Track 10 : The sound of making a song about the poet John Keats, using a typewriter, scissors, pritt stick and guitar. Hackney. 2:00
John Hegley’s first public performance monies came from busking his songs, initially outside a shoeshop in Hull, in the late Seventies. He performed on the streets of London in the early Eighties, fronting the Popticians, with whom he also recorded two sessions for John Peel, and has since been a frequent performer of his words, sung and spoken, on both local and national radio. He has produced ten books of verse and prose pieces, two CDs and one mug. An Edinburgh Festival regular, he is noted for his exploration of such diverse topics as dog hair, potatoes, handkerchieves and the misery of human existence.
I visited John in his home to record the sound of him making a song. He was putting the finishing touches to a new song about the British poet Keats. If he needed to change a word in his lyrics he would type out the new word, cut it out with scissors and stick it onto his song sheet. A true cut ‘n’ paste style. John is currently Poet-in-Residence at Keats House.
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