Roger Joseph McGough CBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born 9 November 1937) is a well-known
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
performance poet. He presents the
BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a domestic UK radio station that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967.-Outline:...
programme
Poetry PleasePoetry Please is a weekly radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in which listeners request poems, which are then read by a cast of actors. The current presenter is Roger McGough...
and records
voice-overVoice-over is a production technique where a non-diegetic voice is broadcast live or pre-recorded in radio, television, film, theatre and/or presentation....
s for
commercialsAdvertising is a form of communication used to influence individuals to purchase products or services or support political candidates or ideas. Frequently it communicates a message that includes the name of the product or service and how that product or service could potentially benefit the consumer...
, as well as performing his own
poetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
regularly. He is a Fellow of
Liverpool John Moores UniversityLiverpool John Moores University is a modern university in Liverpool, England. It is named after John Moores and was previously called Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts and later Liverpool Polytechnic before gaining University status in 1992....
and is a Vice President of the
Poetry SocietyPoetry Society is a membership organisation established in 1909, open to all, whose stated aim is "to promote the study, use and enjoyment of poetry". The London-based Society's Director is presently Judith Palmer....
. .
McGough was born in
LitherlandLitherland is an area of Sefton, Merseyside, England. It neighbours Waterloo to the north, Seaforth to the west, and Bootle to the south.-History:...
in the north of
LiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, the city with which he is firmly associated, and studied
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
at the
University of HullThe University of Hull, also known as Hull University, is an English university, founded in 1927, located in Hull , a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The main campus is located on Cottingham Road in the north west of the city while a smaller campus is located in nearby Scarborough...
at a time when
Philip LarkinPhilip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL is commonly regarded as one of the greatest English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century; he was also a novelist and a jazz critic...
was the librarian there.
There's the moon trying to look romanticMoon's too old that's her troubleAren't we all?
"Aren't We All", from The Mersey Sound (1967)
Wasn't a bad party reallyExcept for the people
"Aren't We All", from The Mersey Sound (1967)
The general at the radar screenRubbed his hands with glee,And grinning pressed the buttonAnd started world war three.
"Icarus Allsorts", from The Mersey Sound (1967)
The general at the radar screenhe should have got the sackBut that wouldn't bringThree thousand million, seven hundred, and sixty-eight people back,Would it?
"Icarus Allsorts", from The Mersey Sound (1967)
When the busstopped suddenly to avoiddamaging a mother and child in the road, theyounglady in the greenhat sitting oppositewas thrown across me, and not being one tomiss an opportunity i started to makelove
"At Lunchtime A Story of Love", from The Mersey Sound (1967)
... i stood up and said it was a pity that the world didn't nearlyend every lunchtime and that we could alwayspretend. ...
"At Lunchtime A Story of Love", from The Mersey Sound (1967)
When you are posthumous it is cold and darkand that is why patriots are a bit nuts in the head
"Why Patriots are a Bit Nuts in the Head", from The Mersey Sound (1967)
he thinks about his journey nearly done.One day he'll clock on and never clock offor clock off and never clock on
"My Busconductor", from The Mersey Sound (1967)
there is a mushroom cloud in the back gardeni did i tried to bring in the catbut it simply came to pieces in my handi did i tried to whitewash the windowsbut there weren't any
"Mother the Wardrobe is Full of Infantrymen", from The Mersey Sound (1967)
Roger Joseph McGough CBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born 9 November 1937) is a well-known
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
performance poet. He presents the
BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a domestic UK radio station that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967.-Outline:...
programme
Poetry PleasePoetry Please is a weekly radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in which listeners request poems, which are then read by a cast of actors. The current presenter is Roger McGough...
and records
voice-overVoice-over is a production technique where a non-diegetic voice is broadcast live or pre-recorded in radio, television, film, theatre and/or presentation....
s for
commercialsAdvertising is a form of communication used to influence individuals to purchase products or services or support political candidates or ideas. Frequently it communicates a message that includes the name of the product or service and how that product or service could potentially benefit the consumer...
, as well as performing his own
poetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
regularly. He is a Fellow of
Liverpool John Moores UniversityLiverpool John Moores University is a modern university in Liverpool, England. It is named after John Moores and was previously called Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts and later Liverpool Polytechnic before gaining University status in 1992....
and is a Vice President of the
Poetry SocietyPoetry Society is a membership organisation established in 1909, open to all, whose stated aim is "to promote the study, use and enjoyment of poetry". The London-based Society's Director is presently Judith Palmer....
. .
Life and work
McGough was born in
LitherlandLitherland is an area of Sefton, Merseyside, England. It neighbours Waterloo to the north, Seaforth to the west, and Bootle to the south.-History:...
in the north of
LiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, the city with which he is firmly associated, and studied
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
at the
University of HullThe University of Hull, also known as Hull University, is an English university, founded in 1927, located in Hull , a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The main campus is located on Cottingham Road in the north west of the city while a smaller campus is located in nearby Scarborough...
at a time when
Philip LarkinPhilip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL is commonly regarded as one of the greatest English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century; he was also a novelist and a jazz critic...
was the librarian there. Returning to
MerseysideMerseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. Taking its name from the River Mersey, Merseyside came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974, after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, and the county consists of five metropolitan...
in the early 1960s, he worked as a
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
teacher and, with John Gorman, organised arts events. After meeting Mike McGear the trio formed
The ScaffoldThe Scaffold were a comedy, poetry and music trio from Liverpool, England, consisting of Mike McGear , Roger McGough and John Gorman.-Career:...
, working the
Edinburgh FestivalEdinburgh Festival is a collective term for several simultaneous arts and cultural festivals that take place during August each year in Edinburgh, Scotland...
until they signed to
ParlophoneParlophone is a record label, founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company. The ₤ trademark is a German L, for Lindström. It also resembles the British pound sign , which itself is derived from the letter L for Libra, meaning pound in Latin...
records in 1966. The group scored several hit records, reaching number one in the
UK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record industry. The full chart contains the top 200 singles based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 of this list...
in 1968 with their
versionIn popular music, a cover version, or simply cover, is a new rendition of a previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of "
Lily The Pink"Lily the Pink" is a popular single by Liverpudlian comedy group The Scaffold.Based on the folk song "The Ballad Of Lydia Pinkham", "Lily the Pink" was a surprise hit, becoming the Christmas #1 in the UK singles chart for four weeks, in December 1968. Another version of the song was the unofficial...
". McGough wrote the lyrics for many of the group's songs and also recorded the musical comedy/poetry album
McGough and McGear.
McGough was also responsible for much of the humorous dialogue in
The BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music...
' animated film,
Yellow SubmarineYellow Submarine is a 1968 animated feature film based on the music of the Beatles. It is also the title for the soundtrack album to the feature film, released as part of the Beatles' music catalogue. The film was directed by animation producer George Dunning, and produced by United Artists and...
, although he did not receive an on-screen credit. At about the same time a selection of his poems was published, along with work from
Adrian HenriAdrian Henri was a British poet and painter best remembered as the founder of poetry-rock group The Liverpool Scene and as one of three poets in the best-selling anthology The Mersey Sound, along with Brian Patten and Roger McGough. The trio of Liverpool poets came to prominence in that city's...
and
Brian PattenBrian Patten is an English poet. Born near Liverpool's docks, he attended Sefton Park School in the Smithdown Road area of Liverpool, where he was noted for his essays and greatly encouraged in his work by Harry Sutcliffe his form teacher...
, in a best-selling paperback volume of
versePoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
entitled
The Mersey Sound, first published in 1967, revised in 1983 and again in 2007.
On March 2, 1978, McGough appeared in
All You Need Is CashAll You Need Is Cash is a 1978 television film that traces the career of a fictitious British rock group called The Rutles...
, a
mockumentaryMockumentary or mock documentary is a genre of film and television, or a single work of the genre. Although a mockumentary may be one of the comedy genres, serious mockumentaries also exist. The mockumentary is presented as a documentary recording real life, but is actually fictional. It is a...
detailing the career of a Beatles-like group called
The RutlesThe Rutles are a band that are known for their visual and aural pastiches and parodies of The Beatles. Originally created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes as a fictional band to be featured as part of various 1970s television programming, the group evolved into a real band that recorded and toured, and...
; McGough's introduction takes so long that he is only asked one question ("Did you know the Rutles?" to which McGough cheerfully responds "Oh yes") before the documentary is forced to move along to other events.
One of McGough's more unusual compositions was created in 1981, when he co-wrote an "electronic poem" called
Now Press Return with the programmer Richard Warner for inclusion with the
Welcome Tape of the
BBC MicroThe BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation...
home computer.
Now Press Return incorporated several novel themes, including user-defined elements to the poem, lines which changed their order (and meaning) every few seconds, and text which wrote itself in a spiral around the screen.
McGough won a
Cholmondeley AwardThe Cholmondeley Award is an annual award for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the late Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966...
in 1998, and was awarded the
CBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
in June 2004. He holds an honorary
MAA Master of Arts is a postgraduate academic master degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in English, Fine Arts, History, Nursing, Humanities, Geography, Philosophy, Social Sciences or Theology and can be either fully-taught, research-based, or a...
from Nene College of Further Education; was awarded an
honorary degreeAn honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements...
from
Roehampton UniversityRoehampton University is a campus university situated on three major sites at Roehampton in south-west London, in the United Kingdom. The listed buildings stand in grounds close to Richmond Park and Putney, with central London a few miles away.-Origins:...
in 2006; as well as an
honorary doctorateAn honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements...
from the
University of LiverpoolThe University of Liverpool is a university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group and the N8 Group for research collaboration, and founded in 1881 it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic universities...
on 3 July 2006. He was Fellow of Poetry at
Loughborough UniversityLoughborough University is a campus university located in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, in the East Midlands of England.It has been a university since 1966, but the institution dates back to 1909, when the then Loughborough Technical Institute began with a focus on skills and...
(1973-5) and Honorary Professor at
Thames Valley UniversityThames Valley University is a British university based on campuses in Slough and Reading in Berkshire, and Ealing and Brentford in west London...
(1993).
In 2006, he appeared on an episode of the
BBC TelevisionBBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which began in 1932. The British Broadcasting Corporation has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927.-History of BBC Television:...
quiz show,
QIQI is a British comedy panel game television quiz show created and co-produced by John Lloyd, hosted by Stephen Fry, and featuring permanent panellist Alan Davies. Until late 2008 it was first shown on BBC Two and repeated on BBC Four, with syndicated episodes of previous series shown on Dave...
- (Series 'D', episode 11).
Poetry
- Summer with Monika 1967
- Watchwords Cape, 1969
- After The Merrymaking Cape, 1971
- Out of Sequence Turret Books, 1972
- Gig Cape, 1973
- Sporting Relations Eyre Methuen, 1974
- In the Glassroom Cape, 1976
- Mr Noselighter André Deutsch, 1976
- Frinck, A Life in the Day of, and Summer with Monika: Poems Joseph, 1978
- Holiday on Death Row Cape, 1979
- Unlucky for Some Bernard Stone, 1980
- Waving at Trains Cape, 1982
- Crocodile Puddles New Pyramid Press, 1984
- Melting into the Foreground Viking, 1986
- Noah's Ark Dinosaur, 1986
- Worry Toni Savage, 1987
- Counting by Numbers Viking Kestrel, 1989
- Selected Poems, 1967-1987 Cape, 1989
- You at the Back: Selected Poems, 1967-87 Cape, 1991
- Defying Gravity Viking, 1992
- Pen Pals: A New Poem Prospero Poets, 1994
- Ferens, the Gallery Cat Ferens Art Gallery, 1997
- Until I Met Dudley Frances Lincoln, 1997
- The Way Things Are Viking, 1999
- Dotty Inventions Francis Lincoln, 2002
- Everyday Eclipses Viking, 2002
- Collected Poems Viking, 2003
For children
- The Great Smile Robbery Viking Kestrel, 1982
- Sky in the Pie Viking Kestrel, 1983
- The Stowaways Viking Kestrel, 1986
- Nailing the Shadow Viking, 1987
- An Imaginary Menagerie Viking, 1988
- Helen Highwater Viking, 1989
- Pillow Talk Viking Kestrel, 1990
- The Lighthouse that Ran Away Bodley Head, 1991
- My Dad's a Fire-Eater Penguin, 1992
- Another Custard Pie Collins, 1993
- Lucky Viking, 1993
- The Magic Fountain Bodley Head, 1995
- Stinkers Ahoy! Viking, 1995
- The Kite and Caitlin Bodley Head, 1996
- Bad, Bad Cats Viking, 1997
- Good Enough to Eat Puffin, 2002
- Moonthief Kingfisher, 2002
- What on Earth? Puffin, 2002
- Slapstick Puffin 2008
As contributor
- Underdog: New Poems (Underground Poetry Magazine edited by Brian Patten) Underdog Publications, 1965
- The Liverpool Scene : recorded live along the Mersey beat (edited by Edward Lucie-Smith) Donald Carroll, 1967
- The Mersey Sound: Penguin Modern Poets 10 (Roger McGough, Adrian Henri and Brian Patten) Penguin, 1967 (revised edition 1980)
- The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century Verse (contributor) Oxford University Press, 1973
- Portfolio no. 3 (contributor - limited edition) Steam Press, 1976
- You Tell Me: Poems by Roger McGough and Michael Rosen (with Michael Rosen) Viking Kestrel, 1979
- Strictly Private: An Anthology of Poetry (editor) Viking Kestrel, 1981
- New Volume: The Penguin Poets (with Brian Patten and Adrian Henri) Penguin, 1983
- The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry (contributor) Norton, 1983
- Kingfisher Book of Comic Verse (editor) Kingfisher, 1986
- Puffin Portable Poets (with Brian Patten and Kit Wright) Puffin, 1990
- The Oxford ABC Picture Dictionary (with Dee Reid, illustrated by Debi Gliori) Oxford University Press, 1990
- An A-Z of the Elements (with John Emsley) Channel 4, 1991
- Penguin Modern Poets 4 (Liz Lochhead, Roger McGough, Sharon Olds) Penguin, 1995
- Another Day on Your Foot and I Would Have Died (with John Agard, Wendy Cope, Adrian Mitchell and Brian Patten) Macmillan Children's Books, 1997
- The Kingfisher Book of Poems about Love (editor) Kingfisher, 1997
- The Ring of Words: An Anthology of Poems for Children (editor) Faber and Faber, 1998
- The Spotted Unicorn: The Diaries of Chi Wen Tzu (editor) Viking, 1998
- Five Finger-Piglets: Poems (with Brian Patten, Jackie Kay, Carol Ann Duffy and Gareth Owen) Macmillan Children's Books, 1999
- The Big Book of Little Poems (contributor) André Deutsch, 1999
- The Kingfisher Book of Funny Poems (editor) Kingfisher, 2002
- Wicked Poems (editor; illustrated by Neal Layton) Bloomsbury, 2004
- Sensational!:poems inspired by the five senses (editor) Macmillan Children's Books, 2005
Plays
- Tartuffe (English adaptation of Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, mostly known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
's play)
- The Hypochondriac (English adaption of Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, mostly known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
's play)
External links