ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

The Bluecoat Gallery in Liverpool has organised a weekend of events to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the first ever exhibition of Beefheart’s paintings, which was held at the gallery in 1972.

The festival, which takes place this weekend (10-12 Nov 17) has a programme featuring music, poetry, a symposium, a walking tour, a fanzine, an archival display and a student exhibition. Also, Captain Beefheart’s band, The Magic Band, plays Liverpool Philharmonic on their final UK tour

The events are as follows:
• A symposium interrogating Beefheart as a ‘total artist’, looking at his music, visual art, writing and performance.
• 13 poets, including Patience Agbabi, Vahni Capildeo and Peter Finch, perform new works produced in response to Beefheart’s albums.
• A music event with a range of Beefheart-inspired musicians performing their own original works alongside reworkings of Beefheart songs. Line-up includes Edgar Jones and the New Joneses, Dave McCabe (The Zutons) and special guest and former Magic Band member Gary Lucas.
• An exhibition, curated by John Hyatt, of art students’ work made in response to Beefheart’s 1972 Bluecoat exhibition of paintings.
The programme also aims to explore Beefheart’s specific relationship to Liverpool, where he performed several times, and his continuing impact on the city’s musical and creative scenes.

It has been devised by independent curator Kyle Percy working in collaboration with Chris McCabe (poet and Head Librarian at the National Poetry Library at the Southbank in London) and Bluecoat's Artistic Director Bryan Biggs.

Here Elizabeth Alker speaks to Kyle and Brian to find out more about the programme of events and Captain Beefheart's connection to Liverpool...

Show less