On Mon, 26 Oct 1998, MARTIN CORLESS-SMITH wrote:
> I would still like to here Jones read.
- there used to be an Argo record with "A, A, A, Domine Deus" and some
others on it. The slow, wordless, shaking of vocal chords over those
"A's", the sound of a solitary man rediscovering voice under great
emotional pressure, has been described by one of the best listeners I know
as the most *frightening* noise she's heard.
> Did anyone ever hear macDiarmid?
- yup, on 3 or 4 occasions. Cold sober he was a tedious didact who spent
so long lecturing that the poems ended up marginal, insignificant;
completely drunk he was just tedious. Apologies if this offends any
tedious didactic drunks out there.
But between came a well-oiled moment when the ranting introductions really
fed into - in fact became indistinguishable from - the poems, which were
powerful, with a great vocal range. Happily I heard this too, for instance
at a reading in the Gulbenkian Theatre in Newcastle, with Sorley MacLean.
Reading really drained him on these occasions - the emotional outlay of it
- and he certainly climbed right into the bottle that night. Curiously,
I'd say MacDiarmid on form was a master of the still-point of the poem,
the silence, and of the quiet, lyrical passages - but I guess what folk
will remember are the glorious shitkicking rants.
RC
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