Category: This Month’s Headliner

Satellite of Laughs: January 22nd 2025

Our headliner this month: Tim Munson on the Lightship

Support: Samuel L Cohen

Doors open 7pm. Open mic starts 7.30pm

Tim munson

Tim Munson regularly performs in and around the seedy under belly of Bristol’s poetry scene. And can often be found looking bewildered and checking his emails whilst stood in the rain outside cancelled poetry gigs.

His work tackles heavyweight subjects, such as:

Can pork scratchings really be considered food?
Is my father in law actually a Nazi?

and the age old existential question

Will primula cheese bring about the next mass extinction?

Tim has the dubious honour of coming third in almost every poetry competition in the south west of England.

Entry requirements: no age restrictions (under 18s to be accompanied by an adult over 21yrs, 1:1 ratio)

Samuel L Cohen is a multidisciplinary Theatre Maker, award-winning Poet and Instigator of Bristol’s cabaret night RIOT ACT.

An erstwhile scholar of Ancient History led astray by his love for clowning, he is fascinated by the hidden stories (both real and imagined) that underpin
everyday life, and crafts work which celebrates the timeless absurdities that make us human.

A high-octane lyrical raconteur of the hilarious, the unbelievable and the downright outrageous, Sam joyfully discovered in poetry a means to interrogate and finally understand life’s great many true stories which defy
rational explanation. High literary and magical realist worlds collide with the everyday grit of modern urban life as he as he attempts to make sense of the senseless, armed only with a microphone and a flair for the irresistible riotous humour of his native Bristol.


Most recently, he has founded RIOT ACT- a
multidisciplinary club night of open mic fun, with the joint missions to celebrate the people of Bristol and their
stories whilst finding new ways to stick it to The Man with laughter.

Buckle up.

This is poetry to party to. The more raucously, the better.

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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

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.

A Tale of Two Taylors

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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