Not only does he look as if he’s fallen out of the Arctic Monkeys’ tour bus, his poems and performances contain just the right mix of self-deprecating humour and poignancy.

Meanwhile, Skint & Demoralised blend with seemingly effortless ease John Cooper Clarke-inspired poetry with Beach Boys pop sensibilities to joyous effect.  Enjoy!

The Phrased and Confused tour bus makes its merry way to venues in Bracknell, London, Norwich, Derby, Stockton and Exeter this May, with its signature mix of spoken word and lyrical music.

The tour pitches together Canada’s beautiful folk collective Woodpigeon, satirical wordsmith Murray Lachlan Young, the atmospheric poet Aoife Mannix and accordianist Janie Armour and laugh-out-loud Dead Poets, a mash-up of MCing and poetry, courtesy of MC Mixy and poet Mark Grist.

As they’re about to head into the rehearsal studio to work together on new material for Phrased and Confused, we asked Murray and Woodpigeon’s Mark Hamilton what they were looking forward to most about the tour:

“Doing what I do is a very solitary business. So I’m looking forward to working with other – very different – artists, sharing views and hearing what they’ve got to say about performance, poetry and music. When you have new material there is always a raw excitement to it for you as a performer; bringing that to an audience adds an extra thrill on both sides.” Murray Lachlan Young

“Collaborating with a group of artists we’ve not worked with before is going to be really exciting. It’s going to be fun I think. Unexpected things are bound to happen.” Mark Hamilton, Woodpigeon

So, a unique chance to hear brand new material in an intimate setting – what are you waiting for? For more information, visit the Phrased and Confused Tour 2009 page or join us on Facebook

After some nerves of steel negotiations, and much mopping of the collective Phrased & Confused brow, we’re pleased to say that we can now announce the final Phrased & Confused festival line up. Welcome then to our line up the brilliant Ben Mellor, whose Television Will Not Be Revolutionised is one of our favourite poems, and the rousing Excentral Tempest, whose gutsy performances and messages make her the darling of hiphop heads and the literati alike. Click here for a full festival line up.

After ploughing through some eighty-odd proposals, we’re really pleased to announce that we’ve commissioned Jean Binta Breeze, Aoife Mannix & Janie Armour, Andy Craven-Griffiths and Mark Grist & MC Mixy to create new material especially for the Phrased & Confused festival stage at Summer Sundae Weekender 8th-10th August 2008.

Find out more about them and their work here.

Readers, writers, musicians and monstrosities, we are pleased to announce the return of Phrased & Confused. Yes, we’re back once more to explore the creative common ground between music and the lyrics. This year however, things are going to be slightly different. We’re not talking one off gigs, we’re not taking tours, we are however talking a stonking great festival tent. Well, ok, a really exciting, boutique festival tent.

That’s right, this summer we’ve been invited to take over a stage at the award winning Summer Sundae Weekender festival, which for three days (8th – 10th August 2008) takes over De Montfort Hall and Gardens in Leicester.

So far, we’ve got confirmations from Fife based electronic/acoustic folk demon Kenny Anderson (King Creosote) and Emma Pollock (founder member of the Delgados) who will be performing a very special joint set. We’ve also got the Leaf Label’s latest (and greatest) signing, Essie Jain, from the UK via NYC with her serenely beautiful vocals and charming melodies. Not to mention the univocalists themselves, the Oulipo Poets, featuring lyrical pioneers Ross Sutherland, Joe Dunthorne and Tim Clare.

But for something really new and exciting, you’re going to have to wait. Only until Monday, 19th May but it’ll be worth it. So for a one off opportunity for poets, musicians and everyone in between, I urge you to return to this site first thing next week. Really wish we could say more.