When we go out on the road, we make sure we have with us on the tour bus a fantastic mix of poets and musicians. It’s not enough for these guys to simply do what they normally do – we expect more than that, and so do our audiences. So we work with them to help them to develop new material together, either from scratch or by improvising on existing poems or songs they bring to the table. The result can be stop you in your tracks beautiful, intense, visceral and raw or even plain bonkers – but it’s always brand new, takes our artists on a journey and has Phrased & Confused in its DNA!
“The tour has greatly helped me develop as an artist. It was very inspiring… I learned a lot from everyone else, and …it made me think about how to connect with audiences that are perhaps new to poetry and/or primarily focussed on music. The positive response we received from audience members who said they had never listened to poetry performed before was really encouraging. It’s helped me to develop my performance style, particularly for the festival audiences I’m performing at this summer including Latitude, Standon Calling and the Big Chill.”
Aoife Mannix, on the 2009 Phrased & Confused tour
”It was a real privilege to be involved in the P&C tour. It has allowed us to completely reassess our skills as performers and to hone our collaborative work. The other acts on the tour were really supportive and the contacts we’ve made are proving incredibly useful. It has definitely given us a unique chance to show our material to new audiences and it has enthused us a great deal. We want to do more!”
Mark Grist, on the 2008 Phrased & Confused tour