Adrian Henri, Brian Patten and Roger McGough context (no poems directly analysed!)

1. The Liverpool Poets
Adrian Henri
Roger McGough
Brain Patten

2. Liverpool in the 1960’s
US beat poet Allen Ginsberg: "the centre of the consciousness of the human universe".

3. ADRIAN HENRI
ROGER MCGOUGH
BRIAN PATTEN
Published ‘The
Mersey Sound’: a
collection of
poems that was
part of zeitgeist
of Liverpool in
the 1960s

4. The Mersey Sound
The Mersey Sound is an anthology of poems by Liverpool
poets Roger McGough, Brian Patten and Adrian Henri
first published in 1967, when it launched the poets into
"considerable acclaim and critical fame".[1] It went on
to sell over 500,000 copies, becoming one of the
bestselling poetry anthologies of all time. The poems
are characterised by "accessibility, relevance and lack
of pretension",[1] as well as humour, liveliness and at
times melancholy. The book was, and continues to
be, widely influential with its direct and often witty
language, urban references such as plastic daffodils
and bus conductors, and frank, but sensitive (and
sometimes romantic) depictions of intimacy.

5. “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)

6. Pop Poetry
• The Liverpool Scene
• The Liverpool Scene was a poetry band, formed around 1967, which included
Adrian Henri, Andy Roberts, Mike Evans, Mike Hart (ex Liverpool Roadrunners),[2]
Percy Jones and Brian Dodson. Four 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 (financially unsuccessful) 1969 tour[2] 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." [1] The Liverpool Scene disbanded in April 1970.[2]
• The albums were:
• The Incredible New Liverpool Scene
• The Amazing Adventures Of
• Bread On The night
• St. Adrian & Co., Broadway and 3rd
• Heirloon (rarities and outtakes)
• There were at least three "best of" albums and two non-LP singles Love Is/The
Woo-Woo and Son, Son/Baby.

7. Accessible and for everyone...
• Contemporary effect
• It has been said of the 1960s: "the rebirth of poetry then was largely due to the
humour and fresh appeal of this collection."[2] The book had a magical effect on
many people who read it, opening their eyes from "dull" poetry to a world of
accessible language and the evocative use of everyday symbolism. Leading
anthologist, Neil Astley, describes how he had been reading the classic poets at
school in the 1960s, and one day his teacher read from The Mersey Sound: "That
woke us up."[3] The same experience is described by a freelance writer Sid Smith
years later in a 2005 blog, looking back at his first encounter with the book in
1968, when again a teacher read from it:
• “ The cover design was a psychedelic beacon flashing at the outer edge of our
black and white lives. The times were polarised and solarised and this small book
was impossibly exotic and esoteric ... During 1969 that slim volume was as well
read as any of my Marvel and DC comics, space race enclyopedia or the Dr. Who
annuals that never quite lived up to the show itself.
• Of course I didn’t “get” most of what The Mersey Sound was about but that didn’t
matter. It made me feel somehow connected to, well, whatever it was that I
thought was going on out there in that wider, long-haired world that I intuitively
knew I wanted to be part of.[4]

8. Performance Art
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAr6cYxQyh
Y
Tonight at noon – Adrian Henri