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