Roger McGough

Roger Joseph McGough (; born 9 November 1937) is an English poet, performance poet, broadcaster, children's author and playwright. He presents the BBC Radio 4 programme ''Poetry Please'', as well as performing his own poetry. McGough was one of the leading members of the Liverpool poets, a group of young poets influenced by Beat poetry and the popular music and culture of 1960s Liverpool. He is an honorary fellow of Liverpool John Moores University, fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and President of the Poetry Society.

Early life

McGough was born in Litherland, Lancashire, on the outskirts of Liverpool, to Roger Francis, a docker, and Mary (McGarry) McGough. His ancestry is Irish and he was raised in the Roman Catholic faith. He was a pupil at St Mary's College in Crosby with Laurie Taylor, future sociologist and criminologist, before going on to study French and Geography at the University of Hull.Emma Brockes interview: Roger McGough
''The Guardian'' 14 November 2005 McGough lived in one of the university residences, Needler Hall, for three years from 1955 and served as hall librarian. Contemporaneously, the poet Philip Larkin became the university's librarian; newly arrived at Hull, he served as a sub-warden at Needler Hall, though he lived in private accommodation nearby. Several years later McGough corresponded with Larkin about poetry, sending him some of his own poems as he still lacked the confidence to approach the man directly. Larkin replied, thanking McGough for the poetry, which he had enjoyed reading. He added that he believed that McGough walked an impressionistic tightrope which, though exhilarating, meant that on occasion he fell off.

The Scaffold and Grimms

Returning to Merseyside in the early 1960s, he worked as a French teacher and, with John Gorman, organised arts events. McGough and Gorman later met Mike McGear (Mike McCartney) and together formed the trio The Scaffold; they worked the Edinburgh Festival Fringe until they were signed to Parlophone records in 1966. The Scaffold performed a mixture of comic songs, comedy sketches and the poetry of McGough. The group scored several hit records, reaching number one in the UK Singles Chart in 1968 with their version of " Lily the Pink". McGough wrote the lyrics for many of the group's songs and also recorded the musical comedy/poetry album ''McGough and McGear''.

In 1971 ''Grimms'' was formed, originally as a merger of the Scaffold, the Bonzo Dog Band and the Liverpool Scene. Group member Neil Innes said about the formation of the group: "I don't know what attracted the Scaffold to the Bonzos; we were incredibly anarchic, which was probably something shared by the Scaffold as well."Bowen, Phil. (2008) ''A Gallery to Play to: The Story of the Mersey Poets.'' Liverpool University Press. pp.104–106.

Poetry

As a poet, McGough came to national prominence through the publication of '' The Mersey Sound'' in 1967. ''The Mersey Sound'' is an anthology of poetry by three Liverpool poets: McGough, Brian Patten, and Adrian Henri."XIV Modern Literature, section 5", John Brannigan
Accessed 9 April 2006 It went on to sell over 500,000 copies, becoming one of the bestselling poetry anthologies of all time; remaining in continuous publication, it was revised in 1983 and again in 2007. The title of the anthology was a conscious association of the three Liverpool poets with the musical phenomenon caused by the eruption of the Beatles and associated bands from the same city, known collectively as the "Merseybeat", on the world. McGough's personal connection with the Beatles was referenced in a much later comic poem, "To Macca's Trousers", contained in the book ''That Awkward Age'' (2009). McGough discovered a long forgotten pair of Paul McCartney's blue mohair trousers in his attic; the trousers had been given to him, via McCartney's brother Mike, in the early 1960s.

One of McGough's early poems, ''Let Me Die a Youngman's Death'' (but not, as the poem states, before the poet reaches 73, 91 or 104 years of age), was included in a BBC
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