Music

In the early 60s. There was great excitement about the music that was going on, what we had heard had happened in America—poetry and jazz. But then, all the poetry and jazz I'd heard seemed to be a battle between the jazz and the words. On the other hand, music expects lyrics. So it seemed logical to (a) work with what was to hand (the Beat groups) and (b) work in an idiom that was word-friendly rather than word-antipathetic. Pop music is a vehicle for words.

Adrian Henri, interviewed in The Argotist magazine, 1996

1967

Later that year [1967], CBS Records released an album of Henri and McGough (sans Patten) which was a direct spin-off from the first book, sharing the same basic cover design and entitled The Incredible New Liverpool Scene. The album featured backing by guitarist Andy Roberts, who had first met the Liverpool poets at the 1965 Edinburgh Festival, and began collaborating with them more regularly when he arrived to study law at Liverpool University. The major catalyst in our becoming an accepted feature on the wider rock scene was John Peel, then a decidedly ‘underground’ figure with his late-night show The Perfumed Garden on the east coast pirate radio ship, Radio London. He played several tracks from the Incredible New Liverpool Scene album.

Mike Evans, Amazing Adventures CD notes, 2009.

One of the great non-singers of our time

John Peel about Adrian Henri

1968

The Amazing Adventures of...

UK: RCA SF 7995, 11/68
US: RCA Victor LSP-4189, 1969

Side One

1 Tramcar to Frankenstein (Evans & Roberts)
2 The Amazing Adventures of Che Guevara (Evans)
3 Gliders, Parks (Hart) 4 Burdock River Run (Roberts)
5 The Amazing Adventures of Che Guevara (Evans)
6 Universe (Band)

Side Two

1 Bat Poem (Henri & Roberts)
2 The Amazing Adventures of Che Guevara (Evans)
3 Percy Parslow's Hamster Farm (Roberts)
4 Happy Burial Blues (Cockrill, Evans & Roberts)
5 Palms (Hart)
6 The Amazing Adventures of Che Guevara (Evans)
7 Love Story (Henri & Roberts)

1969

Bread On The Night

RCA SF 8057, 5/69

Side One

1 The day we danced at the Dole (Evans)
2 The Raven (Roberts)
3 GBS Blues (Evans)
4 The entry of Christ into Liverpool (Band)
5 64 (Roberts)

Side Two

1 Come into the perfumed garden Maud (Henri)
2 See the conkering heroine comes (Henri & Roberts)
3 Winter Poem (Henri & Jones)
4 I've got those Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack, John Mayall can't fail blues (Henri)