Jim Bennett launched
his new CD of poetry and song in the Third Room
at the Everyman on Wednesday evening, August 9th.
An enthusiastic band of aficionados ignored the
distant clatter of dishes and the hum of
ventilators fighting a war of attrition against
heat stroke. They were rewarded by an evening
rich in variety and entertainment, with
‘open mike’ spots and guest appearances
to back up the main event. The contributions from the
floor were of a high standard, from Tim
Stone’s compendium of cartoon characters
animated into song to Nick Hancock’s vivid
description of canoeing in British Columbia. The
quiet thoughtfulness of Angela Keaton was matched
by the variety stage verve of Georgina Smith.
There were poems about ageing by a lady who
didn’t show it, about the perils of teaching
Latin to a nubile thirteen year old, and about a
war-time innocent called up to Catterick camp.
Sam Vernon supervised the programme as well as
telling us about her ill-trained pussy.
David Bateman was
the first of the guest artists, looking more
saturnine and underfed than ever. His narrative
poem about a rapist within the family and the
immorality of the vigilante reaction should be
read to the recent protesters of Portsmouth. He
finished with a trademark piece, delivered with
the usual tautness which complements his
convoluted and wickedly inventive wit. Pete
McGovern brought up the rear. He is a quiet
unassuming man who is transformed the minute he
steps on the stage. Folk singer, poet, guitarist,
comedian with impeccable timing and well honed
ad-libs, he is the complete entertainer. His only
weakness is an uninformed antipathy to Everton
FC. He rounded off the evening leading the
audience in a rendition of the Liverpool anthem,
In My Liverpool Home, which, of course, he wrote.
But all this was
just the icing. The cake was Jim Bennett’s
new CD. Jim is still a hippie at heart, but he
has a middle-aged chest which complained huskily
about him singing on the night. (I checked on the
CD later. The voice is surprisingly pleasant.
Technology is a wonderful thing.) True to his
roots, he started with a lament to the lead
singer of Velvet Underground who had more lines
on her arm than Railtrack, but he does not really
delude himself, acknowledging later in mock
sorrow that
you can’t be
a hippie
when your hair
falls out.
Though he would
rather be On The Road with Jack Kerouak in the
wild abandon of youth, he now goes shopping in
the family saloon to Tesco’s and Boots. He
takes with him, however, the inquiring eye of a
journalist and a compassion rising from maturity.
The poem about the poor inadequate who
‘lost’ his trolley in Tesco’s is
both funny and sad and acutely observed and
though the trouble in Boots with the plastic bags
is also amusing, there is a sharp cutting edge of
protest;
he’s not all
there
she said, tapping
her head.
But he is all here
I said
One of Jim’s
great strengths is his range. He reads a poem
which naughty boys all over the world would
repeat with glee – I’ve got a jellyfish
hanging from my nose – and follows it with
poems bearing his soul, peeling off layer after
layer of feeling. He sees his father’s ghost
trapped in the carriage window of the New
Brighton train; his distress at the vandalising
of his deceased mother’s possessions is
sublimated into a poem. He conveys the tenderness
of love where
we hold each
other
always like the
first time
Jim has
rediscovered the secret of simplicity. Carefully
chosen words, transparent words, let the reader
look into a metaphysical subtext.
As the title poem
of the CD suggests, Jim is true to his Liverpool
background. He takes the post-war decline of the
city personally, though he never abandons hope.
His cathartic musings take him past bookshops and
‘places where things happened,’ like Ye
Crack, The Legs of Man and Lewis’s.
‘Walking in Liverpool’ is a guided tour
of the streets with realities and memories
merging into one. The furthest he gets away from
Liverpool is Grasmere and even then, he is back
on Merseyside before he
discovers
Wordsworth ‘lurking in a poem.’
Poets often do
not do justice to their own work, but Jim has
been performing for a long time. Experience has
made him more confident. He delivers with a quiet
incisiveness, letting the words do the work. He
is no longer afraid of the pauses which are
now…pregnant. Close your eyes and at times
the cadences are suggestive of McGough. But what
the hell – they are all scousers together;
somewhere in
Liverpool
where we are
poets
and we are
scousers
and it’s
still
the Summer of
love.
It was a great
evening, and it was free.
Down in Liverpool
by Jim Bennett.
A Long Neck Media
production.
Available as CD
(£8.99) or Audio Tape.
Review by Bill
Melrose.
|
Down
in Liverpool
A new CD of
Music and Poetry from
Jim
Bennett
- "an authentic voice
bringing the sound of beat to
Liverpool"
- or available from your
record store.
-
|