July Town Hall Talk: Poetry - Battersea Beats, Stephen Wiley

Dr Steve Willey s.willey@bbk.ac.uk Birkbeck College, University of London

THE POEM AS A MULTI-USE ART SPACE

POETRY AT BATTERSEA ARTS CENTRE DURING THE 1970S

OR BOB COBBING THE POET IN RESIDENCE THAT BATTERSEA ARTS CENTRE NEVER HAD

FOUR EVENINGS OF PERFORMANCES ORGANISED BY TAPOCKETA PRESS

WHAT’S ON IN WANDSWORTH [BAC/8/BAC/003/004/030]

BOB COBBING, ‘CYGNET RING' (TAPOCKETA PRESS 1977)

COBBING PERFORMING WITH ABANA 1977 & 1978

ABANA: COBBING, DAVID TOOP, PAUL BURWELL

BURWELL, PERCUSSION, TOOP, WINDS, COOBING VOCALS (1977) FROM ‘BALLET OF THE SPEECH ORGANS’ (TORONTO: UNDERWHICH EDITIONS, 1998)

THE SOUND & SYNTAX INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF SOUND (1978)

CYGNET RING (TAPOCKETA PRESS, 1977), TYPESTRACT ONE, AND A DUPLICATOR

THE HOSPITALITY OF LOCAL GROUPS POETRY B.A.C. [BAC/8/BAC/003/002/004] ‘Bluefoot’:

“an outsider, a man from another country or parish who has come to settle among new villagers.

The term arises because such a man is supposed to have bruised his belongings, looking for a new home. And even when this new comer finds his new home and marries and settles he is still referred to as the Bluefoot Man.’ James Berry quoted in James Proctor’s

ADRIAN MITCHELL AND BOB PEGG AT THE BATTERSEA ARTS CENTRE

WHAT’S ON IN WANDSWORTH [BAC/8/BAC/003/004/041]

Clip of taken from Peter Whitehead’s Film ‘Wholly Communion’ (1965), shot at the Albert Hall June 1965.

ALLEN GINSBERG AT BAC [BAC/8/BAC/003/002/003] (1979) Allen Ginsberg Reads at BAC 14 November 1979 as part of his 2nd European Tour ‘Europe Again & The Living Theatre’ October 1979.

Chronology: www.allenginsberg.or g

ALLEN GINSBERG ‘Put Down Your Cigarette Rag’: Poetry Reading Shot

by Don Rothenberg @ World symposium on Humanity, Toronto, Ontario, Canada April 1979.

‘Plutonium Ode’ Full video: vimeo.com/11 7931301

JOHN COOPER CLARKE AT THE BATTERSEA ARTS CENTRE

WHAT’S ON IN WANDSWORTH [BAC/8/BAC/003/004/043]

John Cooper Clarke reading ‘Health Fanatic’ (1978) taken from music documentary ‘Urgh! A Music War’ (1982)

PERFORMING ‘THE MERSEY SOUND’ AT BATTERSEA ARTS CENTRE (1976-8)

Roger Mcgough (1976) BAC/8/BAC/003/001/014

Brian Patten (1977) BAC/8/BAC/003/002/126

Adrian Henri (1978) BAC/8/BAC/003/002/016

‘The three Liverpool Poets, Roger McGough, Adrian Henri and Brian Patten in an unnamed bar somewhere in Liverpool.’

From www.brianpattern.co.uk

AVANT-GARDE PERFORMANCE PRACTICE — OVERLAPPING SPACES & SCENES

EXPERIMENTAL POETRY AND THEATRE

The People show, Jeff Nuttall Left

London Musicians’ Collective Flyer The People Show NO. 70 ‘Pictorial Smash’ BAC/8/BAC/003/002/030 BAC/8/BAC/003/002/030/011 1977

London Musicians’ Collective, David Toop Front

EXPERIMENTAL USE OF TYPEWRITER AND DUPLICATOR IN OTHER FLYERS

ROSEMARY BUTCHER DANCE COMPANY POSTER AND PROGRAMME BAC/8/BAC/003/002/072

IVOR CUTLER: VIRGIN ON THE RIDICULOUS BAC/8/BAC/003/001/017

POETRY, SOLIDARITY AND IDENTITY POLITICS AT BAC

BAC/8/BAC/003/001/059 (1975) & BAC/8/BAC/003/002/081 (1978)

THE LEGACY OF THE 1970S: APPLES & SNAKES AT BAC

BAC/4/APP/001

Brian Patten on the Bill (February 1999)

Jean Binta Breeze on the Bill (March 1999)

THE LEGACY OF THE 1970S: WORD ON THE STREET AT BAC

BAC/7/WOR/001/001

Outside the Beaufoy Bar (2001)

Clapham Intersection of Falcon Lane and Lavender Hill

ALLEN GINSBERG AT BAC [BAC/8/BAC/003/002/003] (1979) Allen Ginsberg Reads at BAC 14 November 1979 as part of his 2nd European Tour ‘Europe Again & The Living Theatre’ October 1979.

Chronology: www.allenginsberg.or g

ALLEN GINSBERG ‘Put Down Your Cigarette Rag’: Poetry Reading Shot

by Don Rothenberg @ World symposium on Humanity, Toronto, Ontario, Canada April 1979.

‘Plutonium Ode’ Full video: vimeo.com/11 7931301