Liverpool poet Roger McGough wows audience

Roger McGough
Crosby Civic Hall
A Work in Progress

Liverpool’s own poet Laureate, the redoubtable Roger McGough, held the audience in the palm of his hands when he gave a witty and insightful performance at Crosby’s Civic Hall this weekend.
Roger was opening the annual Sefton Celebrates Writing festival to a packed auditorium.
The title, A Work in Progress, comprised poems from his recent popular collection, That Awkward Age, that he toured with last year, but also included many new and unpublished poems to what he deemed ‘an innocent and unsuspecting public’.

Standing alone with just a stool and lectern, dressed in a pink and black striped jumper, denims, blue trainers and iconic round glasses, he commanded the stage, bringing us nostalgia with his memories of his youth in Litherland, funny anecdotes of his large family, and his own wistful philosophy of life, often regretting the wilder things he might have done – had he been braver and not been a good lad taught by Christian Brothers at St Mary’s College in Crosby..
Sometimes it is a case of déjà vu for devotees when watching McGough romp through well known poems, but on this occasion it was as bright and witty as when he first started out in the cafes and bars of Liverpool in the 1960s.

At one time McGough seemed to be going stale, but at this performance he seemed re-invigorated, bringing us a freshness, vivacity, and surprising twists that made us think. His reflections on his life in his poems and his asides, resonated with our own and foregrounded the reality that is everyone’s journey through to maturity.

Obviously there were the poems that everyone loves, like A Fine Romance, but also he revisited others such as Let Me Die a Young Man’s death, but with a contemporary twist, bringing in references to guns and drugs – reflecting the reality of youth for some in our community, surprising us with its novelty, cleverness and raising much laughter.

He compared his life in the borough with Home Ground then quickly followed with Another Time, Another Place, bringing in Antony Gormley’s statues on Crosby beach, the two poems cleverly linking his past and the present, remembering the barbed wire, concrete pyramid tank traps, and faint memories of chasing a dog that ultimately died when it stepped on a bomb buried in the sand with hazy memories from a young boy who remembered a bright light that he thought had been the sun but now realised resembled death.

He reminisced about meeting Bob Dylan in Liverpool - and giving him advice, coal in sacks that they counted as they were flung down the coal hole, the last hanging in Walton jail, a list of where he has lived – 14 homes in all – and finished with a poignant poem listing all the docks in Liverpool that, for a home-grown audience, rounded off a funny, witty, and thoughtful evening of nostalgia and brilliance from a well-loved poet who is still on top form.

9.5 out of 10

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