Patti - Meltdown - 21 June 2005

[Andrew F Wilson <andrewfwilson>]

Tonight's poetry evening at the Purcell Room clashed with the second
night of Television, which perhaps kept the numbers attending low. 
Patti came on stage just after 7.30 pm to introduce Janet Hamill and
told the story she'd recounted on Saturday about how they had met at
Glassboro College.  As the audience was quite small, Patti invited
everyone to move to the front of the auditorium.  Hamill read her
poetry for about 50 minutes, and half way through Lenny Kaye joined
her on stage to play acoustic guitar for three pieces  La Messagiere,
Sacrifice, Spellbound.  Hamill read a poem she'd written especially
for her visit to London - Byron's Timesheet - and another one that she
had revised in her hotel room the night before - Altarpiece.  Patti
sat in the audience to listen.  After the interval, Patti returned to
the stage to introduce John Giorno and praised the capacity of both
poets to remember their verse  something she finds rather
challenging:  "I almost had a heart attack trying to learn the words
for Like a Rolling Stone the other day."  Giorno also read for about
50 minutes, but Patti had to leave before the end so that she could go
to the Queen Elizabeth Hall to join Television for their encore.  The
evening was very good natured and Giorno was welcomed particularly
enthusiastically by his fans in the audience.

kind regards


Andrew