Phrased & Confused is taking a rain check (sorry!) on Summer Sundae this year; as part of our mission to make thing better in the world of word we’re busy working on research into for a new online tv/radio station type thing for spoken word and on new P&C festival and touring ideas for 2011 and beyond.

We do have a gig coming up soon in London – The Insulting Cabaret on April 16th at Southwark Playhouse, as part of International Pen’s Free The Word festival. The line up will be crammed full with top notch poets, musicians, comedians and writers, so if you fancy finding out more check out the event listing at www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk or find us on Facebook.

Check out the lovely videocast of Beth Jeans Houghton courtesy of the Observer Music Monthly here.  They think she’s a rising star and so do we -  she’ll be appearing on the Phrased & Confused stage at Summer Sundae on Saturday 15 August.

We caught up with Murray Lachlan Young and Woodpigeon’s Mark Hamilton a few weeks ago to find out what they were most looking forward to about this May’s Phrased and Confused tour. To hear what they had to say, click on the links below!

We’re really excited to be able to commission four spoken word artists to create new material for this year’s Summer Sundae Weekender in Leicester (thank you Arts Council England!) Each commission is worth £1000.

We’re looking for new work which responds to the question, Which Came First, The Music or the Words? and which will appeal to a music festival audience. The festival takes place between the 14th and 16th August and the deadline for applications is the 22nd May. If you’re interested in applying you can check out the full application details.

The first rehearsal for this year’s Phrased and Confused tour happened last week at our London venue, The Cross Kings. It was a great chance for all for four acts to meet, discuss their work and see if there are any possibilities for new collaborations to develop for the tour. We all sat around in the dark and atmospheric downstairs bar and everyone gathered to listen and perform their ideas and creations for the tour. The exchange of spoken words and music between each artist was the hot topic. A few hours later, we had a vegan lunch which was awesome, with as much soup, bread and apples anyone could want. All the artists went away well fed and excited about possible collaborations and hitting the road. Looking forward to seeing what develops at the next rehearsal!

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

It was a fantastic festival and we’re tired, exhausted and as phrased and confused as ever. There will be more about the festival on our site soon but in the meantime for the next seven days you can catch Stephen Merchant’s (of 6 Music and The Office) interview with commissioned artists Mark and MC Mixy via BBC iPlayer (fast forward to 1 hr and 17 mins in to find them). Do check back here for our video cast from the festival. If you were there please do send us your feedback on info@thehubuk.com – and why not contribute to the general discussion about summer sundae on eFestivals or post P and C photos too the SummerSundae group on flickr.

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.

Hold on to your pens as I tell you that in the run up to this year’s event, we’re looking to commission four spoken word artists interested in creating and performing new work for our latest Phrased & Confused outing – the Phrased & Confused Tent at the Summer Sundae Weekender, a cracking festival which takes place in Leicester 8-10 August.

Each commission is worth £1000 and in addition you’ll receive a weekend pass for you and a guest, camping space in the artist field and travel expenses to and from the festival. Artists we commission will be asked to create at least 15 minutes of new material, and to perform it at least once at the festival.

The deadline for applications is the 11th June and to find out more you can either check out the commissions page, or download a copy of the commissions brief here as a pdf or rtf. Good luck!