Rhythm & Muse, a combined poetry and music open mic night at the Ram Jam Club, Kingston, south-west London, has been going for six years – but its roots stretch way back further than that.

Organiser Alison Hill, pictured, said: “We started out in Teddington, in a pub, the Lion, that supported local musicians with an R&B heritage, following on from the Eel Pie island scene of the 1960s, where bands including the Rolling Stones began their careers. Poetry and music complement each other, and we've had poets go on to write songs with R&M musicians, and musicians stay to listen to the poets. The bands and singer-songwriters are always appreciative of a 'listening' audience too, rather than competing for attention in a noisy bar.”

Alison and fellow compere Nick Poole run a tight ship. Potential open micers are asked to apply by email in advance. “We usually have one guest poet and two music sets, which leaves time for a certain amount of floorspots. Rather than turn people down on the night, I allocate in advance which helps me schedule and poets know if and when they're reading. It works well and anyone who doesn't get a slot, I put them down for the next month if they're free.”

You can often see a number of younger poets at Rhythm & Muse. That’s because of the strong links with Kingston Writing School, part of Kingston University. There have been two festivals featuring local poets from Rhythm & Muse and Kingston University creative writing school students and Kingston Writing School, with slams, workshops and an innovative day-long Poetry Tent at the university.

The musical roots and strength of Rhythm & Muse were emphasised on the night I attended with Write Out Loud colleague David Andrew by Little Machine, returning to the club with their exuberant and often moving renditions of poems by famous poets.

On the night we were there it was also noticeable that neither Alison nor Nick read anything themselves. Alison explained: “Nick doesn't write poetry (he's a man of many other talents, in the museums and archives world). I read occasionally, but prefer to read at other venues as well.” She did do a launch reading for her first collection, Peppercorn Rent, at Rhythm & Muse in its days at the Lion in Teddington, and plans to have a spring launch for her forthcoming collection, Slate Rising  (Indigo Dreams, early 2014).

Greg Freeman