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Brian's Scrapbook

 

 

A Gallery To Play To: The story of the Mersey Poets

 

"Some covers of underdog, the little magazine I started when I was 16 as a roneod broadsheet. Later editions were hand-printed on a tiny press by my friend Eddie O'Neil and myself in his mum's front parlour These here contain some of the poems by Roger McGough, Adrian Henri and myself that ended up in The Mersey Sound, now in Penguin Modern Classics...

Other contributors included Pete Brown, later lyricist for Cream ('I Feel Free' etc) and Spike Hawkins, with his wonderful off the wall surreal poems. There were also poems by Libby Houston, along with Adrian H's translations of Jacques Prevert and Anselm Hollo's translations of Finnish poet, Pentti Saarikoski. American visitors to Liverpool, Allen Ginsberg and Robert Creeley, also featured, along with many others including much missed poet friends Adrian Mitchell, Christopher Logue, and Harry Fainlight." bp

(ABOVE) An all night happening at the Cavern - Summer 1967

Click the photographs to open a larger version in a new window.Back of a card from Spike Milligan, around 1990.

(ABOVE) Back of a postcard sent to me from Spike Milligan, around 1990.

 

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(RIGHT) An image of an early cut up poem by Adrian Henri and Brian Patten. Click to enlarge.
The Owl Cover

(LEFT) Here's a window into poetry circa 1919. The magazine has its survivors - Sassoon, de la Mare, Graves, Hardy and others, but also its fair share of casualties. Click to open and you can scan down the whole magazine. You'll find a few gems, and if much of the content seems irrelevant, it's worth remembering most of today's poetry will eventually seem as quaint. The magazine hovers on the cusp of great changes in poetry- Elliot's The Wasteland was a mere three years away.

You can find an elegy I wrote for Harry in the Poetry section of
this site.

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Harry Fainlight

(BELOW) The three Liverpool Poets, Roger McGough, Adrian Henri and Brian Patten in an unnamed bar somewhere in Liverpool.

Three poets with perhaps more than three pints....

(ABOVE) It’s 30 years now since Harry Fainlight (1935-1982) was found dead in a field in Wales. Incarcerated in asylums where he received electric shock treatment, and living in near poverty in squats and attic rooms, Harry was a friend and a truly brilliant poet.

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Brian and Christopher Louge in Tuscany.

(ABOVE) Brian Patten with Christopher Louge in a lunatic asylum in Tuscany.

 

(LEFT) Outside 21 Mount Street, Adrian Henri's house opposite The Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA).
Brian, Adrian and Roger outside 21 Mount Street, Adrian Henri's house opposite The Liverpool Institute of Performing Art
(RIGHT) Publicity shot of Brian at home in his garden. (photo credit: APEX)

Publicity shot of Brian at home.
Press & Media: click to enlarge. Please credit photographer (Chris Gleave) when used for additional publicity.
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