Owing to a mishap at their web-hosting company, the online magazine, London Grip, have lost all reviews published since Autumn 2023, including three of mine, which I am reposting on this site. The third of them is below.
The Booming Lovelies at The Spice of Life in Soho on 5th November 2024
For me, the idea of attending a poetry reading in the basement of a pub in Soho is an exciting prospect. I feel as if I’m about to enter the louche, bohemian world of a long-gone Fitzrovia. The Spice of Life, just by Cambridge Circus and around the corner from Foyles bookshop, is far from louche, but its downstairs room with a bar and split-level seating provides an ideal venue for readings. Paul McGrane of Forest Poets holds his popular Poems not Bombs open mic there on the third Thursday afternoon of every month. But this was a Tuesday and I was there to hear a reading by Trisha Broomfield, Sharron Green and Heather Moulson, collectively known as The Booming Lovelies (the booming is generational rather than acoustic).
They’re a lively trio and their bright colours blended well with The Spice’s neon backdrop. Taking it in turns to read a poem each, they focused particularly on the issues that women have to deal with, from memories of schooldays spent coping with other girls or trying to get boys, to the menopause and wardrobe malfunctions in later life. Gin featured more than once and for her hilarious poem about having to conceal a copy of The Joy of Sex found in the house where she and a friend were babysitting, Trisha held up a copy of the book, as a visual aid. Presumably Heather had been unable to source a vintage copy of The Topper for her “Beryl the Peril” and I was thankful that we had only the “Love Island” water bottle from Sharron. Other props included a tambourine and maracas and a crocheted gin bottle.
The reading was carefully planned and well rehearsed and although all three address similar topics, each has a distinctive style. While I would hesitate to sum up any poet in a single word, if I had to differentiate between them, I would say that Trisha’s approach was wry, Heather’s more quirky and Sharron’s enlivened by her love of form. They united at the end with a poem about hats, for which they donned brightly-coloured items that Philip Larkin would probably have found more than ‘Faintly disturbing, that, in several ways’.
Being real troupers, the Lovelies had worked on delivering their poems from memory, although there was some recourse to the text. If you find it easy to memorise your poems, that’s fine, but personally I don’t think that anything is lost by reading a poem from the page, as I always have to do.
The performance, which lasted an hour, was great fun. The audience certainly appreciated it and there was a Souvenir Selection on sale. The Booming Lovelies have more performances coming up, including next March 10th at the Farnham Literary Festival and April 23rd at the Cranleigh Book Festival. They are @boominglovelies on social media and if you want to follow the poets up individually, you can find Trisha on Facebook at Trisha Broomfield Poetry and on Instagram @magentapink22. Sharron is @rhymes_n_roses and her website is at https://rhymesnroses.com. Heather is @heathermoulson and her website is at http://www.heathermoulsonpoet.com. There’s a recent post on it about the origins of The Booming Lovelies, who came together two years ago at a reading in Kingston to raise money for Ukraine.
Stephen Claughton
Stephen Claughton 