ANOTHER successful Swindon Festival of Literature came to an end yesterday with a lively finale of music, storytelling and songs.


The Town Hall was full of festival fans chatting and laughing before grabbing their drinks and heading into the theatre for the exciting conclusion to this year’s fortnight-long event.


The joyous show was hosted by spoken word and music group Tongue Fu, with motor-mouthed poet-musician frontman Chris Redmond riling up the crowd with call-and-response lyrics before keyboardist Arthur Lea, bassist Rian Vosloo and drummer Pat Davey joined in with some catchy tunes.


The band described their performance as part show, part experiment, as they don’t rehearse and must think on their feet to improvise appropriate music based on suggestions.


Three shout-outs from the audience led to an unusual combination of reggae, gypsy swing and cha-cha-cha, which really shouldn’t have worked yet somehow sounded pretty good.


The band also accompanied poet Vanessa Kisuule when she read a poem about rosé from her debut collection Joyriding the Storm and a gave a preview of her one-woman show. 


She asked the musicians to play ‘the soundtrack to ‘an 80s power lunch’ followed by ‘sleazy jazz’ while she performed an impassioned piece from the show SEXY, which explores her conflicting attitudes to feminism.


Storyteller Rachel Rose Reid gripped the crowd with her fable about a man in Afghanistan who encounters inequality and unfairness wherever he goes and can only ever bring himself to ask if there is any justice in the world, which just gets him into deeper trouble.


The band expertly adapted to every change and twist in the tale, going from sinister to silly to loud to low-key, right up until the story’s ambiguous ending.


The all-female singing trio Barbarelle, made up of Linda Lee, Vicky Sweeney and Kate Rowe, performed several acapella ditties backed by a ukulele played by Vicky. 


The songs included 1940s classics, old Gaelic music, and a song called Quiet by MILCK, which they first discovered after it was performed during the Women’s March earlier in the year.


All three acts performed in both halves of the event, always receiving rapturous applause.


The exhausted but ever-enthusiastic festival organiser Matt Holland said a few words of thanks and appreciation during the final minutes of the 24th annual Swindon Festival of Literature, which has attracted a broad variety of great guests.


He may already be thinking of ideas for next year’s quarter-century celebrations.