Have you ever checked out Sunday Night Lives at the Flying Pig in Cambridge?

Held on the second Sunday of the month it features a mix of the best of local music and poetry and is hosted by Mark McGivern.

I caught up with Mark at the Flying Pig to find out more about this eclectic regular event, as well as his own inspirations. I wanted to find out what inspired him to start this event. Mark explained ‘this night started at a different venue in town, when the guys that ran that venue saw me performing poetry and asked me if I’d like to run a night for them, putting together music and poetry.’

Mark knew a lot of the musicians in town having spent a lot of time working in the festival scene locally, with events such as the annual Strawberry Fair. ‘They asked me to put a night on and what inspired me from doing that, was to give people from open mic scene to feature length sets, which they didn’t ordinarily get – both from the poetry world and the music world.’

Mark has been performing poetry around Cambridge for many years now. Like a lot of poets he’s inspired to write a lot about his own life and relationships, ‘whether that be romantic or just  friendship relationships and the interrelationships between people, that’s always what’s interested me throughout my life and that’s the majority of my poetry.’ In terms of other poets that have influenced him, Mark has one person that instantly springs to mind, ‘There’s a poet in Cambridge who does a lot of work, and that’s Fay Roberts. She runs open mics and other events and Hammer and Tongue, and if there’s any poet that’s inspired me to do better, it’s Fay.’

So, what advice would you give to anyone writing or performing poetry?

‘Whether they’re writing or performing – read other people’s as much as you can and then whenever you get the chance to see them, go and see them. Whether they’re just sitting there reading from a book, or doing the full on performance thing, it doesn’t matter – but go and listen, go and see, go and read, see what other people are doing, not to necessarily to influence you, but just to give you that wider sense and just that little bits of triggers and encouragement.’

Marks own ambitions for this year is to write and perform more, ‘I have the night here which I love, but I’m also heavily involved in the free festivals here – Strawberry Fair in the city, and that means that an awful lot of my time gets taken up with admin and I want to find time to get more creative and work in-between the admin, and to get out and perform.’

What acts have you got coming up this year at the Flying Pig that we should really look out for?

‘I have a very long wish list, but we’ll have Keltrix, who are a very well known Cambridge band, performing an acoustic set. We also have Ruby Glass and Three Years Younger doing sets for us. Beyond that I’m waiting for other acts to confirm, but the second Sunday of every month has Five different acts.’

Sunday Night Lives takes place at The Flying Pig, in Cambridge. For details of upcoming events, check out the latest listings by searching for Sunday Night Lives on Facebook – the next date is Sunday, March 8th.

The Flying Pig is a free house and is located at 106 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 1LQ

Just like some other famous Cambridge inns (such as The Free Press and The Cricketers), it’s been a micro pub, long before Micro Pubs were actually a thing. Here since 1845, it’s been under threat for last 7 years from a planned office development. Previous plans have included demolishing the existing building and opening a new bar elsewhere on the site. More recent plans however seem to  compromise by retaining the front section of the pub and redeveloping the rear of the site. The pub is a much loved inn and a live music venue, and would be sorely missed, especially as the last few years has seen the loss of so many small venues across the UK.

So if you’re free in Cambridge on a Sunday night, I definitely recommend checking out Sunday Night Lives. We certainly need more events like this, promoting local talent and supporting our great local venues. You can find out more about what’s on at The Flying Pig by following their Facebook page.

Looking for more local events in East Anglia? Check out our previous coverage of Poetry Swaps at Stamford Arts Centre, Wisbech Words at Wisbech Castle, and Pic n Mix Peterborough at When Polly Met Fergie in Peterborough.