The people who run Tesco's must be Buddhists You go in there and things are exactly as they should be There is nothing that you could possibly want. Bits of telepathic animals neatly shrouded in heat-raised polystyrene With Magic Marker gravestones. Dyed tomato mulch slobbering to itself in lead-lined tubular coffins, Zilched by monosodium glutamate . . . . — Heathcote Williams
The poem was published for the first time in 1978 in the literary journal New Yorkshire Writing with a Ralph Steadman-like illustration. “Cool thing was I could pay all the contributors and published about four or five pieces by Heathcote,” Jay Jeff Jones, who was hired to edit the magazine by a regional Arts Council, recalls. He also recalls that the name of the supermarket “had to be censored because of a possible legal hassle.” So the name was left blank with an asterisk (see below). Not so in the 1980 video.
Click the image to read the poem.
That is an effective video production of a poem. Heathcote was a year and 3 months older than I am. It’s good to see him again, looking much like he looked at the Isle of Wight Festival where I last saw him, when I too was in my thirties.. Heathcote looks like he’s been on a 3 day bender, but he always had that look. I think he earned it. At 35, he has already found his voice, that removed way of defining the world from another angle. This was about 44 years ago, yes. It’s strange to me that the man and the film looks so dated. To me the video looks like something out of the past; maybe it’s the vest. But the words continue to elicit imaginary thinking and a sense of wonder. What a gem; thanks for sharing …
yes, agreed! a gem! I didn’t know Heathcote those many years ago, but the words (and the voice delivering them) are as fresh as ever. he was prescient and committed. his dissent never aged. thanks for your comment. tiz much appreciated.