blog: reading at the Soho Theatre, by Iain Sinclair

A strange (for me) reading last night at the Soho Theatre. I haven’t been in that performed poetry world for a few years. But I saw Joe Rosen who helped put together a couple of DVDs from old 1960s footage for me. He reminded me that they are both still available. From Amazon etc. His company is called The Picture Press. The films are:

‘Ah! Sunflower’ (The 1967 film of Beat Poet Allen Ginsberg’s Visit to London). With bonus film ‘Debriefing’ (interviews with myself, Gareth Evans and Chris Oakley). Running time around 1 hour. ISBN: 5 051083 007634

This is the documentary, made for WDR in Cologne, in 1967. About which I wrote the Albion Village Press book, ‘The Kodak Mantra Diaries’ (1971). (The KMD has been reissued by Kevin Ring’s Beat Scene Press in Coventry. And is still available. With new photos and intro by poet Tom Clark.)

The other DVD – ‘Strangelies in Dalston’ – is more of a fragment. Material from 8mm film diaries covering the folk-psychedlic group Dr Strangely Strange when they visited Hackney in the late Sixties. Shot my myself and Renchi Bicknell. With ‘mash-up’ Strangely Strange soundtrack.  Available from Joe Rosen at the Picture Press.

Iain Sinclair