Jeff Nuttall

Jeffrey Addison Nuttall (8 July 1933 – 4 January 2004) was an English poet, performer, author, actor, teacher, painter, sculptor, jazz musician, anarchist[1] and social commentator who was a key part of the British 1960s counter-culture. He was the brother of literary critic A. D. Nuttall.

This article is about the poet, actor, and artist. For the church historian, see Geoffrey Nuttall.

Jeff Nuttall
Born
Jeffrey Addison Nuttall

(1933-07-08)8 July 1933
Clitheroe, Lancashire, England
Died4 January 2004(2004-01-04) (aged 70)
Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales
Occupation(s)Poet
Publisher
Actor
Painter
Sculptor
Jazz trumpeter
Anarchist sympathiser
Social commentator

Life and work

Nuttall was born in Clitheroe, Lancashire, and grew up in Orcop, a village in Herefordshire. He studied at Hereford College of Art, (1949–1951) and Bath Academy of Art, Corsham Court (1951–1953) He married Jane Louch, his former art teacher in 1954 and in the same year gained a teaching MA at The Institute of Education in London followed by National Service completed in 1956. With is family he moved to London in 1959 where he worked as a secondary school teacher in Finchley.[2] He was active with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) until 1962, then inspired by Alexander Trocchi and Peter Currell Brown, he committed to making art to change society. Connecting with other avant-garde writers and artists in Group H including Bob Cobbing,[3] John Latham, and Bruce Lacey, his modernist/anarchist persuasions found expression in painting, writing and poetry.

In 1963 Nuttall produced the first of 17 issues of My Own Mag with contributions from William Burroughs. MOM was one of the first underground magazines which were a defining feature of the 1960s counterculture.[4]

During 1965 Nuttall staged early Happenings at Better Books in London[5] These included the sTigma environment with John Latham, Bruce Lacey, Islwyn Watkins and Criton Tomazos. Later in the same year he participated with Latham in the International Poetry Incarnation at the Albert Hall instigated by Allen Ginsberg.

An overload of creative work and marital difficulties caused Nuttall to retreat to the Abbey Art Centre where he formed The People Show in 1966, one of the first and longest lasting Performance Art groups.[6] During 1967 he contributed regularly to International Times, and wrote Bomb Culture,[7] his personal account and critical analysis of the birth of the alternative society. The book was published in 1968 and then in 1970 as a best selling Paladin paperback. During this time Nuttall was teaching and writing in Norwich and would move first to Bradford College of Art in 1969 and then to Leeds Polytechnic Fine Art Department where he was a senior lecturer for ten years from 1970 to 1981. Nuttall was active in Performance Art collaborating with Rose McGuire (Priscilla Beecham),[8] and influencing other performers and students including Marc Almond. His presence in the Fine Art department did much to define the radical creative ethos at Leeds.[9]

Nuttall was the author of over 40 books. These included novels (Snipe's Spinster (1975)); poetry (Objects (1976)); cultural commentary (Common Factors/Vulgar Factions, with Rodick Carmichael (1977)); and biography (King Twist: A Portrait of Frank Randle (1978)). He was elected Chairman of the National Society of Poetry in 1975 and with Eric Mottram tried to introduce radical modernist poetry occasioning the Poetry Wars.[10] From 1978 to 1981 Nuttall was poetry critic for The Guardian.

As Head of Fine Art at Liverpool Polytechnic 1981 to 1984 his tenure was marked by controversial teaching initiatives, residencies at Deakin University Australia and increasing alcoholic consumption all of which contributed to his early departure in 1984.[11] With his partner Amanda Porter he lived in Portugal from 1986 to 1987, producing paintings and ceramics exhibited at the Flowers Gallery in London. He continued writing, broadcasting, performing, playing jazz cornet and working with the People Show again. As a character actor he began taking cameo roles in film and television making 63 appearances between 1989 and 2004.

With his last partner, Jill Richards, he moved to Abergavenny, Wales, in 1991, and later to Crickhowell. His creative output continued with soft sculptures, landscape paintings, poetry, and writing. His last two books were Art and the Degradation of Awareness (1999) and Selected Poems (2003).[12] Jeff Nuttall died aged 70 on 4 January 2004 while waiting to perform with his Jazz band at the Hen and Chickens pub (known as the Hen and Chicks) in Abergavenny.

Literary works
  • Poems (1963), with Keith Musgrove
  • The Limbless Virtuoso (1963), with Keith Musgrove
  • The Change (1963), Allen Ginsberg (cover design)
  • My Own Mag (1963–66)
  • Poems I Want to Forget (1965)
  • Come Back Sweet Prince: A Novelette (1966)
  • Pieces of Poetry (1966)
  • The Case of Isabel and the Bleeding Foetus (1967)
  • Songs Sacred and Secular (1967)
  • Bomb Culture (1968), Cultural criticism and memoir.
  • Penguin Modern Poets 12 (1968), with Alan Jackson and William Wantling
  • Journals (1968)
  • Love Poems (1969)
  • Mr. Watkins Got Drunk and Had to Be Carried Home: A Cut-up Piece (1969)
  • Pig (1969)
  • Jeff Nuttall: Poems 1962–1969 (1970)
  • Oscar Christ and the Immaculate Conception (1970)
  • George, Son of My Own Mag (1971)
  • The Foxes' Lair (1972)
  • Fatty Feedemall's Secret Self: A Dream (1975)
  • The Anatomy of My Father's Corpse (1975)
  • Man Not Man (1975)
  • The House Party (1975)
  • Snipe's Spinster (novel, 1975)
  • Objects (1976)
  • Common Factors, Vulgar Factions (1977), with Rodick Carmichael
  • King Twist: a Portrait of Frank Randle (1978), biography of music hall comedian
  • The Gold Hole (1978)
  • What Happened to Jackson (1978)
  • Grape Notes, Apple Music (1979)
  • Performance Art (1979/80), memoirs and scripts, two volumes
  • 5X5 (1981), with Glen Baxter, Ian Breakwell, Ivor Cutler and Anthony Earnshaw (edited by Asa Benveniste)
  • Muscle (1982)
  • Visual Alchemy (1987), with Bohuslav Barlow
  • The Bald Soprano. A Portrait of Lol Coxhill (1989)
  • Art and the Degradation of Awareness (1999)
  • Selected Poems (2003)

Selected filmography

Further reading
  • Charnley, James (2022). Anything But Dull: the life and art of Jeff Nuttall. Washington DC: Academica Press. ISBN 9781680536744.
  • Field, Douglas; Jones, Jay Jeff, eds. (2016). An Aesthetic of Obscenity: 5 novels by Jeff Nuttall. Verbivoracious Press.
  • Green, Jonathon (1988). Days in the Life: voices from the English Underground 1961–1971. London: Heinemann. ISBN 9780749390129.
  • Jones, Timothy Emlyn (2022). "The mammal thing: Jeff Nuttall and visceral intelligence". Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. 98 (2): 149–174. doi:10.7227/BJRL.98.2.7.
  • Keshvani, Rozemin; Heil, Axel; Weibel, Peter, eds. (2014). Better Books – Better Bookz: art, anarchy, apostasy, counter-culture & the new Avant-Garde. London: Koenig Books. ISBN 9783960984580.
  • Long, Mark (2016). People Show: nobody knows but everybody remembers. London: People Show. ISBN 9780956562173.
  • Miles, Barry (2010). London Calling: a countercultural history of London since 1945. London: Atlantic Books. ISBN 9781848875548.
  • Riley, James (2019). The Bad Trip, Dark Omens: New Worlds and the End of the Sixties. London: Icon Books. ISBN 9781785784538.

References
  1. Gray, Maggie (2017). Alan Moore, Out from the Underground: Cartooning, Performance, and Dissent. Springer. p. 29. ISBN 978-3-319-66508-5.
  2. Charnley, James (2022). Anything But Dull: The Art and Life of Jeff Nuttall. Washington DC, London, UK: Academica Press. pp. 51–62. ISBN 9781680536744.
  3. Robert Sheppard. "Obituary: Bob Cobbing | Books". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  4. Charnley, James (2022). Anything But Dull: The Life and Art of Jeff Nuttall. Washington DC, London UK: Academica Press. pp. 88–95. ISBN 9781680536744.
  5. Keshvani, Rozemin (2018). Better Books / Better Bookz, Art, Anarchy, Apostasy, Counter Culture and the New Avant-garde. London: ZKM, Koenig Books. pp. 159–163. ISBN 978-3-96098-458-0.
  6. Nuttall, Jeff (1979). Performance Art: Memoirs. London: John Calder. pp. 20–23. ISBN 0714537888.
  7. Charnley, James (2022). Anything But Dull: The Life and Art of Jeff Nuttall. Washing to DC, London UK: Academica Press. pp. 125–128, 187–189. ISBN 9781680536744.
  8. Tomkinson, Anna (15 November 2018). "'What a bright beam we had cast into their lives': exploring the papers of Priscilla Staples (Beecham) 1947–2018". Rylands Blog. John Rylands Research Institute and Library. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  9. Charnley, James (2015). Creative License: From Leeds College of Art to Leeds Polytechnic 1963–1973. Cambridge, UK: Lutterworth. pp. 146–150. ISBN 9780718893477.
  10. Barry, Peter (2006). Poetry Wars: British Poetry of the 1970s and the Battle of Earls Court. Cambridge: Salt Publishing. pp. 144–172. ISBN 9781844712472.
  11. Charnley, James (2022). Anything But Dull: The Life and Art of Jeff Nuttall. Washington DC, London: Academica Press. pp. 341–360. ISBN 9781680536744.
  12. "Salt — Publishers of Lesley Glaister, Alison Moore, Alice Thompson, the Best British anthologies and Modern Dreams". Salt Publishing. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
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