Performance poet emerges from seclusion
Poet
Alex Staines, a veteran of hundreds of live performances both as a solo
act and with other performers, including Luke Hurley, Dave Murphy, Sam
Hunt, Chris Knox and Paul Ubana Jones, and who has not been seen on
stage for 15 years, emerges again at Happy Bar in Wellington on
Thursday, August 19th.
Seclusion Data
is the title of the performance, and of Staines' new, third volume of
poems. For the first time in his career, Staines will have musical
accompaniment in the form of backing tracks composed and arranged by
Steve Wolf, who played saxophone with Sam Manzanza, Bill Direen and Head Like a Hole. The music is performed by Steve, with Guy MacGibbon of the Flanneltones.
Staines
says he has always dreamed of incorporating music into performance
poetry somehow, and has finally found in Wolf, someone with the right
'poison': "Both of us have Dirt by The Stooges as our favourite song," says Staines.
Staines
developed an 'energetic' performance style in the eighties, based on
his love for all things punk. His first published volume, a double act
with fellow poet Mike Eager, was described by Tony Beyer in the Evening Post as "aspiring to and achieving some almost ecstatic moments of bad taste".
Eager and Staines met in 1988 at the founding of the group Poetrycorp, a sort of attack-dog perfomance poetry troupe. Other
Poetrycorp personnel included Apirana Taylor, the late Andrew
Kovacevich, the late Simon Williamson, Fa'afetai Ta'ase, Nikolien Van
Wijk, and Paul Dagarin. Poetrycorp toured widely, mainly as part of
university orientation tours, and attained what these days would be
called a "cult following" - one reviewer described a show of theirs as
"funny and scary".
Staines published his second verse collection, The Slow Road to Gore in 2003 on the heels of his video short The Voice of Foxton,
which screened at Antimatter underground film festival in Canada in
2002, as well as film festivals locally. Sam Gaskin reviewed The Slow
Road to Gore in Salient and said: "...unlike the 'Pure' campaign - which
is unsatisfying for Kiwis because it promotes an absence, Staines' New
Zealand is dynamic, gritty, abundant and culturally diverse. Gore's
detailed representations, vibrancy and strangeness offer enjoyment from
plenty of readings."
Staines
began performing original material in 1984 at the famous Globe Hotel
live poetry nights in Auckland, pioneered by David Mitchell, where he
met and was influenced by performers like John Pule, Piet Nieuwland,
Sandra Bell and Kim Blackburn.
Staines says he has not lost his edge, and Seclusion Data is "a great book", full of strangeness and lyricism.
Poetry
lovers and appreciators of unusual performers will not want to miss
this. The guest performer is songwriter Adam James Ring, who will be
familiar to many lovers of local folk music.
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| Alex Staines in a publicity photo for the 1993 Fun & Frets tour with Luke Hurley and Dave Murphy. This picture was used on the cover of Seclusion Data. Photo by Robert Axford, reproduced with permission. |
