Kae Tempest on Performance

Explicit content warning

05/29/22 • 36 min

1 Listener

All About Sound

Poet, playwright, rapper and activist Kae Tempest joins Lemn Sissay to discuss the power of live performance.

Inspired by recordings in the British Library Sound Archive (see below for a full list) their conversation explores why Kae starting performing spoken word, what the atmosphere of a gig means to them and why they think we love to hear words performed live.

Kae has won the Ted Hughes Award, their albums Everybody Down and Let Them Eat Chaos were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and they’re known for their transporting performances on stage. Kae is currently touring their latest album The Line is a Curve.

Please note this episode contains moments of strong language.

Recordings in the episode in order of appearance:

‘Goodman’ by the Smoke Fairies, 2007 demo submitted to the Glastonbury New Bands Competition, donated to the British Library sound archive.

British Library shelfmark: C1238/3268

Jamaican dub poet and activist Linton Kwesi Johnson speaks to Sarah O’Reilly in 2015 for the National Life Stories oral history project ‘Authors’ Lives’.

British Library shelfmark: C1276/60

Paul Simon introduces his song Sparrow in a folk club in Bebbington, Wirral, in 1965.

This recording is part of the Stan Mason collection and was digitised as part of the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project.

British Library shelfmark: UAP004/4 S2 C3

An acapella performance by a group of women from the Divis Community Centre Drama Group, recorded in 1985 near Belfast. Copyright of Linda Ballard and performers; National Museums NI.

British Library shelfmark: UNMNI002/474 C1-C6

Benjamin Zephaniah performs his poem Thirteen Dead at the Poetry Olympics festival that took place in 1983. This was recorded by the British Library at

the Young Vic Theatre.

British Library shelfmark: C92/2 C43

Malika Booker speaks to Dr Hannah Silva in 2016 as part of a collection of interviews called Black British Poets in Performance.

British Library shelfmark: C1874/12

Susan Musgrove performs her poem Taboo Man the Poetry Olympics festival that took place in 1983. This was recorded by the British Library at the Young

Vic Theatre.

British Library shelfmark: C92/1 C22

Roger McGough performs his poem Writer of this Poem at the Poetry Olympics festival that took place in 1983. This was recorded by the British Library

at the Young Vic Theatre.

British Library shelfmark: C92/2 C56

Poet, playwright, rapper and activist Kae Tempest joins Lemn Sissay to discuss the power of live performance.

Please note this episode contains moments of strong language.

Recordings in the episode in order of appearance:

‘Goodman’ by the Smoke Fairies, 2007 demo submitted to the Glastonbury New Bands Competition, donated to the British Library sound archive.

British Library shelfmark: C1238/3268

Jamaican dub poet and activist Linton Kwesi Johnson speaks to Sarah O’Reilly in 2015 for the National Life Stories oral history project ‘Authors’ Lives’.

British Library shelfmark: C1276/60

Paul Simon introduces his song Sparrow in a folk club in Bebbington, Wirral, in 1965.

This recording is part of the Stan Mason collection and was digitised as part of the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project.

British Library shelfmark: UAP004/4 S2 C3

An acapella performance by a group of women from the Divis Community Centre Drama Group, recorded in 1985 near Belfast. Copyright of Linda Ballard and performers; National Museums NI.

British Library shelfmark: UNMNI002/474 C1-C6

Benjamin Zephaniah performs his poem Thirteen Dead at the Poetry Olympics festival that took place in 1983. This was recorded by the British Library at

the Young Vic Theatre.

British Library shelfmark: C92/2 C43

Malika Booker speaks to Dr Hannah Silva in 2016 as part of a collection of interviews called Black British Poets in Performance.

British Library shelfmark: C1874/12

Susan Musgrove performs her poem Taboo Man the Poetry Olympics festival that took place in 1983. This was recorded by the British Library at the Young

Vic Theatre.

British Library shelfmark: C92/1 C22

Roger McGough performs his poem Writer of this Poem at the Poetry Olympics festival that took place in 1983. This was recorded by the British Library

at the Young Vic Theatre.

British Library shelfmark: C92/2 C56

Previous Episode

Introducing All About Sound

Welcome to the new series from the British Library hosted by Lemn Sissay and featuring Kae Tempest, Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris, Monica Ali, Shami Chakrabarti, Jonathan Nunn, Amy Liptrot, Sophie Willan and Inua Ellams. Subscribe now.

Next Episode

Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris on Nature

Are we listening hard enough to the sounds of nature? Collaborators Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris join Lemn to ask this question. With the help of the British Library sound archive, (see credits below) they’re summoning back the lost sounds and words of the natural world.

Robert is a fellow at the University of Cambridge and known for his books on landscape and nature. Jackie is an illustrator and writer. Together, they created the book The Lost Words to ‘conjure back the near-lost magic and strangeness of the nature that surrounds us.’ Since then, they’ve made The Lost Spells, a book of spell-poems to be spoken aloud.

In this listening party, they eavesdrop on a conversation between broadcaster David Attenborough and sound recordist Chris Watson; learn about Bill Bailey’s love of birdwatching and hear from passionate bird recordist Pamela Fursman who started recording birdsong in the 1940s.

A Pixiu Production.

Recordings in the episode in order of appearance:

A conversation between sound recordist Chris Watson and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough.

This event was recorded in 2017 at the British Library

Full conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixNM4EM-XgA

A Common Toad, Wales, March 1989. It was recorded in Radnor, Wales in 1989 by husband and wife team Eric & May Nobles.

British Library shelfmark: WS6358 C2

Wiccan Doreen Valiente talks about Beltane and May Day, recorded at Hollingbury Castle on 1st May 1976. This clip was made for a BBC Brighton show called Coffee Break. Copyright of BBC and the Doreen Valiente Foundation.

British Library shelfmark: UTK006/653

Pamela Fursman speaking about her bird recordings. In the 1940s, Pamela heard The Naturalist programme on the radio (a series that led to the formation of the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol) and this inspired her to start making her own recordings.

British Library shelfmark: UBC075/8

English cellist Beatrice Harrison performing in her garden, supposedly alongside a singing nightingale. The exact date of this particular recording is unknown, but BBC Radio first broadcast a duet between Harrison and a nightingale in 1924 as an experiment. Copyright of BBC.

British Library shelfmark: C1186/193

A European Nightjar. This field recording was made by Rex Ashby in Hampshire in 1984.

British Library shelfmark: WS0942

Bill Bailey taking part in ‘Bird is the Word’ event recorded by the British Library in April 2021 to celebrate all things avian.

Full conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrhDFFQrtN0

A Montezuma Oropendola or New World blackbird. This was recorded by Richard Ranft in Costa Rica in 1985.

British Library shelfmark: WS4805