Literature: Poetry that pleases
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.So. Hello then, Roger McGough, famous poet from Liverpool. You are reading at the Troubador on Monday. And so is EJ Thribb. If he's not too shy.
Rounding off the current season of poetry at the esteemed and beloved Troubador Coffee House on 6 April, Roger McGough teams up with Barry Fantoni's Jazz Circus for a frolicksome night of skittish wit and whinnying saxophones.
For McGough (right), who can still regularly pack out a 1,000-seater venue like the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Monday's gig is a rare salute to the heady pleasure of performing to an intimate cluster, crammed in the shadows of a creaking low-slung basement. "It's nice to go back to the places I used to go as a child to see hairy folksingers," McGough reminisces.
Jazzman Fantoni accompanied McGough on many of those dubious nights out, back in the Sixties, when the young Mersey poet was still drinking a drink to Lily the Pink as frontman of The Scaffold. Fantoni played sax on McGough's early albums and the pair continue to prop up the bar together most nights at the Chelsea Arts Club. Joining them on stage for this occasion are musicians David Hackbridge-Johnson and Dan Quinton, who play an eclectic collection of 24 instruments, from double bass and mandolin to violin and bongos.
So delicious an evening is promised in fact, that it has even lured EJ Thribb from his suburban hermitage. Private Eye's resident Poet Laureate and verse obituarist, the reclusive Eric Jarvis Thribb (perennially aged 171/2) has sent a message via his friend Keith's mum, to say that he'll be composing topical new odes for the occasion. "I'll be looking for a good death in the week," notes Thribb. "Another member of the Royal Family would be ideal."
If celebrity health triumphs, Thribb may be forced to fall back on old favourites like this: "So. Farewell then Dizzy Gillespie/ famous jazz trumpeter/ You were known for your bulging cheeks/ Rudolf Nureyev/ So were you."
"I'd love to get Thribb on one of the writing courses I do from time to time at the Arvon Foundation," McGough offers generously. "I think Ian Hislop pays him too well, and sometimes the art can suffer."
`Summer with Monika' by Roger McGough launches Radio 4's revamped afternoon play series on 6 Apr at 2.15pm
McGough, Thribb and Fantoni's Jazz Circus are at The Troubador, 265 Old Brompton Road, London SW5 (0181-354 0660) 6 Apr, 8pm, pounds 4/pounds 3 concs
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments