Institute of Contemporary Arts, London

["Andrew F Wilson" <andrewfwilson>]

Patti's appearance at the Institute of Contemporary Arts was arranged
by her publishers Virago to mark the British publication of her book
Auguries of Innocence.  It was held in the ICA cinema, not the
theatre, a small auditorium seating about 150.  Despite evident
jet-lag Patti was in good spirits, performed for over an hour, then
stayed a further hour to sign copies of her new book.

She started with The Lovecrafter and The Oracle.  The audience was
reverentially silent, which puzzled Patti, who seemed to think the new
poems were not being well received.  She then took out her guitar and
sang Beneath the Southern Cross, before turning to Early Work for some
more audience-friendly material.  She read Oath, Dog Dream, The Blue
Doll, Death of a Tramp.  She sang Wing, dedicated "for Toby", then
chatted a little about "her punk rock guitar style".  Prompted by a
story about appearing on children's TV in the 70s, she answered the
question "Dig you ever meet Mick Jagger";  apparently Mick rang her
when she was hospitalised in 1977.  This led to the story about how
the PSG had opened for the Stones in Atlanta in 1978.

She then read Land, a poem I've now forgotten, The Geometry Blinked
Ruin Unimaginable, Birds of Iraq.  She sang Qana, answered some more
audience questions, then read The Long Road.

At this point Patti began a long digression about how she did not have
a TV at home, but tended to find herself watching it in hotel rooms.
She told us at great length about the episode of a veterinary soap
opera that she'd watched "at four am" the night before.  The reading
then ended with a reading of The Writer's Song, and a performance of
My Blakean Year.

Tomorrow she will perform not very far from the ICA, at St James's
Church in Piccadilly.

Kind regards


Andrew