Liverpool poets
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The Liverpool Poets were a group of influential 1960s poets from Liverpool, England, heavily influenced by 1950s Beat poetry. They were involved in the 1960s Liverpool scene, that gave rise to The Beatles, during a time when the city was termed by US beat poet Allen Ginsberg, "the centre of the consciousness of the human universe".
Their work is characterised by its directness of expression, simplicity of language, suitability for live performance and concern for contemporary subjects and references. There is often humour, but the full range of human experience and emotion is addressed.
| The kids didn't see this poetry with a capital p, they understood it as modern entertainment, as part of the pop-movement. (Roger McGough) |
Contents |
[edit] Poets
Poets include Pete Brown (who wrote lyrics for Cream), Spike Hawkins, Heather Holden, Mike Evans and Henry Graham.
Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten were in a 1967 book The Liverpool Scene edited by Edward Lucie-Smith, with a blurb by Ginsberg and published by Donald Carroll.
Although he was born in Sussex, Adrian Mitchell shares many of the concerns of the Liverpool poets and is often linked with them in critical discussion.
The poets generally came from a working class background and went to art college rather than university. There was a strong allegiance with pop music, and the values and effectiveness of that in reaching out to a wide audience informed the poetry. Readings took place in a pub or club environment.
[edit] The Mersey Sound
The anthology The Mersey Sound was published by Penguin in 1967, containing the poems of Henri, McGough and Patten, and has remained in print ever since, selling in excess of 500,000 copies. It brought the three poets to "considerable acclaim and critical fame",[1] and has been widely influential. In 2002 they were given the Freedom of the City of Liverpool.
[edit] Bands
[edit] The Liverpool Scene
The Liverpool Scene was a poetry band, which included Adrian Henri, Andy Roberts, Mike Evans, Mike Hart, Percy Jones and Brian Dodson. 4 LPs were issued with Henri's poetry heavily featured. The first one was produced by Liverpool DJ John Peel, who was then working on the pirate radio station Radio London. Despite his support the album achieved little success, as did the other three. Public performances by the band included a 1969 tour when they opened for Led Zeppelin. Henri was described in performance as "bouncing thunderously and at risk to audience and fellow performers, the stage vibrating out of rhythm beneath him."[2]
The albums were:
- Incredible New Liverpool Scene
- Amazing Adventures of
- Bread on the night
- St. Adrian & Co., Broadway and 3rd
There were at least 3 "best of" albums and a single Love Is/Woo-Woo.
[edit] The Scaffold
The best-known band to emerge was The Scaffold (1963-1974), which featured John Gorman, Mike McCartney (brother of Paul McCartney) and Roger McGough. Initially Adrian Henri was a member, when they were known as The Liverpool, One Fat Lady, All Electric Show. ("One Fat Lady" is the bingo term for 8, and they mostly lived in the Liverpool 8 district.)
In December 1967 Thank U Very Much (sung with a Liverpool accent) reached number 4 in the charts. A year later Lily the Pink reached number 1. Ringo Starr's bass drum was used; also featured were Jack Bruce from Cream, Graham Nash from The Hollies and Reg Dwight, later renaming himself Elton John. Both hits were in the spirit of cheery and humorous drinking songs.
[edit] Grimms
A short-lived touring ensemble Grimms (1973-4) contained a changing cast of Adrian Henri, Brian Patten, Roger McGough, John Gorman, Mike McCartney, George `Zoot' Money, Neil Innes, Michael Giles, Kate Robbins, John Megginson, Andy Roberts, David Richards, Peter `Ollie' Halsall, Norman Smedles, Brian Jones, Ritchie Routledge, Valerie Movie, Gerry Conway, Pete Tatters and Timmy Donnell.
[edit] Criticism
[edit] For
S.N. Radhika Lakshmi observes "the Liverpool poets' approach to poetry differs from that of other poets in that they consistently give the impression of being real people getting to grips with real and pressing situations." He continues:
- Like the French Symbolists, Baudelaire and Rimbaud, 'The Liverpool poets' believe that the effect that a poem produces is more important than the poem itself; a poem should be considered as an 'agent' (that conveys the poet's message), rather than as an 'object'. The poetry of 'The Liverpool poets' is also characterized by the undercurrent of sarcasm, irony and pungent wit, which runs through many of their poems. They are also noted for their directness of expression, simplicity of style, and, (in the manner of Robert Frost), their deft handling of complicated ideas in uncomplicated language.
Adrian Henri was described by Lucie-Smith as "the theoretician of the group" and asserted the need to be in touch with contemporary life, following T.S. Eliot's dictum "to purify the dialect of the tribe" and pointing out that his tribe included everyone from motor-bike specialists through consultant gynaecologists and Beatles fans to admen and peeping toms. His conclusion was:
- the whole post-Gutenberg galaxy of expanding communications can become the subject-matter of the poet, it's just that most poets are afraid to face up to the consequences of it." [3]
[edit] Against
The emergence of the Liverpool poets as pioneers of "pop poetry" in the UK engendered hostility from the literary establishment. Ian Hamilton said:
- A lot was going on that we were in opposition to: there was the Group; there was pop poetry; there was the Liverpool Scene. And when Lucie-Smith, arch-organiser of the Group, went off and edited a book called The Liverpool Scene, praising those people to the skies we thought: 'Treasonable clerk. This is the sort of thing you'd expect from these corrupt, opportunistic, careerist-type figures.' So we went at them. As for nurturing talent, the talent that was around we... nurtured.[4]
Alan Alvarez wrote about "the fashion for the diluted near-verse designed for mass readings and poetry-and-jazz concerts", linking it with pop lyrics as "the logic of a traditional form at its weariest", scolding "the poet resigns his responsibilities" and concluding, "what he offers is not poetry", a criticism remarkably similar to that made by F. Dalton in The Times Literary Supplement, on 31 June 1917 about "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock": "The fact that these things occurred to the mind of Mr. Eliot is surely of the very smallest importance to anyone, even to himself. They certainly have no relation to poetry...".
[edit] Legacy
The Liverpool poets paved the way for a subsequent flourishing of performance and pop-based work by poets such as John Cooper Clark, Attila the Stockbroker, John Hegley and Benjamin Zephaniah.
The Liverpool poets were a strong influence on the late 1970s Kent group The Medway Poets (some of whom later founded the Stuckists art group), and were also involved in reading with them.
The Dead Good Poets Society in Liverpool refers back to the original Liverpool poets, lists a number of writers who have been active since then and asks, "So, are there a new breed of 'Liverpool Poets' out there? Who can tell? Maybe it's no longer about the Next Big Thing. What has improved since the sixties is that there are now more women poets, more confident queers, more people from diverse backgrounds and different levels of education who are taking part and giving their voices to the ever-changing cultures that make up Liverpool."
Alan Bleasdale said, "The poetry of Henri, Patten and McGough has stayed with me for 35 years. The beauty is its accessibility." [5]
[edit] Ginsberg
Poet Christopher T. George was born in Liverpool in 1948, and lives in America. He said:
- I was given a book by my parents The Liverpool Scene edited by Edward Lucie-Smith, published in 1967, that contains poems by Adrian Henri, Roger McGough, Brian Patten, and other Liverpool poets. By the way, Joe, the blurb on the back of the book quotes Ginsberg saying that "Liverpool is at the present moment the center of consiousness [sic] of the human universe". I understand he said the same thing about Baltimore when he was here so I am not surprised he said it about Milwaukee. I imagine every artist has his or her traveling box of tricks that they trot out to delight the audience. [6]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "XIV Modern Literature, section 5", John Brannigan Accessed April 9, 2006
- ^ On the Liverpool Scene
- ^ literature-study-online.com
- ^ lrb.co.uk
- ^ icnetwork.co.uk
- ^ The forbidden story
[edit] Books
- Ed. Edward Lucie-Smith (1970), British Poetry Since 1945, Penguin Books. (Includes theoretical writing by Alan Alvarez and Adrian Henri).
- Ed. Stephen Wade (2001), Gladsongs and Gatherings: Poetry and Its Social Context in Liverpool Since the 1960s, Liverpool University Press. ISBN 0-85323-727-1
