CAMBRIDGE: Hammer and Tongue featuring Henry Bowers and John Osbourne

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011, 8pm-10.30pm
The Emperor,
21 Hills Road,
Cambridge
CB2 1NW

Hammer & Tongue Cambridge featuring Henry Bowers and John Osborne

Time for the first round of the Cambridge Hammer & Tongue 2011-2012 season...

This is your chance to become part of the spoken word slam brilliance that has graced this here fair city for over two years, in the warm and wonderful surroundings of fabulous venue The Emperor. Sign up as one of the eight to compete for a place in the Regional Final in July, or just dive in and soak up the atmosphere and talent on display. And some great beer.

Doors open at 7:30pm; advance tickets are a paltry £5 full price, an even more paltry £3.50 for concessions, and a ludicrous £2 for slammers. Tickets on the door are £7 full price, £4.50 for concessions, and £3 for slammers, which is quite the bargain! Find us on Facebook, and buy your tickets in advance from We Got Tickets, or get in touch (cambridge@hammerandtongue.com or 07904 488009) if you’d prefer to get them in person.

Henry Bowers is one of Europe’s leading slam-poets. He is also nationally known and acclaimed as one of Sweden’s best hip-hop acts. Henry Bowers is also known as Kung Henry, which is the name used when the lyrics are in Swedish.

Henry’s poetry and music reflects society as well as his personality with a huge spark in the eye and a lot of irony. It’s intelligent, sharp and to the point. He effectively breaks down the wall between high culture and mass culture as he takes influences from and refers to everything from horror films and children’s stories to classic masterpieces and great philosophers, all combined with a dose of humour.

Three years of studying philosophy is reflected in Henry’s lyrics and you also find influences from literary role models such as Franz Kafka, Paul Auster and Edgar Allan Poe. His musical influences come from a wide range of genres. Among them hip-hop acts like Public Enemy, Aesop Rock, Saul Williams and Buck 65, other than that influences are taken from punk, metal, reggae and artists like Johnny Cash, Tom Waits and Woody Guthrie. Find out more about Henry’s lyrical mastery at http://www.henrybowers.com

Our support act is the wonderful contrast of Aisle 16 member John Osborne. His solo sell-out Edinburgh Fringe Festival show “John Peel’s Shed” was rated a coveted 5 stars. This unassuming, deceptively quiet performer is the author of Radio Head and The Newsagent’s Window, both published by Simon&Schuster. Radio Head was broadcast as Radio 4’s Book of the Week and described as ‘captivating’ by The Guardian. His latest pamphlet, The New Blur Album, is published by Nasty Little Press, and you can find out more about John at http://johnosbornepoet.blogspot.com/

Hosted by Alex Iamb and Fay Roberts.