SPOKEN WORD
Working Class: Toria Garbutt & Louise Exactly
Mercer Hall, Great Harwood, BB6 7AL
Saturday 19th September 2026
Tickets £12.50
Get tickets now from Hyndburn Leisure website

Working Class is an exciting double bill of spoken word featuring two of the UK’s most powerful voices: Yorkshire-born poet Toria Garbutt and Wigan-based Louise Exactly.

Their fierce, funny and unflinchingly honest voices offer sharp social and political commentary and deeply-personal truths about life in working-class Britain.

Raw, rebellious and brilliantly human, expect laughter, rage and tenderness.

Louise Exactly

A sharp-tongued, side-eyed night of spoken word featuring the poem I Want My Country Back which has received over four million views on social media.

Louise Exactly is spilling the tea and serving it up with a side of poetry, politics and unapologetic power.

A sharp-tongued, side-eyed night of spoken word where being British means questioning, queering and confronting, coloniser ghosts and corner-shop truths.

Expect a rhyme revolution and MILF energy so potent it could topple the monarchy.

Is this Britain? Messy, furious and flirting with the idea of change.

Come for the poetry. Stay for the revolution. Leave with a belly-laugh full of hope.

Louise’s poem I Want My Country Back went viral in August 2025, receiving over four million views within days of its release in August 2025. The poem was written in reaction to the displaying of thousands of flags in towns and cities across the UK.
Louise Exactly, also known as Lousie Fazackerley, has appeared on BBC 1’s Breakfast show, as well as BBC Radio 3 and 4, performing her work to millions of people and talking about issues surrounding poetry and northern life.

She has supported the godfather of punk poetry John Cooper Clarke on tour and her work has been hailed by several of the UK’s best poets and literary icons:

Social media: @LouiseThePoet

Louise Reviews:
‘A great performer’ Will Self
‘A voice that tingles with promise’ Ian McMillan
‘That was amazing and I’ve been a poet for 34 years. Will you come and do my festival?’’ Attila the Stockbroker
‘A class act… I love her, you will too’ John Cooper Clarke

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Toria Garbutt

Toria’s brutally honest poetry mixed with an extraordinary stage presence has made her one of the UK’s most loved poets.

Since bursting onto the scene in 2014, she has been a regular tour support for Dr John Cooper Clarke.

In 2016, Toria released her Debut album ‘Hot Plastic Moon’ via spoken word label Nymphs and Thugs and in 2018 her first poetry collection ‘The Universe and Me’ published by Wrecking Ball Press.

The poet’s words have also been featured in Not Too Tame’s Northern Souls show at the Edinburgh Fringe festival and in The Guardian for their feature on ‘The Rise and Rise of the New Poets’.

Toria has worked with young people and prisoners, relaying the importance of having your voice heard no matter what your background and using poetry to turn pain into purpose.

Toria Reviews:
‘Toria’s words are silk javelins. Frank explorations of self, outpourings of a joyfully pained mind. She means it. Cos she’s lived it. I love that girl’ Mike Garry
‘Powerful, accessible, intelligent and musical. Just about all the things I love in a poet’ Professor Benjamin Zephaniah
‘The lyrical machine gun’ Matt Abbott
‘Rendered unemployed by Arkwright’s spinning Jenny at twelve years old. No wonder she’s a Luddite. Happily, she turned to the pen, with astonishing results. Ladies and gentlemen I give you, our mellifluous girl from the mills, Toria Garbutt’ Dr John Cooper Clarke 
‘Toria Garbutt is an utterly extraordinary poet, with a rich soul, hard kick and the biggest heart. In live performance she has an exquisite effect on the listener, she made me blush once and I am still blushing thinking about it now’ Salena Godden 
‘The most exciting poet I’ve seen in years’ Mark Grist 
‘I love her stuff’ Hollie McNish