GAME of Poems at The Rum Shack
Now in its third year, the Southside Fringe is a community arts festival promoting theatre, music, comedy and cabaret south of the Clyde.
With more than 40 venues involved in this years' festival, it's yet another sign of the South's remarkable rise over the past few years.
The 2015 Fringe kicked off a fortnight ago, with an opening party at The Rum Shack.
Knowledgeable readers might remember The Rum Shack as Strathie's, an old-fashioned Pollokshaws Road pub better suited to dominoes tournaments than literary gatherings.
But change comes to us all, and now this old boozer has been decked out like a kitschy Caribbean hut.
The cheap whisky blends behind the bar have been replaced by a formidable selection of rums, and downstairs has been transformed from a dingy function room into a Berkeley Suite-style space, with DJs, MCs and reggae stars playing live on weekends.
An event like Monday's poetry slam, which took place in The Shack's basement, would have been unthinkable in these parts not long ago.
Introduced as "an epic battle to the death (with poetry)," Game of Poems showcased the best of the city's burgeoning spoken word scene.
The contestants packed their three-minute sets with wit and pathos; Cat Hepburn drew parallels between dating and consuming cereal, while Calum Rodger's (wholly fictional, of course) quest to consume every substance in his anti-drugs pamphlet drew howls of laughter.
It felt like a taste of things to come.
This young venue is still just getting into its stride, but with a bank holiday all-dayer involving the Sub Club's Dominic and Telford next Sunday, and more music and stand-up comedy events on the horizon, it's looking increasingly like we'll be spending a lot of the summer here.
Game of Poems at The Rum Shack
Q: Who's your favourite wordsmith?
1. Rebecca Kilgour, 27, Shawlands, John Cooper Clarke
2. Kevin P Gilday, 28, Shawlands, Mark E Smith
3. David Forrest, 29, Partick, Andrew Greig
Simon Herzig, 30, Glasgow, Morrissey
4. Frances McMillan, 29, Glasgow, Edwyn Morgan
David McBride, 33, Dublin, Alasdair Gray
5. Krysia Kordecki, 26, Glasgow
Favourite Club? Sub Club
Favourite Bar? The Rum Shack
Favourite DJ? Mad Alba
Favourite Band? I don't like bands
First club? The Arches
What you drinking? White wine
Describe Your dancing? Dirty, expressive, and reptilian
6. Seori Ormiston, 23, Oban, Scroobius Pip
Kimberley Hoy, 29, Glasgow, Shakespeare.
Saul Ormiston, 27, Oban, Peter Gabriel
7. Danielle Louden, 21, Glasgow, Edgar Allen Poe
Fraser Adams, 22, Newton Mearns, Joe Straynge
8. Lauren Gourlay, 31, Mount Florida, Thom Yorke
Cathy Beaton, 29, Glasgow, Holly McNish
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article