RIP Les Barker

 

The Guardian

By Sue Bradburn

February 26, 2023

 

My friend Les Barker, who has died aged 75, was a poet/performer and author much admired on the folk scene. My husband, Ken, and I were his agents from 1995 until 2019.

Born in Manchester, the only child of Miriam (nee Crabtree) and George Barker, who owned a newsagent’sshop, Les attended Manchester grammar school. He was a bright lad and after training at Manchester College became a chartered accountant, working at the city’s town hall until 1982. But he found it boring.

His real talent was in writing silly poems, which he would perform at local folk clubs. He soon became a regular at folk clubs and festivals all over Great Britain. By his side was Mrs Ackroyd, his dog and loyal companion. He toured America and Australia, and his silliness was treasured everywhere. Favourite performance poems were Jason and the Arguments, Cosmo the Fairly Accurate Knife-Thrower, Deja Vu and Dachshunds With Erections Can’t Climb Stairs.

In 1989, he formed the Mrs Ackroyd Band with Hilary Spencer, Alison Younger and Chris Harvey, putting his words to music. Puns of classic folk songs abounded. His poems set to music were recorded by the US folk singer Tom Paxton, the English folk singer June Tabor, the English folk group Waterson:Carthy, and many others.

In 1995 he hosted a show for BBC Radio 2 called Mrs Ackroyd Explores Her Roots. The Financial Times praised his work as “a blend of Edward Lear nonsense, Stanley Unwin wordplay, the surreal inconsequentiality of Reeves and Mortimer and the demonic robustness of Stanley Holloway monologues”.

Les had a serious side, too. He was politically aware and had an acute social conscience. His poems The Civilised War, with its opening line of “How goes the war on terror, George?”, and The Church of the Holy Undecided got him into trouble in America, leading to cancelled concerts and a refusal to grant him a work permit for his next tour.

In 2003, Les left Cotton Hill in Manchester for the village of Bwlchgwyn in north Wales. He embraced the Welsh culture and language: within three years he became a fluent Welsh speaker and won awards for language and poetry.

During lockdown, Les posted videos on YouTube of both funny and serious poems. His poem My Bag for Life Has Just Died was a big hit, as well as his many sideswipes at Boris Johnson and crew.

Les retired from performing due to ill health in 2022. He will be remembered for his genius with words, for making people laugh, but also for his cutting and often poignant poems about how world powers and people can be indifferent to the injustice all around them. Les was a popular figure, with hundreds of friends and thousands of fans worldwide.

BARKER, Les [1/30/1947, Manchester, Greater Manchester, England, U.K. -  1/15/2023, Oswestry, West Midlands, England, U.K.] – poet, songwriter, film, TV actor.

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