Category: This Month’s Headliner

Satellite of Love April Headliners: Bradley Taylor & M. L. Walsh

Wednesday 23rd April 2025
On the John Sebastian Lightship
Doors open 7.00pm. Open mic starts 7.30pm – Close 10pm

The Lightship does not have step free access

Book tickets

This month Satellite of Love Open Mic returns to the Lightship for one last time.


Bradley Taylor is an award-winning performance poet born and based in Birmingham. In 2024 he won the Roundhouse Poetry Slam, the night of which was the biggest poetry slam in history, and in 2025 he releases his debut collection ‘You Missed The Best Part’ with Verve Poetry Press. Bradley is also the co-host of The Big Gay Poetry Night alongside M. L. Walsh, which has featured poets such as Joelle Taylor, Kandace Siobhan Walker & Sanah Ahsan.

Bradley has appeared at the Hay Festival, Cheltenham Literature Festival, The Inspirational Youth Awards, on BBC News and on BBC Radio 6 Music as part of Craig Charle’s ‘Class of 2024’, in which Craig Charles described him as ‘A brand new voice and a fresh perspective on the art of poetry and performance’.

Bradley’s work has appeared in Gutter Magazine, Shooter, Strix and across Birmingham train stations as part of Birmingham Hippodrome’s collaboration with photographer Paul Stringer’s project The City That Spoke To Me.

He writes for, and about, people.

M. L. WALSH is a performance poet specializing in comic absurdism and the construction of narrative through voice and characterisation. Since finding her form in the poetic monologue, she has experimented with the translation of performance poetry from stage to page, and how theatrical technique (and its removal) can modify a text. Her debut collection My Dog Has Never Read This was released in March 2025 with Verve Poetry Press.

Book tickets

Entry requirements:   Anyone under the age of 14 must be accompanied by an adult 21+ years old.

Satellite of Love: Wendy Allen & Catherine Balaq. November 27th

This November Satellite presents a headline double bill

Doors open on the John Sebastian Lightship at 7pm, open mic starts 7.30pm

Wendy Allen

Wendy Allen’s debut pamphlet, Plastic Tubed Little Bird, was published in 2023 by Broken Sleep. She is a PhD candidate at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her pamphlet, Portrait in Mustard will be published in October 2024 by Seren. 

Catherine Balaq

Catherine Balaq is a writer and body psychotherapist. Her work has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and nominated for the Pushcart and Forward Prize.

In 2022 Catherine was a recipient of The Poetry School MA scholarship. Her poetry play ‘Fuck the Moon’ was commissioned by Paper Nations and short-listed for the Bristol Old Vic Open Sessions 2019.

She is co-editor of Black Cat Press. Her debut collection ‘animaginary’ was published in July 2023 and was nominated for the Seamus Heaney Prize for first collection and the Pen Heaney Prize. Her second collection ‘Deathless‘ is published with Verve. Catherine also writes novels.

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Satellite of Love: Headliners October 2024

Lily Redwood and Jay Macdonald

Wednesday October 23rd 2024 John Sebastian Lightship

Doors open 7.00pm. Open mic starts 7.30pm. Finish 10.00pm.

Lily Redwood lives off-grid in South Wales with her husband and two children. She writes about the everyday extraordinary from the political to the poetical. Lily combines spoken word with tender verse, which comes alive through her live performance. She has recently been Cheltenham Poetry Festival Slam Finalist and the Bristol Milk Poetry Slam winner.


Most of her poems are written on the notes app hiding in the toilet from her two children, or scribbled on the back of a shopping list, whilst burning the dinner.


Lily’s debut pamphlet, You Make Me Think of Swifts, is an unflinching and raw voice for motherhood, it is out now with The Collective Press.


Lily’s work has been described described as: “visceral, loving and brave”.

You can find lily online – @lilyredwoodpoet

Jay is a straight edge poet who writes on neurodivergence, gender, and the love of hardcore punk; doing so like he’s authoring an early 2000s emo LiveJournal post.

Since starting to perform in the spoken word scene a year ago, he has competed in UniSlam and Lyra Fest; and frequently haunts poetry events across Bath and Bristol

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Satellite of Love: Joelle Taylor, Bradley Taylor

September 25th 2024 at the Loco Klub

Doors open 7pm open mic starts 7.30pm

VENUE CHANGE

This month Satellite of Love’s open mic and headliner session is relocating to the Loco Klub at Temple Meads. The venue is fully accessible.

Loco Klub access details
Loco Klub venue location

A Tale of Two Taylors

Joelle Taylor is the author of 4 collections of poetry. Her most recent collection C+NTO & Othered Poems won the 2021 T.S Eliot Prize, and the 2022 Polari Book Prize for LGBT authors. C+NTO is currently being adapted for theatre with a view to touring. She is a co- curator and host of Out-Spoken Live at the Southbank Centre, and tours her work nationally and internationally in a diverse range of venues, from Australia to Brazil. She is also a Poetry Fellow of University of East Anglia and the curator of the Koestler Awards 2023. She has judged several poetry and literary prizes including Jerwood Fellowship, the Forward Prize, and the Ondaatje Prize. Her novel of interconnecting stories The Night Alphabet will be published by Riverrun in Spring of 2024. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and the 2022 Saboteur Spoken Word Artist of the Year. Her most recent acting role was in Blue by Derek Jarman, which was directed by Neil Bartlett and featured Russell Tovey, Jay Bernard, and Travis Alabanza. Blue sold out its run across the UK and more dates are expected for the future.

Bradley Taylor

Bradley is the winner of Satellite’s recent Summer Slam.

When we asked Bradley for a bio, all he wrote was:
‘Bradley Taylor (he/him) is a poet from Birmingham. Apologies.’

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