Roger the codger

THE wit of the Patron Saint of Poetry, Roger McGough, swiftly clicks into gear as I attempt to record our interview for The Northern Echo's website. I recall that his popularity as a poet in 1981 meant he was chosen in the pioneering days of BBC home computer software to write the work Now Press Return for the system's welcome tape.

"Yes, I was a groundbreaker... I'm covered in bruises still," he jokes before his natural modesty kicks in and he describes another of his contributions to popular culture as a "flash in the pan".

"It was Carol Ann Duffy who said that I was the Patron Saint of Poetry and that's come from being around and being a promoter of my work and other people's," he says looking back to a time when he was about 18 in Liverpool and "almost puzzled myself about wanting to be a poet. Other people were puzzled. In those days being a screenwriter, novelist or dramatist was okay, so mine was an odd choice and I was always keen to spread the word of poetry so that the more popular poetry became the more I would fit in."

He's moved, in poetry terms, from the early hilarious Let Me Die A Young Man's Death to a delicious later life composition called Pay-back Time, opening with:

"O Lord let me be a burden on my children,

For long they've been a burden upon me.

May they fetch and carry, clean and scrub

And do so cheerfully."

"To be yourself and not create a picture of yourself is what young poets do. You create a persona that you want to put out," says the host of BBC Radio 4's Poetry Please who has enjoyed a glittering career which has seen him go on to be a teacher/lecturer, playwright, scriptwriter and children's author.

He's coming to Durham's Gala Theatre on October 9 as part of the city's burgeoning Literature Festival and the performance poet will feature readings from his autobiography, Said And Done, plus selections of his most popular and newest poems.

McGough is slightly taken aback when I ask him about approaching the milestone of 70 in November and replies: "I can't quite believe it myself, I was hoping that nobody would notice. I still think of myself as a young 50-year-old and I'm part of the group which didn't "live young and die fast". Let Me Die A Young Man's Death wasn't about wanting to die young it's wanting to die with all your faculties and still being able to go out and do things."

As someone who rubbed shoulders with The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Marlon Brando, McGough admits that it wasn't the likes of John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix who impressed him the most. "I certainly met him (Lennon) and knew him and it's like everything else and you meet people like Bob Dylan but Lennon and Hendrix were known locally but you do it and meet them. But I was never a musician. You think you are by making records and albums. Then someone picks up a guitar and another starts playing the piano and you're out of it. Even then that was okay because I could stand outside and be the observer," he says.

The penalty of this involvement was that McGough never received an on-screen credit for his dialogue created for the animated film Yellow Submarine. "At the time it didn't seem to matter, it was just a nice thing to do, but I certainly should have got a credit... and the money that went with it," he jests, although he was aware that more doors would have opened to him as an official Beatles associate.

It was actually his involvement with Mike McGear and John Gorman in the comedy group The Scaffold, and the 1968 No 1 song Lily The Pink, which established his reputation as an entertainer. Two books, with the late Adrian Henri and Brian Patten, created The Mersey Sound of poetry, and was re-published as a Penguin Modern Classic in May.

"I said to Brian 'now we're a Penguin Classic we'll have to learn Greek'. I'd have preferred to have been a classic at about 35 years of age and had a good run at it," he says.

"Funnily enough you mentioning Lily The Pink coincides with them doing a big thing in Liverpool in January as part of the Capital of Culture thing. They are doing something at the New Arena, down by the docks, based on Liverpool having more Number One records than any other city - about 50-odd. The Scaffold are getting back together to sing Lily The Pink which will be quite fun," McGough says.

Looking back on the swinging Sixties he says there would have been changes anyway, even without The Beatles re-writing the history of music.

"There was a whole generation with access to art college and university education and it would have happened anyway, but it wouldn't have happened in Liverpool without them. For a while everything that came out of Liverpool was attributed to them and I don't think that's quite fair," he comments.

The poet, who has been based in London for over 20 years, is currently working on an adults' book plus a children's book for next year. "The children's books are bigger and more fun to do, but the two go side by side. I don't set out with an intention in mind, I just write the poems and then put it in which pile it fits into. Some go into both and at Durham I'll read a few poems and whether I'll say it's a children's poem I don't know and the audience will decide for themselves."

He always enjoys performing his latest creations on stage and admits new ones for Durham "may be the only airing they get, but some have become fixtures in the act. Some funny, some darker ones.

"I always want to be positive with a reading and want people to leave feeling better for it. You can be preached at and doom-laden later".

The offer to write his autobiography fell just right because it coincided with the release of his collected works. "Calling it Said And Done almost implies 'that's it... finito' while, of course, there is more to say and do and I've got a lot poems to get out," he says.

The Durham visit is a nice opportunity for McGough, who recalls meeting up with Newcastle poets in his early days, to catch up with his youngest son who is in his final year at the city's university.

I tell McGough that tickets are going well for his performance.

"I'll definitely go then."

* Roger McGough, Said And Done, Durham Literature Festival, October 9, Durham Gala Theatre, 0191-3324041