I first came across McGough in the late 1960’s as part of The Scaffold, a ‘band’ which was made up of him, John Gorman and Mike McGear and the first record I ever bought with my own money was their 1968 number one hit ‘Lily The Pink’. Only McGear was a musician having taken up the guitar at a young age like his brother Paul McCartney who was also in a bit of a band in the 1960’s. This meant that they usually appeared with session musicians, such as Reg Dwight (aka Elton John), Keith Moon, Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix making up the numbers for the recorded and occasional live performances, whilst Roger McGough read his poems and comedian John Gorman did various comic sketches as well as playing the piano. I wonder what happened to those various session musicians? McGough wrote almost all the lyrics for The Scaffold with McGear (who changed his name so as not to be seen to be riding on the coat tails of his elder brother) writing the music. Although the band broke up in 1977 they occasionally appear together, although all the members are well past retirement age. At 85 years old McGough is still the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s programme Poetry Please and is very much active on the British poetry scene.

This collection of some of McGough’s short poems, some of which are very short indeed, is part of a huge body of his works published in well over thirty volumes, with one, a collaboration with two other Liverpool poets entitled ‘The Mersey Sound’ not being out of print since it first appeared in 1967. Whilst he writes poems on all sorts of subjects it is probably for his comic verse that he is most known.

Writer’s Block

The excitement I felt
as I started the poem.
Disappeared on reaching
the end of the fourth line.

McGough’s poetry is invariable upbeat and his distinctive accent makes his live performances a real pleasure, this is one of my favourites from his 2016 collection Poetry Pie just so that if you haven’t come across McGough before you can hear him in full flow. But I’m here to review this short book so back to the poems in here and one that starts off dark but still manages to have a happy ending.

Another Mid-Life Crisis

3am. Feeling like death
and wanting to end it all
I reach for the paracetamol
will there be enough?

One by one I count them out. 72?
Need more to be on the safe side.
Rummaging around I add another 30.
That should do it.

Take the first two with a glass of water.
Feel better. Go back to bed. Fall asleep.

McGough has been a fixture on British TV and radio ever since the days of The Scaffold so I’ve grown up, and started growing old, with his poetry and I find myself hearing his voice as I read the book. It was a real joy to read the 79 short works in this volume and I love the cover illustration with famous poets as geographical features. I feel the need to end this review the same way as the book ends with a simple one liner based on President Truman’s famous desktop sign.

The book stops here