'I think I've played Cork ten times in ten years': Poet Mike Garry returning Leeside 

A FORMER librarian and proud Mancunian, Mike Garry is a poet who has steadily built a reputation as a wordsmith for his generation. While he focuses on his own life and locality, Garry’s work has resonance everywhere. He has performed in Ireland — and Cork —many times, either opening for John Cooper Clarke or headlining himself.

Garry is returning to Cork for two dates in The Crane Lane, in the city, and Levis, in Ballydehob, with perhaps his most ambitious live shows to date, mixing his writing with The Cassis String Quartet, whom he has been working with for 10 years. 

Many people will know their collaborative single, called St Anthony: An Ode to Anthony H Wilson, an homage to the Factory Records co-founder. Another Manchester heavyweight, Mike Joyce, of The Smiths, attests that “no words by me or anyone can truly describe how unique they are to watch live”.

Mike himself can’t wait to get back Leeside. “I think I’ve played Cork ten times in the last ten years, either Cypress Avenue or Live At Saint Luke’s with John, and I’ve done things on my own with the Ó Bhéal poetry nights and a few other things. I love Cork as a city.”

The keen eye of a poet praises Cork in detail. “I’m jealous of Cork as a city, because you celebrate your river. Our rivers are hidden underground, so the air and the airwell which run through Manchester is all covered, so you hardly see them wherever you go. I also see similarities and parallels with Manchester; it’s got a vocal working class, people standing up for the rights. You see it on the streets; it has a vibrant feel to it. It has an odd, working-class community running the likes of markets, pubs, and shops, and all those things. But in lots of ways, it’s not about where you’re from, it’s about where you’re at. I say that all the time.”

The difference between his solo poetry shows and what it will be like at The Crane Lane and Levis with a string quartet is harder to sum up than simply a ‘singer’ and a ‘band’. 

Mike tries to get to the essence of how it works: “People know me for my spoken word, but working with a string quartet isn’t me attempting to just heighten up people’s emotions deliberately. 

"What I say now is that a naked voice, an individual voice, all on its own, is powerful, but if you wrap a string quartet with composed music, which is there necessarily to or even give the words a stronger voice, it multiplies it by about a thousand, so instead of my naked voice, I’ve got angels by my side.”

Composing or preparing the set didn’t have one prescribed model. “It works in lots of different, different ways. Sometimes, I give individuals in the quartet the task of working on a poem, whereby they’ll take that poem off and they’ll do a whole thing about it. And, in other times, I’ll force them to work together in an almost jamming situation, where they have to create something. The music complements my voice; our aim is always to highlight the work more.”

Unlike a tour of just music pubs or arts centres, Mike has chosen to play some definitive music venues (all IMRO award winning), as well as The Seamus Heaney HomePlace. 

Mike said it’s to make sure to not get in a creative rut. “It’s about diversity, it’s very much about doing different places and different gigs. Of course, the big gigs, like Heaney’s place, are brilliant, and I’m really excited about it, but I’m equally as excited to go to The Crane Lane and what Cork offers.”

Mike truly believes in the power of what he creates with The Cassis String Quartet. 

“I’m not the greatest marketer in the world, but I love the diversity of gigs. I couldn’t just do the same gigs all the time; it’s the way I’ve always done it. Words have always been the predominant thing, but music is how I learned to read.

“I didn’t read books, I read album sleeves. The music has always been important to me, but the voice is the priority. What I attempt to do is to create a space where collected thought, ie the people who are there, feel it and almost create some mood within the room.

“So to the uninitiated, I describe one of my gigs as pretty spiritual co-operation.”

Like many people from north-west England, Mike has family links to Ireland. “I feel like it’s really important to go back to the land of my fathers. I know it sounds stupid or that I’m corny as f**k, but I do. My parents were born on farms one generation away from their educating of me, and their upbringing of me will have been informed by that. I stand in fields in south Armagh and I feel my ancestry coming up through the Earth in an incredibly spiritual way.

“I think it’s important I celebrate that, and not just going mad on St Patrick’s Day. It means keeping the Irish cultural spirit and beliefs strong within my soul, my existence, my acts, and works. Ireland’s really important to me, in of my heritage and the people.”

After 10 years of collaboration, this is actually the first time Mike and The Cassis String Quartet have ‘hit the road’ together. “This is the first proper tour we’ve ever done, there’s no marketing team, no promotional team, there’s no social media guru on it looking after it all for me, it’s just me. I want it to be an authentic show; we are what we are. Come and see us and you’ll understand how authenticity works.”

Mike Garry And The Cassis String Quartet play The Crane Lane on Thursday, May 15, at 7pm 

Tickets available via https://bit.ly/MikeGarryCork
They then play Levis in Ballydehob on Friday, May 16, at 8pm 

Tickets available via https://bit.ly/MikeGarryLevis