Ooops! We've been letting the blog slide a bit! (Our bad!) But in our defense we have been super busy! 

Our Word War Final at the Three Minute Theatre was just insane, so many people, so much talent and such a buzz from the night! A special shout out to the competitors who did us proud that night and to the judges who did a brilliant job! Congratulations to David Jarman for winning the final as well! A huge thank you to everyone that has been there for the journey, we look forward to seeing you in 2016! 

We are currently gearing up for the last Evidently in 2015 with Jack Smurf and JB Barrington taking place Monday 14th December at the Eagle Inn. It looks set to be an amazing night! Another huge thank you to everyone that has performed, attended and supported us with Evidently over the past two years (how time flies!) We have guests booked until October 2016, so make sure you get the 2nd Monday put in you diaries! 

This year saw the launch of our radio show on FAB Radio too! It's been so much fun having guests come along and chatting to us, and a steep learning curve. We already have guests wanted to come on next year so look out for that! 

We recently had the fantastic Liv Barnes join the Evidently Team, and we are so grateful for it! Make sure you go say "Hi" to her at the events! She's been a star throughout and she brings peace between the battles that Ella and Kieren like to have at events. 

We also won third place for Best Regular Spoken Word Night at the Saboteur Awards, it was an absolute honour to be nominated alongside some of the greats and we were as proud as punch! 

We also launched Evidently the Anthology 2, they're 4 quid, so if you would like a copy, drop us a message and we'll send one out to you. 

We take a break from running Word War and Evidently in January, but we will be using that time to develop schedules and templates so that we will be posting, particularly on this blog and website, regularly with new and exciting content, so make sure you check back in January! If you need your Evidently fix then never fear! The radio show will still be running throughout January, so we wont be forgetting you! 

A huge thanks you to everyone that has performed, attended and supported us this year, it's been wonderful to meet so many like minded and wonderful people! We are so lucky to have you guys! 

As always, ironically for a spoken word group, words aren't enough. 

We’ve been getting a lot of queries recently about what Word War is and what the rules are, so here’s a break down!

Word War is a slam competition with 10 monthly heats running over the course of the year, culminating in a final in December. Winning the heat means that you win £20 and secure your place in the final. If you win the final you get the Word War Two trophy, £200, a guest slot at Evidently and a place in the UK National Slam… which aint bad!

We pick 3 people out of the audience to be judges (providing they don’t know any of the performers) and are asked to judge out of 10 on content and out of 10 on performance. For the final we ask 5 judges from across the poetry scene to judge.

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Slam Rules

1. Poetry must be your own original work

2. No singing or props.

3. There will be two rounds. The poets will draw numbers from a hat and perform in that order. In the second round the order will be reversed.

4. Poets have 3 minutes to read/perform their poetry. The clock starts starts from the very first thing you say - including hello.

Points will be deducted for over-running as follows:

                       1-9 seconds minus 1 point.

                       10-19 seconds minus 2 points.

                       20-29 seconds minus 3 points.

                       30 seconds minus 4 points, host will stop you, you’ll be judged on your incomplete poem.

5. The poets will be scored out of 10 in two categories. Written content & quality of performance. The highest total score over both rounds goes through to the final and wins £20. In the event of a tie there will be a final sudden death round.

6. If you don't get through you can compete in any of the other heats. BUT you cannot perform the same poems in two consecutive heats. (For example poems performed in Heat Six cannot be performed in Heat Seven but can in Heat Eight)

7. Judges’ decisions are final. Please remember the slam motto: "The points are not the point, the poetry is the point".

If you have a question you want to ask us, (preferably about Evidently or Word War) get in contact!

 

How do I sign up for an open mic slot?

Open mic is sign up on the night. We generally prioritise first-timers to Evidently, but if you don’t get on at one night, you’re a guaranteed getting on the following month. We sign up on the door to allow people who may have travelled further afield or who don’t know us a chance to perform if they wish.

We ask open micers to perform no more than one poem at 2 minutes long; however we won’t drag you off stage if your poem is closer to 3 minutes. If you suspect that you will go over the allotted time, please do tell us. The chances are we will say that it’s ok to do a longer poem. If you take the piss, we do remember and you will be less likely to get on the open mic section again.

 

Why are you so strict with the open mic?

Because Ella is a cow.

Seriously though, if we have 10 poets doing 2 minutes, then that’s 20 minutes long. If everyone does closer to 4 or 5 minutes then we have an open mic section which runs the risk of dragging on. Our focus is making it as entertaining as possible for the audience, and offering a diverse range on poets, so the more people we can get on, the better.

 

Why do you film the nights?

We film the nights so people have a video to promote themselves. It also allows people who can’t attend the night to watch some of the fantastic artist we have on! We stagger the release dates of the videos to allow each on to gain maximum views on Youtube.

 

I performed last month, can my video go on first?

Probably not –sorry! Ella edits the videos as soon as she is able after the event. The order that we release them is based on which ones are encoded and uploaded first. However if you talk to us, we can probably ensure that they are released earlier rather than later.

 

Who designed your logo?

Our logo (we call the stag Bruce) was designed by the awesome Twisted Dredz. You can check out his work here.

 

What about your website?

That would be the wonderful CGain Business Marketing, his website is here. 

 

And who did your promo video?

Our video was made the by fantastic team at Bark Media, check out their website and other work here.

 

Can we buy t-shirts?

We are currently in talks to get a run of t-shirts printed. If you are interested drop us a line and we will reserve one for you.

 

I want to get involved, do you guys need any help?

At the moment, we are functional but not perfect. If you are interested in helping us out, please do send us a message, however the best way that you can help us out is by attending the night and telling your friends!

 

Is Word War the same as Evidently?

No, the Word War series is a slam competition with heats throughout the year culminating in the final in December. You can read more information about them here. Evidently is more of a ‘straight up’ poetry night.

 

How do I sign up for Word War?

We made the events live on Facebook at 8pm on the first Wednesday of the month. You can Facebook, Tweet, text or email us to book your slot. Be warned, they do go quick!

 

What are the rules for Word War?

So’s not to clog up our FAQ’s post, the rules can be sent to you on request (not that there’s a lot of rules, it just looked a bit messy) It’s important to say that the slam is just a bit of fun, and, to steal a great phrase off Tony Walsh, aka Longfella “The points are not the point, the point is the poetry”

 

Where are these events held?

Evidently is run at the Eagle Inn, here's a map!

And Word War is at the Three Minute Theatre. Here's another map!

Hi all,

We’ve currently been experiencing some difficulties with our computer that we use to edit our videos. While these problems have been on-going we haven’t been able to upload the videos from out night.

I am no computer expert, however, the wonderful chaps at Bark Media (they did our promo video) have been working really hard to get all our (video-related) problems solved.

We can’t thank Bark enough for all the work that they have done helping us, and we want to thank you for your patience. We should be getting our fully working laptop back tonight, and we can promise you that there will be an influx of videos for your enjoyment.

Bark will have revamped the settings enabling us to bring you higher quality videos (and a faster editing time for me – yay!)

Once again, thank you to Bark for all their hard work and to you for waiting!

 

In other news, we want to send our congratulation to Bad Language for winning the Saboteur Awards – Best Regular Spoken Night Category – it’s a thoroughly deserved win for an amazing night! The awards ceremony was a lot of fun, and we will try to get some pictures onto our Facebook page soon. Thank you to Sabotage Reviews for organising it all and making it a truly brilliant night. Huge congratulations to all the winners and the nominees and we hoped they all enjoyed their night as much as we did!

Also, congratulations to Ronnie Leek for winning Word War Two Heat Five, which was a phenomenal night. Thank you to everyone that performed attended and judged! We look forward to seeing you all again on the 7^th July for Heat Six. Competitors in the final so far are Calum Dwyer, Ciaran Hodgers, Bob Horton, Katie Collins and of course Ronnie Leek.

We hope to see you all at the Eagle Inn on Monday (8^th June) for Evidently… Gerry Potter and Colin Davies which looks set to be an amazing night! As a thank you to everyone who nominated us in the Saboteur Awards, this event will be just £1 in! 

That’s all for now!

~Evidently HQ