Mark Gwynne Jones and the Psychicbread are:
M G Jones on words, flute, harmonica and wind pipe
Deb Rose on vocals, piano, synth-bass, vibes, marimba, darabouka, groove box and gong
John Thorne on vocals, djun djun, djembe, udu, drum kit and all that can be struck
Nick L Pearson on vocals, kora, sitar, guitar, spring drum and kalimba
*
'I always stipulate that whoever is on with me hasn't got to be any good - this one got past me - I don't know how, but heads will roll.'
John Cooper Clarke*
JANE:
Welcome to Poets on Fire, Mark, it's great to have you here under the cyber spotlight. Kick off your shoes, let's get comfortable ...
So, what is PsychicBread, and how did such a strange collaboration come about? MARK: When I still had a regular job – a colleague was a spiritualist, a medium and she used talk about attending psychic suppers. And it made me laugh ‘cos I pictured her sitting down to enjoy a bowl of plasma soup with a hunk of psychic bread. But I also thought what a good title. Something that was reinforced when I discoverd the word psyche comes from a Greek word meaning breath or soul.
Psychicbread, the show, is a melding of voice, rhythm, music and poetry into something which we believe is vivid and vibrant. Something that works as a whole. A living, breathing entity.
We've just recorded a new album, 'In the light of this', and are currently touring the show.
JANE:
Wicked. And you've got a great website too at www.psychicbread.org - very colourful and full of odd complicated things to admire & goggle at. Plus some impressive endorsements from the likes of John Cooper Clarke.
That does seem to be the way poets are going these days, down the route of self-promotion and a strong web presence. Do you find it helps you to find gigs (and women) and have you any plans to expand your web presence?MARK: The website is actually the work of film-maker Andy Lawrence and film-musician John Stephens who wanted an immediate way of publishing the film-poems we made. A space to share the work without having to chase the producers. So yes, it's a useful platform.
At the moment the website's focus is on poetry and music. Simply because of the new album and tour. So, alongside the films there are free mp3's to download, details of the tour and a link through to our publisher's website.
JANE:
Can you talk now about yet another of your ambitious projects, PsychicBread Film?
For instance, who does the camera work, the writing etc., how do you fund such projects, and is there a market for the 'film poem'?MARK: The films are largely a collaboration between myself and Andy Lawrence. We bagan by just going out with a camera and shooting quite spontaneously. So the early pieces are very performance lead. It was a gorilla style of no-budget film-making. And certainly some of it was all about public response. In 'Plasticman' for instance there's a great shot of a lady reacting with disgust at our 'tramp' ranting in the supermarket. That was actually the first take. We chose a quiet aisle and then got progressively louder until i was haranguing a huge check-out queue. At which point the management moved in. I don't think they liked the poem.
Of the films on the website a progression can be followed from the early performance pieces to later works such as 'Possession'. Which is more of a fusion of word and image. With each film we have tried to go beyond the last and our most recent work 'The Message' is a screenplay mixing poetry, image and drama. The story of a boy, a postman and an old man who are brought together by a message.
The piece was funded by the UK Film Council and North West Vision which is great but it suddenly changes the way you work. There's a crew you're responsible for, a timetable and a storyboard all of which, if you're not careful, can diminish the spontaneity. This said, it's probably our best film to date and the photography is beautiful.
JANE:
I saw you perform at the Oxford Live Literature Arena earlier this year and you're a real storyteller. You've got this gripping Ancient Mariner-style delivery and you know how to use silence to control the punters. I particularly admire the way you can leave an audience laughing, yet inexplicably uncomfortable.
You come across as highly experienced on stage - and more than a little strange at times - so when did you and poetry first get together? Did you always tell stories - at school, for instance - and how has your technique evolved over the years? MARK: As an adolescent i suffered from chronic anxiety. I suffered with it for about a year when someone gave me a book on meditation. I took up the practice and found that as my thoughts quietened all my fear evaporated. It made me realise how flexible our sense of reality is. We are what we think. A realisation that made me want to write.
On first writing poetry i would tell what i'd written to friends and before long i was supporting bands at pubs and clubs. Trying to engage half drunken audiences with poetry isn't the easiest thing in the world so i had to find ways of grabbing the audience by its ears.
JANE:
Yeah, tell me about it. Though I actually prefer drunken audiences to the ones with old ladies and tea cups rattling. But maybe that's just me ...
So now you have two books available for purchase: 'The Natterjack Toad' and the rather glossy 'PsychicBread' with accompanying CD. 
MARK: Yes, and our latest collection is the album 'In the light of this'. If i got a copy to you, Jane, i wonder if you'd be kind enough to review it?
JANE:
I'm not sure about being kind, but I'll certainly do my best to review it!
Meanwhile, do you think that poetry can change the world?MARK: No, but it can change us. Reveal to us the journey that we're really on.
JANE:
That's a good answer, I think. Much truth there, and one which insists that poetry can still engage with readers in a society where political and social apathy are the norm.
Now, since this is a live poetry site, can you tell the punters out there which UK gigs you have coming up in the next few months? MARK: Certainly, Jane. Click
here for all the latest tour details and photographs.
[No, Mark didn't really say that, but it's simpler this way. Ed.]
JANE:
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, how do you write?
Do you wake up with a line in your head or does an idea come to you whilst pegging out the washing or - and this is often how it happens to me - when watching some other performer or reading something provocative that gets your head buzzing?
Does a poem come to you all of a piece or do you have to work at it over a period of days or weeks?
Oh yes, and just one more question on this theme of writing - as an experienced performer, do you change your poems with each different retelling/audience or do you always keep to the 'script'? MARK: I'm a notebook writer. I always carry a notebook. Then if a good line or moment of clarity shows itself i'll search for a pen and after finding one and getting it to work i'll try to remember what the moment of clarity was.
It's often when i'm walking. The first thing to arrive is the idea or an exchange of ideas between things i'd previously kept apart. A sudden insight into where i am and what got me there and how stupid/blind i'd been not to see it before.That's often the impulse. I tend to think we compartmentalise our experiences in order to make sense of the world yet our subconcious self doesn't recognise the divisions.
Perhaps one of the functions of poetry is to reconnect our experience. You ask if i 'wake up with a line in my head' and yes i do but it's often in the middle of the day when i suddenly realise i've been sleepwalking.
JANE:
Superb. I'm in the middle of writing a book about poetry - mainly writing and performing it - and I think I may ask permission to quote you on this issue of how poets work, if that's okay.
Thanks very much for agreeing to talk to me for POETS ON FIRE, Mark, and I hope to see you on stage again as soon as possible. MARK: Thanks Jane.
Photography by Kevin Reynolds www.kevinreynolds.co.uk*
Okay, click
HERE to be whizzed away to Mark Gwynne Jones and the Psychicbread's website. Tour stops include Sheffield (29th October), Brighton, Oxford, Matlock Bath and London. But once you've finished there, don't forget to come back for the rest of the POETS ON FIRE listings ...
Sharon Olds’ poetry sweeps all before her – a poet whose observation of the mysterious rules of families, relationships and sexuality makes her poetry ‘pure fire in the hands’ (Michael Ondaatje). Her poems are intensely readable and fiercely intelligent. Come and hear the work that has won her some of America’s major awards and international acclaim.
"This month’s regular poetry night at South Street Arts Centre here in Reading features the usual open mic slots alongside our special guest, Carmen Bugan, whose collection Crossing The Carpathians is published by Carcanet (2004) and who teaches creative writing at Wolfson College, Oxford. 
