The Scaffold: A Box of Scaffold 5CD plus DVD box set (Esoteric)
Growing up in Liverpool in the late 1960s, and into the 1970s there was always music by you know who, (those four lads) playing at home, in relatives and mates’ houses, as well as later musicians John Denver, ABBA and Kate Bush.
In our house The Beatles were represented by two albums: Revolver and A Hard Day’s Night. One of my six aunties had The ‘Red’ and the ‘Blue’ albums. I preferred the Blue (well I would, being an Evertonian) and I also preferred Revolver. There was something other worldly about parts of those two albums to these then, young ears.
I came to The Scaffold in the aforementioned aunty’s house where there seemed to be an ever present song, in what format, I’m unsure, called ‘Thank U Very Much’ being played. As most of the extended family lived in the north end of Liverpool, near Aintree, it was bizarre to hear a local place mentioned in the song with the opening lyrics of ‘Thank you very much for the Aintree Iron, thank you very much, thank you very very much.’
These words, sang in that order, transport in a way that only certain songs can, to a specific time and place.
The Scaffold, described by various quarters since its inception, as a comedy, music and poetry band, have finally had their entire output released in a handsome 5 CD 1 DVD box-set that includes radio sessions, unreleased music and a book with previously unseen images and copious liner notes. The photographs are a portal into a different time. The images of Liverpool and the in-crowd at readings and ‘Happenings’ are fantastic. It truly is a completist’s dream.
A particular highlight are the unreleased BBC sessions. Broadcast on 12th December 1967 and recorded for BBC’s Saturday Club, the version of ‘Thank u very much’ has a short interview with Mike McGear (McCartney) who proudly describes the band as ‘funsters’ and ‘non-musicians’ and goes on to describe Roger McGough’s poetry and calls John Gorman a ‘very clever, funny man.’ This rather sums up the musical contents of A Box of Scaffold. McCartney declares during the session interview that he ‘writes a few songs and sings them.’ As McCartney notes, their audience were from the ‘underground, the Edinburgh Festival and universities.’
The crossover mix of The Scaffold is perhaps better typified in tracks such as ‘Goodbat Nightman’ which takes its lead from the McGough poem of the same name. Similarly, the inclusion of the live album, The Scaffold Live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall from 1968 includes poetry, and is a particular highlight. Though clearly playing for laughs McGough ends his short poetry set with a performance of one of his best poems ‘Let Me Die a Young Man’s Death.’
I managed to see The Scaffold perform in 2000 at a benefit evening for the Liverpool poet and artist Adrian Henri at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. They were as fantastic as I imagined growing up in Liverpool they would be. The aforementioned live disc recorded 32 years previous, brought that night in Liverpool back into clear focus.
The idea that a band (I use the the term lightly) could incorporate poetry into a large headlining performance in London, says something of the out there nature of The Scaffold and in-turn, this box-set. The Scaffold came out of the underground scene in Liverpool in the early 1960s and the ‘Happenings’ that the poet and artist Adrian Henri organised. These were the first multimedia events in the UK, and led to The Scaffold being signed to Parlophone Records in 1966. The poetry crossover that was set to happen after the 1965 International Poetry Incarnation at the Royal Albert Hall, didn’t materialise. We’re still waiting, or are we? It’s arguable that The Scaffold did their best to put poetry on the popular cultural map in Britain in the 1960s and partially succeeded.
This is a fantastic release, at turns funny and observant: a slice of life of Britain in the late 1960s it unravels almost like an unearthed time capsule from a different world, much different to today. That alone is worth the investment.
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Andrew Taylor