A new edifice has appeared on the banks of the silvery Tay, and one named after William’s favourite monarch to boot! The Dundee V&A opened to general acclaim yesterday, but one notable worthy was missing from the festivities on account of having died in 1902.
According to the Dundee Courier, local writer and longstanding McGonagallite Eddie Cairney has sought to correct this omission by penning an ode in suitable poetic style. I’m sure the shade of the Poet and Tragedian is suitably impressed.
Fans of McGonagall should be well attuned to the problems of the struggling artist, so should be well disposed to lend a helping hand to Andy Crichton. Fortunately, Mr Crichton does not have to contend with showers of potatoes and rotten fish, nor even a shortage of filthy lucre, but a lack of inspiration in producing an artwork dedicated to our favourite poet and tragedian.
I’ll let him speak for himself:
Hi,
I’m an art student and looking for ideas for a painting about McGonagall. This would be my final piece for my course and I’d be interested in hearing any suggestions from other admirers of the man himself.
Put simply, if you were in a position to commission a painting that celebrated his life and/or his work, what would you be looking for? Would it be about scenes from his work or aspects of what we know about his life story.
Any suggestions or ideas gratefully receivedMany thanks
Andy
So, give the muse of artistic inspiration full rein, and offer your suggestions in the comments section below…
The Dundee Courier had a story last week about a new collection of poetry from her former sister publication the People’s Journal. Edited by Professor Kirstie Blair, author of two articles on this website, the book explores the range of working class poets writing in Victorian Scotland, from whose ranks McGonagall is just the most notorious example. According to the article:
The collection also illustrates how the infamous poet William McGonagall, represented by An Address to The Tay Bridge from September 15 1877, was part of a wider culture of “bad” verse in papers. […] The book includes poems by and about William McGonagall, who has become known as ‘the world’s worst poet’, though I show here that he was actually part of an established culture of deliberately bad newspaper poetry and became a major comic poet through it.
It sounds like a fascinating read, and can be bought from Amazon by clicking the following link:
Poets of the People’s Journal: Newspaper Poetry in Victorian Scotland
It’s been over a year since I mentioned the plan to make a McGonagall movie. Well, not only has the project not been forgotten, but I’m going to be in it!
This weekend, Erin and Scott – the creative team behind the venture – made the long drive down from Scotland to McGonagall Online’s headquarters in Leicester to record an interview with yours truly.
The end result will form part of a short film used to pitch the idea of making a full-length documentary to the likes of BBC Scotland. If that doesn’t come off, they’ll look for funding to make the film themselves. You can see some of Scott’s previous films via his website.
We had a great time talking about the Poet & Tragedian, and I look forward to further involvement with the project. I’ll be sure to keep readers of this site up-to-date with any developments. You can also keep an eye on their Facebook page.
Here’s a good story for the last Sabbath day of 2013 – BBC News reports that yesterday two granite memorials were unveiled to remember the victims of the Tay bridge disaster. The memorials stand close to the bridge on either side of the river, and are inscribed with the names of the 59 people known to have been killed.
Whatever the comic overtones of McGonagall’s poem, it’s important to remember the terrible tragedy that occurred to those people, their friends and relatives. I’m glad something has been done to preserve their memory – probably for a very long tine…
At a time of year when we’re generally occupied with wrapping of a different sort, reader Tom Taylor writes with a little history and some exciting news:
What ho! fellow McGonagall fans of high and low degree
On the 3rd of April 1997, a number of journals including The Times and the Scottish Herald picked up a story from Associated Press that claimed “dim-witted” American rappers on the Santaphobia label had a huge hit rapping William McGonagall poems. While there is a grain of truth here, the piece had nevertheless been heavily salted with lazy journalism and urban myth. I can now reveal the naked truth as one of the dim wits who dared to tread on the memory of McGonagall.
The story starts in 1993 at the birth of the All New Lucky Boys, a musical collective that a few friends and I started in Huddersfield (the heart of hand loom weaving in England), bringing together members of several ‘bedroom’ or ‘doss’ bands. During one of the early recording sessions, we were at a loss for lyrical inspiration until salvation presented itself in the form of a semi-randomly chosen book; The Folio Society’s Poetic Gems. In William McGonagall we instantly recognised a fellow ‘unwitting’ genius and rapidly recorded The Tay Bridge Disaster and Oban. Completely untutored in the arts of rap and hip hop, it was a mistake to think that they would be anything other than a dog’s breakfast, but we lived in a throwaway culture and this was reflected in our DIY, ‘do it and ditch it’ ethos.
The notoriety of what became known as The William McGonagall Rapping Masterclass was thanks to the blossoming internet career of one of our number. He created a personal website which told of our bedroom recording projects and the Santaphobia “label” under which we made them available, and offered Rapping Masterclass free to anyone willing to send a blank tape and a return envelope. No one ever did that, but in 1997 the website was used as the basis of the mangled story that Associated Press put on the wires. The Times picked it up and additionally contacted an English professor at Chicago North Park University for comment. Other journalists contacted The WTMcG Appreciation Society who also seemed nonplussed but rather pleased and so the mythmaking continued. What is plain through all of this is that no one, not the AP, the various journalists or academics had ever heard any of the All New Lucky Boys music.
It has always been in the back of my mind to do more McGonagall raps and after 20 years, I’ve found the bottle to try it all again. Radio Bingo vs Mile High Henry presents their new collection “McGonagall: Poeticrap” free to anyone willing to send a return envelope. Poems include Sunlight Soap, A Tale of the Sea, The Famous Tay Whale, Saved by Music and others. Listen and discover the truth for yourselves.
Tom tells me he’s also setting up a more 21st century approach to sharing the fruits of his labours than sending cassette tapes through the mail. When I have more information, I’ll be sure to pass it on.
A radio play based on an episode of the poet’s life was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday. Written by Lucy Gannon, and starring Dundee-born actor and film star Brian Cox as the great man, Topaz was a dramatic recreation of the famous trip to Balmoral.
The play is pretty free in mixing up elements of McGonagall’s life, and in inventing entirely new ones, in order to make a more engaging story. Most notably, in this version of events, he actually gets to meet Queen Victoria at the end of his journey! I suppose McGonagall purists (if such people exist) might take umbrage at this, but as evidence suggests that William wasn’t above embellishing his life story for dramatic effect, we can hardly chide Ms Gannon for doing the same.
If you’re quick, you can still listen to the play on the BBC iPlayer – it’s available until Saturday 2nd November. You can also read a review of it in The Stage.
Now playing at the Cabaret Voltaire in Edinburgh is a one-man show by American comedian Harmon Leon celebrating the career of our favourite bad bard.
Obey McGonagall is on every night between now and 24th August starting at 8:50pm. It’s part of the Free Fringe, which means tickets are free – but you’re invited to make a donation after the show. If you’re lucky enough to be in Edinburgh this month, I hope you’ll give this show your support.
While we wait for the McGonagall Movie, reader “Eugene Cheese” has been working on an animated version of the great man. I don’t think Pixar will be quaking in their boots just yet, but feast your eyes on the pixelated poet narrating the opening passage to his autobiography:
A recording of Robert Zuidam’s McGonagall-Lieder, mentioned on this site a couple of months ago, has received a short review in The Independent. The reviewer is impressed with
the success of his setting of McGonagall’s two signature works, without stooping to ridicule beyond a subtly bathetic momentum of marimba […] The coloratura soprano Katrien Baerts conveys the hysterical jubilation with which the poet first acclaims the new Tay Bridge, then laments its collapse
You can read the full review here.
STOP PRESS: A rather longer review has appeared in The Guardian.
