An Affectionate Tribute
– interepreting the genius that was Les Barker
Les Barker – 1947 – 2023
The best and funniest Poet Laureate we never had
Les Barker was the folk world’s well-kept secret on three continents. Outside its confines the general public were blissfully unaware of his talent for side-splittingly hilarious originals such as “Dachshunds with Erections Can’t Climb Stairs’ or ‘Spot of the Antarctic’ or ‘Have You Got any News of the Iceberg?’ (An alternative to the Titanic story from a polar bear’s point of view.) Is it possible to be silly and a genius? Les Barker proved that it was. The Financial Times praised his work as “a blend of Edward Lear nonsense, Stanley Unwin wordplay, the surreal inconsequentiality of Reeves and Mortimer and the demonic robustness of Stanley Holloway monologues.”
Les’s long-time friends, Keith Donnelly and John Watterson, each well loved performers in their own right, are bringing his poetry to a wider audience.
Keith Donnelly
Keith and Les used to share a stage as Idiot and Friend, so Two Idiots and an Absent Friend has followed naturally. Keith is a stand-up comic, fall-down comedian, surreal snigger-songwriter, guitar-hero, performance-artist, [tall] story-teller, wit, half-wit, raconteur, Geordie-cultural-attache, word-juggler, smile sculptor, Great-British eccentric, champion tiddly-winker, and… all-round good egg.
John Watterson
John is the UK’s leading performer of Jake Thackray’s songs and is a long-time Les Barker afficionnado. He has toured with Fairport Convention and performed at Latitude, Cropredy and the Edinburgh Fringe Festivals amongst many others. John is a talented guitarist, vocalist, and an engaging performer. On Les’s death he stepped forward to help sell Les’s stock of books featuring poems both silly and serious.
