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Tom Pickard (born 1946,Newcastle upon Tyne,England) is apoet, and documentaryfilm maker who was an important initiator of the movement known as theBritish Poetry Revival.
Born Thomas McKenna, he was raised by his mother's maternal aunt, Catherine McKenna Pickard (1898-1990) Tom Pickard grew up in theworking-class suburbs ofCowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, andBlakelaw and left school at the age of 14. Three years later he metBasil Bunting and was instrumental in the older poet's return to writing in the early 1960s,[1] leading to the latter's most acclaimed poem, the long, autobiographicalBriggflatts, published in 1966. The association also produced Bunting's scathing "What the Chairman told Tom" ("I want to wash when I meet a poet.... my twelve-year-old can do it - AND rhyme!")
In 1963, with his first wife Connie, Pickard founded and ran theMorden Tower Book Room,[2] where he organised a series of readings byBritish andAmericanmodernist tradition poets, including Bunting. He also set up the Ultima Thule Bookshop - specialising in poetry, music and alternative counter-culture publications - between 1969 and 1973. During this period he also travelled in theUnited States to give performances and renew friendships with some of the American Morden Tower readers, includingAllen Ginsberg,Robert Creeley andEd Dorn.[3] Allen Ginsberg said of him: "I am an old admirer of Tom Pickard's poetry and believe as does Basil Bunting that he is one of the most live and true poetic voices in Great Britain."
With his wife Connie he organised a benefit to find love during a long weekend in Newcastle in 1972 for the miners during their first strike since 1926. Performers at the event included the poetsChristopher Logue,Hamish Henderson,Tony Harrison,Eric Mottram,Jeff Nuttall,Barry MacSweeney,Andrew Wylie,Victor Bockris,Jon Silkin and singersPaul Jones,Alan Hull andAlex Glasgow. TheBoldon Colliery brass band also played at the event.
In 1974, his televisionplaySquire was broadcast by theBBC and starred his friend, the singer songwriter Alan Hull—who wrote music for the play. The two friends also worked together on Pickard's BBC radio documentary,The Jarrow March (1976).
Unable to find work in the North-East, Pickard moved toLondon in 1973 and started writing and directing radio anddocumentary film scripts. His film credits includeWe Make Ships (1988), Channel 4;Tell Them in Gdansk (1989), Channel 4 - "The end of shipbuilding on theRiver Wear was announced in December 1988, but many shipyard workers refused to give up the fight. This film centres on a party held for the redundant shop stewards and their families and combines the music of the Flying Pickets and the humour of comedianMike Elliott to illustrate the ironies of the closure. The title highlightsMrs Thatcher's support for the striking shipyard workers inGdańsk while shutting down UK yards;Birmingham Is What I Think With (1991), Arts Council England--about the poetRoy Fisher;The Shadow and the Substance (1994), Channel 4.The Shadow and the Substance (the title is a quote fromJohn Clare’s poem on enclosure) examined the nature of work in an increasingly high-tech environment. In the filmRosemary Cramp, Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at Durham, discusses the basic human need and dignity in "labour" in prehistoric times as do redundant shipyard workers fromSunderland andTyneside. This was contrasted with the "psychic need" to work as seen by theAdam Smith Institute justifying the paying of slave labour wages. It also featured theBishop of Durham,David Jenkins, on the morality of the poor stealing food. The Durham Miners’ Gala featuredTony Benn speaking about privatisation eroding morality and citizenship. Young women working at a newFujitsu semiconductor plant situated in a former mining area are asked if they feel secure in their jobs. This was to be the future, replacing mining and heavy industry. Their manager admits "humans contaminate the product". (The factory later closed with a loss of 600 jobs duringTony Blair’s premiership.) The film concludes with a visit to the philosopherAndre Gorz who predicts the collapse of "work" and posits a radical alternative for trade unionist and socialists.
Pickard was series editor and director of film inserts onWord Of Mouth, a series of ten 30-minute TV programs forBorder TV/Arts Council England.Word of Mouth won a gold medal in 1990, at the New York International Film And TV Festival, for the best performing arts series, and was a runner-up for aRoyal Television Society award.
In London he collaborated with Moira Kelly of Air Gallery to run an international poetry series (which later transferred to theRiverside Studios under David Gotthard), as well as running a book-stall inCamden Lock market.
From 1976 to 1981 Pickard lived most of the time inWarsaw with his Polish wife and witnessed the rise of theSolidarność movement.
Pickard's poetry owes much to his reading of Bunting, theObjectivist poets and of theBlack Mountain poets, but is also rooted in his own urban working-class Tyneside background. His publications includeHigh on the Walls (1968),The Order of Chance (1971),Hero Dust: New and Selected Poems (1979),Tiepin Eros: New and Selected Poems (1994),fuckwind (1999)Hole in the Wall: New and Selected Poems (2002),The Dark Months of May (2004) andBallad of Jamie Allan (2007); the last three published inChicago by Flood Editions.Ballad of Jamie Allan was a finalist for the 2007National Book Critics Circle Award.[4] His part-autobiographicalMore Pricks Than Prizes was published inBoston by Pressed Wafer in 2010. His poem sequence "Lark and Merlin", published inPoetry in 2010, won the Bess Hokin Prize in 2011.
In 2004 Pickard was commissioned by Sage Gateshead and Folkworks to write a libretto,Ballad of Jamie Allan, for the composerJohn Harle. The opera was premiered in 2005. A CD ofBallad of Jamie Allan (withOmar Ebrahim,Sarah Jane Morris,Kathryn Tickell, Bill Paterson, the Northern Sinfonia withSteve Lodder and Neil MacColl).
Pickard collaborated with John Harle again in 2009, writing the words forA Song for London Bridge, a piece for saxophone and choir and organ. It had its premiere on 22 June atSouthwark Cathedral with Harle on saxophone, theKing's College Choir, Cambridge, conducted byStephen Cleobury and with the organ played by David Goode.
Pickard has worked throughout his career with many musicians, includingAlan Hull (ofLindisfarne), Peter Kirtley andLiane Carroll, Jed Grimes, Ben Murray and—Rosie Doonan and the folk band Tarras among others. Pickard worked withPaul McCartney editing his long poem, "Standing Stone". McCartney said of Pickard'sFuckwind (Etruscan Books 1999): "This collection of poems and songs soars over the fells, screetching truth, sex, humour, anger and love. With sharp vision Tom dissects his gut reaction and reminds us to appreciate the cool clear beauty of our own situation." The singerAnnie Lennox praised his collectionDark Month's of May (Flood Editions 2004).[citation needed]
His work has appeared in theLondon Review of Books and inAlan Moore'sDodgem Logic.
In August 2015, Pickard was one of 20 authors ofPoets for Corbyn, an anthology of poems endorsingJeremy Corbyn'scampaign in theLabour Party leadership election.[5][6]
Poetry
Oral history, memoir, fiction
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