Geraldine,

i think you're right. Jeff was certainly instrumental for me through 
his book 'Bomb Culture' and somehow through finding him in bookshops 
i ended up at the 1974 Polytechnic of Central London conferences and 
then at an Arvon thing in Lumb Bank with him and Mottram and Bill 
Griffiths as guest reader (he was blowing his cornet out of the 
hallowed farmhouse windows, Paul Buck, Ulli McCarthy as then was and 
Glenda George and Michael Haslam all dropped by) and then on the to 
the Poetry Society in Earls Court.

I remember him for his love of the blues and for his comic / graphic 
novellas and a twisting line that curled its lip through language 
under pressure to literally make something vital happen or fail in 
the attempting. I worried, blanched and flinched even then, at what 
came across repeatedly as a sexism bordering on an immersive 
obsession that revealed, for me, a tip of potential misogny (at least 
traumatized ambivalence but he's not alone from that time in that). 
His energy and enthusiasm and encouragement, yes he was empowering. 
His refusal of the trench mentality between high and low cultural 
points of view and perhaps most of all his interdisciplinarity, his 
genre grappling hooks  -  the work with the People Show [those 
scripts which Calder published are terrific].

I write as if he's past and of course he's very much still around and 
still working. An often undervalued presence and influence to be 
sure. My favorite media glimpse (apart from in latest Bond movie) as 
Friar Tuck "Welcome to Hell!).

love and love
cris


At 17:22 +0000 8/11/2000, Geraldine Monk wrote:
>And love him or hate him for sheer crazy spilling-out
>energy that bunch of guys Jeff Nuttal who I think
>influenced more people than people let on.  Not so
>much for his work but his sheer crazy energy.  A rare
>loony on the rather staid-stage and laced-up stays of
>ever so proper mumbling Britpo poes (t).
>G.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%