They say You Can’t Go Back Again, but with the help of a full house at Woodland Creatures, we proved them wrong, didn’t we?!
Quick, moar booz!
Thanks to our brilliant featured guests, Allyson Stack, Daniel Shand, and Elise Hadgraft, for helping us avoid the dreaded “difficult second album” syndrome. Thanks to our excellent volunteer performers. And thanks to our intrepid “Edith” and “Harry” for submitting to Jacques’ Big Two-Hander.
Thanks again to our co-Interrobanger Jacques Tsiantar for guiding Edith and Harry through our recurring bit, and for handling the sound desk. Thanks also to Ricky’s bandmates in Nerd Bait, Stephanie and Paul, for providing music at the last minute when Katharine Macfarlane couldn’t join us through illness. We’re really looking forward to having her for series 2! And thanks to our good pal, Tonsy for these awesome photos! And finally, thanks to the folks at Woodland Creatures for taking such good care of all of us.
Harry and Edith, happy we’re all going to get to do this AGAIN
Most of all, thanks to our audience for equaling the enthusiasm displayed at the INTERROBANG?! premiere!
As announced at the show, the next INTERROBANG?! is going to be a very special festive episode. Bring your loudest voices, your Christmas jumpers, and five minutes of your own material on… what?! Keep checking in here, and on our Twitter or Facebook for more details as they emerge. It’s going to be super-exciting, and we can’t wait to share it all with you!
Katharine shares her thoughts on having to do our Interrogation…
By day Katharine is a librarian, sharing stories and songs with children of all ages. At night she reads poems to grown ups. Rooted in the landscape of the west of Scotland, Katharine Macfarlane’s lyrical poetry blends with discussion of traditional Scottish culture and history and myths from the wider Celtic world to provide a creative reimagining of women’s voices. WidelKissssy published and broadcast, she is currently the Harpies, Fechters and Quines Slam Champion.
The evocative language used by Katharine Macfarlane to bring Scottish towns and countryside to life, using fleeting imagery and enchanting chronicles, has had listeners falling like roses thrown upon theatre stages – The Mumble
And here’s how Katharine answered our questions:
?!: The theme of Interrobang #2 is You Can’t Go Back Again. Is there anywhere you can’t go back again?
KM: Oh there used to be lots of places I wouldn’t go back to but I’ve got terribly brave over the past few years and have revisited them all I think…and had a great time doing it…none of the malevolent ghosts I was expecting!
?!: And where would you like to go for the first time?
KM: Finland, Norway, Cape Breton, Orkney, Canna…ach, there’s a whole world I’d like to see…
?!: What song would you like as your entry music? Or should we just choose something?
KM: I’m sure it should be something trad…maybe some waulking song or other but actually my internal soundtrack is almost always country! Dolly with Light of a Clear Blue Morning from New Harvest…it’s the best way to start a morning…or Seven Nation Army…or Something to Believe In by King Creosote…or I Wonder by Rodriguez…Ghosts of Leith, Blue Rose Code…oh, maybe Warrior by Reely Jiggered…aw hell, you just choose something!
?!: “I’m never, never, never coming home“…? It’s gotta be this, hasn’t it?!
?!: What are your favourite and least favourite words?
KM: Joy is my favourite word above all others and has been for as long as I can remember…in Gaelic I’ve always loved the word sòlas which means light but can also mean comfort, solace, joy or luminous. Least favourite word? No. I don’t like no. Or unnecessary.
I longed to be able to listen to this kind of material as a wee girl and still find it slightly miraculous that it’s freely available now – enjoy! X
Thanks a lot to Katharine for sharing that treasure trove – and for indulging Interrobang’s Interrogation! Come along to Interrobang – You Can’t Go Back Again on 4th November and find out why we moved so quickly to sign her up after Oxjam!
As the most important day of the cycle approaches, INTERROBANG?! is keeping its ground game strong and putting in a last big push. The latest of our featured guests for Interrobang – You Can’t Go Back Again, Elise Hadgraft, has taken a few minutes to complete The Interrobang Interrogation. Let’s find out more…
Elise Hadgraft is a Mancunian mother by day self-appointed ‘punk rock poet’ by night…..unless it’s an afternoon gig, she’s adaptable like that. She started writing poetry to impress boys sometime around 2008 and found herself spending several sorry years on the literary naughty step for her trouble. Having passed for suitably contrite she’s, of late, been allowed back out to terrorise the neighbourhood with questionable rhyme schemes and no solid grasp of punctuation.
Here’s how Elise answered our questions:
?!: The theme of Interrobang #2 is You Can’t Go Back Again. Is there anywhere you can’t go back again?
EH: Oh, multiple places. Most recently I found myself chucked out of the Manchester Northern Soul scene for being slightly peeved when some mad bugger threw my fella down the stairs…let’s just leave it at “you should’ve see the other guy.”
?!: And where would you like to go for the first time?
EH: I’m too skint to contemplate much in the way of travel, though (and don’t ask me how I put it off for 26 years) I went to Sheffield for the first time last month and had a bit of a Brutalist fangirl moment outside my favourite building.
?!: What song would you like as your entry music? Or should we just choose something?
EH: Anything by Pulp. Except Common People.
“Mother, I can never go home again…”
?!: What are your favourite and least favourite words?
EH: I cannot abide the word ‘moist’. Any word that is not ‘moist’ is a potential contender for favourite.
?!: Anything else you’d like to share with us?
EH: My bag of sweets, it’s in the back of this van full of puppies…
Thanks a lot to Elise for indulging Interrobang’s Interrogation. Come along to Interrobang – You Can’t Go Back Again on 4th November and she’ll slam you black and blue – no stairs required!
Another one of our featured guests for Interrobang – You Can’t Go Back Again, Daniel Shand, has taken a few minutes to complete The Interrobang Interrogation. Let’s find out more…
Daniel deeply considers Interrobang’s questions…
Daniel Shand is another Edinburgh writer. His first book, called Fallow, is being published later this month on Sandstone Press. As luck would have it, it’s a novel all about two lads who can’t go home again—they’re literally on the run.
Here’s how Daniel answered our questions:
?!: The theme of Interrobang #2 is You Can’t Go Back Again. Is there anywhere you can’t go back again?
DS: The only place I’ve ever been barred from is my old student union. Not for any particularly interesting reason—just for being a drunk clown. It wasn’t even a lifetime ban, as all the best bans are. It was something rubbish like two weeks.
?!: And where would you like to go for the first time?
DS: Shetland—never been, always fancied it.
?!: What song would you like as your entry music? Or should we just choose something?
DS: Pick me something please.
[Ricky Interrobang sez: I checked, and was kind of surprised that Peter Murphy didn’t have the writerly gumption to include the word “fallow” in the lyrics for this.]
?!: What are your favourite and least favourite words?
DS: For favourite, can I have ‘complex’? It’s a great one for showing you know something’s complicated without risking your neck on anything too specific.
For least favourite, I’ll say ‘February’, because of its first R—the one I didn’t discover until embarrassingly late in life.
Thanks a lot to Daniel for indulging Interrobang’s Interrogation. Come along to Interrobang – You Can’t Go Back Again on 4th November and find out why Beth and Ricky have been chatting about how excited they are to see and hear him read again!
The first of our featured guests for Interrobang – You Can’t Go Back Again, Allyson Stack, has taken a few minutes to complete The Interrobang Interrogation. Let’s find out more…
Allyson’s interrogation begins
Allyson Stack was educated at Yale, Arizona State and has a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. She is a former screenwriter and now teaches English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. Her work has appeared in magazines and journals in the US and UK and she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2012. Her acclaimed 2016 novel, Under the Heartless Blue is available from Freight Books.
And here’s how she answered our questions:
?!: The theme of Interrobang #2 is You Can’t Go Back Again. Is there anywhere you can’t go back again?
AS: BEING CHILDLESS—i.e., to never having been a mum.
?!: And where would you like to go for the first time?
AS: INDIA.
?!: What song would you like as your entry music? Or should we just choose something?
AS: JUST CHOOSE SOMETHING.
?!: Here’s what we’ve chosen. Maybe Allyson will let us know on 4th November why it is – or isn’t – appropriate…
?!: What are your favourite and least favourite words?
AS: CAN’T CHOOSE FAVOURITES. IT WOULD BE LIKE PICKING A FAVOURITE CHILD.
?!: Anything else you’d like to share with us?
…
Thanks a lot to Allyson for indulging Interrobang’s Interrogation. Come along to Interrobang – You Can’t Go Back Again on 4th November and find out whether whether we’ve picked the right tune!
After a riotous First Time, and the great reception we received for our set at the Oxjam Festival, INTERROBANG?! is back again on 4th November with…
..INTERROBANG: You Can’t Go Back Again?! – Woodland Creatures, 7pm
As veterans of the first show will know, INTERROBANG?! is democratic spoken word & music and meritocratic prizes. It’s a land of exclamation and question making and all the nuances in between.
Interrobang 0.2 is four more invited and established writers and performers, as well as three audience members who have brought along 5 minutes of material and been pulled out of the hat. And the return of Novella Award Nominee JACQUES TSIANTAR and JACQUES’ BIG TWO-HANDER! They’ll all be entertaining us on the topic YOU CAN’T GO BACK AGAIN.
He’ll be there!
Your hosts Beth Cochrane and Ricky Monahan Brown feel honoured to be doing the honours for ALLYSON STACK, DANIEL SHAND, ELISE HADGRAFT, and KATHARINE MACFARLANE.
But we need you, too – after You Can’t Go Back Again, there will be only one more, extra-special, super-secret show in INTERROBANG?!’s preview season. And your participation and feedback will help us find out more about what, exactly, INTERROBANG?! is.
He’ll be there, too!
Connect with us here, on Twitter @InterrobangEdin, on Instagram, and on Facebook. And if you’re one of those millennial types who doesn’t carry cash, you can get your tickets for INTERROBANG: You Can’t Go Back Again?! on Eventbrite.
It’s gonna be like Elvis’s ’68 comeback special – you’ll want to say you were there!
OK. When Beth and Ricky come on, I need you to scream!
