I first heard John on a BBC Radio 4 programme called The Comedy Room Upstairs which featured some of the new wave of ‘alternative’ comedians from London’s new venue The Comedy Store. This must have been in 1984 or 5.
It was hosted by Clive Anderson and John performed two songs with his band The Popticians. The songs made a big impression on me; they were wild, chaotic and had outstanding lyrics. One was about Ken Livingston and was called “Why are Red Ken’s Eyes So Red?”. So I was really excited when I met John in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket during the 1986 Festival. He was handing out gold coloured flyers for ‘Benson and Hegley’; the Fringe show that he was performing with his friend Andrew Harvey (aka Benson). I went to it and loved it. I was living in Edinburgh in the 1980’s so it was easy to go to his Fringe shows every year and I struck up a friendship with him.
He is a stunningly fast and funny performer; quite impossible to categorise as each performance is different. It doesn’t do him justice to say he is a poet, comedian and a musician. Right from the start I loved his unique mandolin style and soon conceived the idea of asking him to be a guest on my next CD.
In 2002 I was lucky enough to get the very last ticket at his final Edinburgh Fringe performance of ‘The Sound Of Paint Drying’. This was a touching show about his relationship with his father and was based around a water colour painted by his father in Nice 1930’s. Afterwards I asked John if he would play on my next CD and he agreed immediately.
It was 6 years before we actually went into the studio and recorded the improvised track The Saunt, which is on Some Of Me Pipes. That year I also appeared as one of his 'spacial guests' in a couple of his 2008 Edinburgh Fringe shows, accompanying him with the Leicestershire smallpipes on his song Amoeba. What an honour! His school friend Tony Curtis played the keyboard with me on the second show.
Since then I have played quite regularly in his Fringe shows. Many of his songs have a simple diatonic scale and fit well on the pipes. Last November he was booked at our local Peebles arts centre The Eastgate. The show was called ‘The Adventures Of Monsieur Robinet’ and he asked me to accompany some of his songs in it. As part of his advance publicity for the show he wrote a poem about me which was displayed in the ticket office at The Eastgate.
Julian Goodacre, I met him on the sticks
of his legs at The Fringe, in Eighty Six.
I learned of the pipe-bags he likes to swell;
he not only plays them, but creates them as well.
We’ll collaborate in his home town of Peebles
with him piping-hot on an ode to amoebles.
There are songs and poems and stories and quips
with my mandolin and Julian’s lip.
He blows through the rosewood*, which goes over his shoulder
a feast at The Eastgate for younger and older persons.
* When I later pointed out that I never used Rosewood, he immediately took out a crayon and crossed out the word.
This August he played again at The Eastgate Theatre. It was a midday show for kids called ‘Family Alphaboat’. I accompanied a few songs and then John, Pat and I took the bus in to Edinburgh for his afternoon Fringe show Family Wordship. On the one hour bus trip he fell asleep for 30 minutes and then woke up and without a pause wrote down the words to a new song about aliens. This was the first song he sang in his show! The speed of his creativity is amazing. That same day he travelled up to Falkland in Fife to perform a charity fundraising gig with the Scottish group Shooglenifty. Three shows in one day!
I enjoy playing with him because I am never sure what he will decide to do next. He makes decisions on the instant, but whatever he does it always seems to work. And he is very polite and generous to his accompanists. I encourage you go and see him- he travels a lot, so there is a good chance that before long he will be in your vicinity in you live in the UK. I certainly hope I get to do more performances with him. He really is a genius; a national treasure.
http://www.johnhegley.co.uk/index.htm
The Guillemot
This is a track that John and I recorded in August 2008. It never made its way onto my CD Some of Me Pipes. Our accompaniment was improvised with John playing his mandolin and guitar and me on Leicestershire smallpipes.
I think The Guillemot is one of his finest poems. Some if John's poems mutate over the years as he alters some of the words in each performance. This makes it an exciting challenge to accompany him live on stage as I am never sure what will happen next. It keeps me on m toes.
I am glad that this version of The Guillemot contains 'lines more in the manner of George Herbert' as he doesn't seem to include this section any more. Maybe he will bring it back into the poem sometime?