Virginia
and I used to go to Streates in Mount Pleasant to listen to local poets
such as Phil Tasker, Roger McGough and Brian Patten. We’d usually start
off from the Jacaranda and as we walked along Slater Street would note John
and Cynthia and Paul and Dot kissing in shop doorways. Streates was a small
club, basically a coffee bar for people interested in poetry. As we listened
to the performances of our poet friends, who could predict that the Mersey
poets would become the most influential performance poets in Britain and
their book ‘The Mersey Sound’ become the biggest-selling poetry book of
the decade? This particular scene is captured in Phil Bowen’s book ‘A Gallery
To Play To', a biography of Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten.
When I read the book when it was republished by Liverpool University Press
in 2008, I decided to interview Phil, who had previously compiled a book
of poetry about The Beatles. He was to tell me, “I first had the idea to
write the book when I met Roger and Brian on an Arvon Course in 1992 - although
from Liverpool I never knew them. The Arvon Foundation is based in Totleigh
Barton, Sheepwash , Hatherleigh, mid-Devon. It's a creative writing centre
set up in the seventies for sixteen would-be writers with two tutors and
a guest reader, for a duration of five days. There are others now in Yorkshire,
Scotland and Shropshire. I was a publican at the time in 1991, coming to
the end of my tether, and a friend who knew I was interested in writing,
particularly poetry, recommended it. I noticed Brian and Roger were tutors
in August 1991 - so I gave it a go".
"Brian suggested I try writing about comedians as I seemed to know
about one or two, and that formed the basis of my first short collection
'The Professor's Boots' including poems about Max Wall, Tony Hancock, Tommy
Cooper and Ken Dodd. I've stayed in touch with Ken Dodd ever since, after
giving him a copy in 1994. The following year all three agreed to give me
a try as a biographer as 'there wasn't anyone else really interested'. It
was difficult at first but gradually - around 1997 - I felt I was getting
somewhere and could see the overall structure of the book taking shape.
I'd catch up with Adrian, Roger and Brian every so often - they were very
helpful - and I seemed to be good at interviewing them and transcribing
those interviews. Other people I recorded include: Mike Evans, George Melly,
Andy Roberts, Maurice Cockerell and Yankel Feather. My poetry publisher
Stride agreed to publish it in 1999 - around the time of Adrian's stroke
- so it was great that Liverpool University Press have republished in 2007
bringing the story full circle in a sense - fifty years since Adrian moved
to Liverpool, Roger returned from Hull University, the Cavern opened, John
met Paul and Brian failed the 11 plus". |
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