Nick Burbridge
Encyclopedia
Nick Burbridge is a British novelist, poet, dramatist, journalist, short story and song writer. He suffers from chronic depression, and his writing often concerns itself with the dispossessed, those at the margins of society. In fRoots, Jerry Gilbert described him as "a second-generation Irishman with a high intellect and an angry disposition."
, Stand and Ambit
, Arts Council
Anthologies, and on BBC Radio 4
.
Burbridge's plays have been performed on the Brighton and London fringe, and on tour. Bright Red Theatre's double-bill Neck and Cutting Room, which dealt with political extremism, toured nationally in 1988. Vermin, about the homeless, was premiered at the Brighton Festival and transferred to the Finborough
in 1991. Cock Robin, about recovering alcoholics, was a runner up in the Verity Bargate Award for new writing, while Scrap, dealing with teenage disorders, received an Arts Council Research and Development award in 1996. Burbridge's fringe work was revived by Otherplace Productions at Bankside's Rose Theatre
in Hard Chair Stories, a piece about living with severe disability, and taken to 3 & 10, Brighton Festival
2008.
As the founder of Tommy McDermott's Theatre in 1989, a company committed to producing contemporary drama centred around social issues, Burbridge worked with, among others, the Soho Theatre
, Jack Bradley (Literary Manager at the National Theatre) and playwrights Mark Ravenhill
and Diane Samuels
. This led to a number of media appearances, including a televised debate about arts funding, on a panel with Patrick Garland
and Nicholas de Jongh
. He has also had work produced on BBC Radio
, such as the Monday Play Grosse Fugue and the Afternoon Play Rites Of Passage.
Burbridge has published the full-length novel Operation Emerald, under the pseudonym Dominic McCartan, concerning those caught up in the Troubles in Northern Ireland. As a manuscript, this reached the final shortlist for the 1984 Triple First Award, run jointly by The Bodley Head
, Penguin Books
and The Book Club Association, adjudicated by William Trevor
and Graham Greene
. A non-fiction work, War Without Honour, where he collaborated with Fred Holroyd
, an ex-military intelligence officer, was launched at the House of Commons, and caused a political stir. Burbridge originally secured a commission from Harrap, but the company withdrew before going to press, and the work was issued by a small independent publisher, Medium; according to Tam Dalyell
, the material concerned "the probity of the British Government at the top", though others have not been convinced by the claims. Burbridge has also written analytical articles on poetry and ethnic music for magazines like R2 (Rock'n'Reel)
exploring the link between personal and political disorder and creativity.
In August 2010 Burbridge contributed to an eBook collection of political poems entitled Emergency Verse – Poetry in Defence of the Welfare State edited by Alan Morrison
He has written a new full length poetry collection, The Unicycle Set, published by Waterloo Press, February 2011.
who released the album, The Enemy Within in 1989. At their peak, the band performed regularly at festivals like Glastonbury, Reading and Womad. At that time he signed a publishing deal with the producer Joe Boyd
. In 1993 folk-rock band The Levellers, who cite Burbridge's band as a major formative influence, covered one track, Dirty Davey, on their own eponymous recording, which briefly topped the UK album charts. The band have rarely performed together in recent years, but four – uncommercial yet critically acclaimed – albums of Burbridge's songs have been released since 2000. Burbridge recorded tracks at the Levellers' studio in Brighton, and other musicians augmented his work. The first three, World Turned Upside Down (2001), Claws And Wings (2003), and Disorder (2004) were released as McDermott's Two Hours vs Levellers recordings, while the last, Goodbye To The Madhouse (2007) appeared as a McDermott's Two Hours album.
Burbridge's songs have been covered by folk artists like Damien Barber and Mike Wilson on Under The Influence and Maggie Boyle
. In 2008 he combined poetry-reading with music and effects by The Levellers' Jon Sevink, on a privately released album entitled All Kinds of Disorder, an elaboration on the themes in his book, and an original form of statement on life at the margins. In R2 Steve Caseman called it "an exemplary combination of poetry and music," while fRoots recorded how "human drama and frailty is read out with relish along with keen observations of behaviour that celebrates the outsider and encourages the closet revolutionary in us all".
feature, Richard Marshall wrote that "the compromised tenderness and strange wrongness" of the poems' subjects marked Burbridge as "a poet of dysfunctional sensibility" – while Helena Nelson commented in Ambit
, that although Burbridge's poetry sometimes seemed prose-like, at the expense of cadence and rhythm, "I will remember him".
Reviews of his plays have recognised the power of the writing, but questioned the impact of the underlying depressive tone, and whether, as Mick Martin in The Guardian
asked, he deals "in dramatic characterisation or political point scoring", however interesting his characters, or however challenging the argument. Martin Hoyle wrote in The Times
that to see a state of the Kingdom allegory in Burbridge's grimly misanthropic quintet set in "a derelict toy warehouse" would be easy, the satire was heavy-handed, but concluded that "raw emotion is certainly there and plenty of anger is generated." While The Independent
noted: "There is disturbing drama in the violent interplay", yet wondered where the audience was being taken.
Q Magazine called the title track of World Turned Upside Down "a crusty anthem", and La Pasionaria "the best Spanish Civil War song since The Clash's Spanish Bombs." Simon Jones wrote of Claws And Wings in fRoots magazine that Burbridge made the album "for all the right reasons", and that "authenticity is a big part of what he's about." Disorder prompted the assertion that "Burbridge always was a caustic writer", but in his individualistic approach, "in fact he was pointing out the very obvious flaws in our so-called civilised society." When Goodbye To The Madhouse appeared in the autumn of 2007, fRoots summarised the change in focus, commenting that "Burbridge's vitriol has been toned down", and "thoughts of band and writer seem to be rising above the national into overarching concepts that, like the work of the best, apply at any number of levels".
, London,1985. ISBN 0 7453 0006 5
War Without Honour (Fred Holroyd
with Nick Burbridge) Medium, London, 1989. ISBN 1-872398-00-6
On Call, Envoi Poets Publications, 1994. ISBN 1 874161 24 0
All KInds Of Disorder, Waterloo Press, 2006. ISBN 1-902731-29-8
The Unicycle Set, Waterloo Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-906742-28-7
Vermin (1991)
Cock Robin (1992)
Grosse Fugue (BBC Radio, 1995)
Scrap (1996)
Rites Of Passage (BBC Radio, 1999)
World Turned Upside Down (2001)
Claws And Wings (2003)
Disorder (2004)
Goodbye To The Madhouse (2007)
All Kinds of Disorder (2008)
Writing
Burbridge's short stories and poetry have appeared in numerous literary magazines, such as AgendaAgenda (poetry journal)
Agenda is a literary journal published in London and founded by William Cookson. Agenda Editions is an imprint of the journal operating as a small press.-History and editorial orientation:...
, Stand and Ambit
Ambit (magazine)
Ambit is a literary periodical published in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1959 by Dr Martin Bax, a London paediatrician.Uniting art, prose, poetry and reviews, the magazine appears quarterly and is distributed internationally. Notable Ambit contributors have included J. G. Ballard, Eduardo...
, Arts Council
Arts council
An arts council is a government or private, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing events at home and abroad...
Anthologies, and on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
.
Burbridge's plays have been performed on the Brighton and London fringe, and on tour. Bright Red Theatre's double-bill Neck and Cutting Room, which dealt with political extremism, toured nationally in 1988. Vermin, about the homeless, was premiered at the Brighton Festival and transferred to the Finborough
Finborough Theatre
The Finborough Theatre is a fifty seat theatre in the Earls Court area of London, United Kingdom , which presents new British writing, UK and premieres of new plays, primarily from the English speaking world including North America, Canada, Scotland and Ireland, music theatre, and rarely seen...
in 1991. Cock Robin, about recovering alcoholics, was a runner up in the Verity Bargate Award for new writing, while Scrap, dealing with teenage disorders, received an Arts Council Research and Development award in 1996. Burbridge's fringe work was revived by Otherplace Productions at Bankside's Rose Theatre
The Rose (theatre)
The Rose was an Elizabethan theatre. It was the fourth of the public theatres to be built, after The Theatre , the Curtain , and the theatre at Newington Butts The Rose was an Elizabethan theatre. It was the fourth of the public theatres to be built, after The Theatre (1576), the Curtain (1577),...
in Hard Chair Stories, a piece about living with severe disability, and taken to 3 & 10, Brighton Festival
Brighton Festival
The Brighton Festival is an annual arts festival which takes place in the city of Brighton and Hove in England each May. It was founded in 1966, and is the largest multi-art form festival in England...
2008.
As the founder of Tommy McDermott's Theatre in 1989, a company committed to producing contemporary drama centred around social issues, Burbridge worked with, among others, the Soho Theatre
Soho Theatre
Soho Theatre is a theatre in the eponymous Soho district of the City of Westminster. It presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret....
, Jack Bradley (Literary Manager at the National Theatre) and playwrights Mark Ravenhill
Mark Ravenhill
Mark Ravenhill is an English playwright, actor and journalist.His most famous plays include Shopping and Fucking , Some Explicit Polaroids and Mother Clap's Molly House . He made his acting debut in his monologue Product, at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe...
and Diane Samuels
Diane Samuels
Diane Samuels is an author and playwright. She was born in Liverpool in 1960. Samuels studied history at Sidney Sussex College at the University of Cambridge and then studied for a PGCE in drama at Goldsmiths, University of London...
. This led to a number of media appearances, including a televised debate about arts funding, on a panel with Patrick Garland
Patrick Garland
thumb|right|200pxPatrick Garland is a British actor, writer, and director.Garland started Poetry International in 1963 with Ted Hughes and Charles Osborne. He was a director and producer for the BBC's Music and Arts Department , and worked on its Monitor series...
and Nicholas de Jongh
Nicholas de Jongh
Nicholas de Jongh is a British theatre critic and playwright. He served as the senior drama critic of the Evening Standard from 1991 to 2009. Prior to that, he worked for the Guardian newspaper for almost 20 years...
. He has also had work produced on BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
, such as the Monday Play Grosse Fugue and the Afternoon Play Rites Of Passage.
Burbridge has published the full-length novel Operation Emerald, under the pseudonym Dominic McCartan, concerning those caught up in the Troubles in Northern Ireland. As a manuscript, this reached the final shortlist for the 1984 Triple First Award, run jointly by The Bodley Head
The Bodley Head
The Bodley Head is an English publishing house, founded in 1887 and existing as an independent entity until the 1970s. The name has been used as an imprint of Random House Children's Books since 1987...
, Penguin Books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
and The Book Club Association, adjudicated by William Trevor
William Trevor
William Trevor, KBE is an Irish author and playwright. He is considered one of the elder statesman of the Irish literary world and widely regarded as the greatest contemporary writer of short stories in the English language....
and Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
. A non-fiction work, War Without Honour, where he collaborated with Fred Holroyd
Fred Holroyd
Captain Frederick John Holroyd was a British soldier who was based at the British Army's 3 Brigade HQ in mid-Ulster, Northern Ireland during the 1970s. He enlisted as a gunner in the Royal Artillery, and three years later, in 1964, he was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps...
, an ex-military intelligence officer, was launched at the House of Commons, and caused a political stir. Burbridge originally secured a commission from Harrap, but the company withdrew before going to press, and the work was issued by a small independent publisher, Medium; according to Tam Dalyell
Tam Dalyell
Sir Thomas Dalyell Loch, 11th Baronet , known as Tam Dalyell, is a British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005, first for West Lothian and then for Linlithgow.-Early life:...
, the material concerned "the probity of the British Government at the top", though others have not been convinced by the claims. Burbridge has also written analytical articles on poetry and ethnic music for magazines like R2 (Rock'n'Reel)
R2 (Rock'n'Reel)
R2 is a music magazine published bi-monthly in the United Kingdom. It was launched in 1988 as Rock'n'Reel, changing its name to R2 in early 2009.- Content :...
exploring the link between personal and political disorder and creativity.
In August 2010 Burbridge contributed to an eBook collection of political poems entitled Emergency Verse – Poetry in Defence of the Welfare State edited by Alan Morrison
Alan Morrison (poet)
-Overview of works:Morrison's work belongs to no particular school, but owes some debt to fairly unconventional influences such as John Davidson and Harold Monro, as well as Welsh poets Alun Lewis and Dylan Thomas....
He has written a new full length poetry collection, The Unicycle Set, published by Waterloo Press, February 2011.
Music
Burbridge was the founder, in 1986, of the folk-rock band McDermott's Two HoursMcDermott's Two Hours
-Introduction:The folk-rock band McDermott's Two Hours was formed in Brighton in 1986 from the remnants of two other bands, The Bliffs and The Crack, and featured a vigorous line-up of vocals, fiddles, whistles, bouzouki, acoustic and electric guitars, drums and bass.Front man Nick Burbridge named...
who released the album, The Enemy Within in 1989. At their peak, the band performed regularly at festivals like Glastonbury, Reading and Womad. At that time he signed a publishing deal with the producer Joe Boyd
Joe Boyd
Joe Boyd is an American record producer and former owner of the Witchseason production company. Boyd was instrumental in launching the careers of Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, and The Incredible String Band.-Career:...
. In 1993 folk-rock band The Levellers, who cite Burbridge's band as a major formative influence, covered one track, Dirty Davey, on their own eponymous recording, which briefly topped the UK album charts. The band have rarely performed together in recent years, but four – uncommercial yet critically acclaimed – albums of Burbridge's songs have been released since 2000. Burbridge recorded tracks at the Levellers' studio in Brighton, and other musicians augmented his work. The first three, World Turned Upside Down (2001), Claws And Wings (2003), and Disorder (2004) were released as McDermott's Two Hours vs Levellers recordings, while the last, Goodbye To The Madhouse (2007) appeared as a McDermott's Two Hours album.
Burbridge's songs have been covered by folk artists like Damien Barber and Mike Wilson on Under The Influence and Maggie Boyle
Maggie Boyle
Maggie Boyle is a London-born Irish singer-songwriter.As a youngster she joined the Fulham branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. Later she became an events organiser...
. In 2008 he combined poetry-reading with music and effects by The Levellers' Jon Sevink, on a privately released album entitled All Kinds of Disorder, an elaboration on the themes in his book, and an original form of statement on life at the margins. In R2 Steve Caseman called it "an exemplary combination of poetry and music," while fRoots recorded how "human drama and frailty is read out with relish along with keen observations of behaviour that celebrates the outsider and encourages the closet revolutionary in us all".
Reception
Reviews of his three books of poetry On Call, All Kinds Of Disorder, and The Unicycle Set praised the "richness and variety" and the "lyrical, personal voices". In a 3:AM Magazine3:AM Magazine
3:AM Magazine is a literary magazine, which was set up as 3ammagazine.com in April 2000 and is edited from Paris. Its editor-in-chief since inception has been Andrew Gallix, a lecturer at the Sorbonne ....
feature, Richard Marshall wrote that "the compromised tenderness and strange wrongness" of the poems' subjects marked Burbridge as "a poet of dysfunctional sensibility" – while Helena Nelson commented in Ambit
Ambit (magazine)
Ambit is a literary periodical published in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1959 by Dr Martin Bax, a London paediatrician.Uniting art, prose, poetry and reviews, the magazine appears quarterly and is distributed internationally. Notable Ambit contributors have included J. G. Ballard, Eduardo...
, that although Burbridge's poetry sometimes seemed prose-like, at the expense of cadence and rhythm, "I will remember him".
Reviews of his plays have recognised the power of the writing, but questioned the impact of the underlying depressive tone, and whether, as Mick Martin in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
asked, he deals "in dramatic characterisation or political point scoring", however interesting his characters, or however challenging the argument. Martin Hoyle wrote in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
that to see a state of the Kingdom allegory in Burbridge's grimly misanthropic quintet set in "a derelict toy warehouse" would be easy, the satire was heavy-handed, but concluded that "raw emotion is certainly there and plenty of anger is generated." While The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
noted: "There is disturbing drama in the violent interplay", yet wondered where the audience was being taken.
Q Magazine called the title track of World Turned Upside Down "a crusty anthem", and La Pasionaria "the best Spanish Civil War song since The Clash's Spanish Bombs." Simon Jones wrote of Claws And Wings in fRoots magazine that Burbridge made the album "for all the right reasons", and that "authenticity is a big part of what he's about." Disorder prompted the assertion that "Burbridge always was a caustic writer", but in his individualistic approach, "in fact he was pointing out the very obvious flaws in our so-called civilised society." When Goodbye To The Madhouse appeared in the autumn of 2007, fRoots summarised the change in focus, commenting that "Burbridge's vitriol has been toned down", and "thoughts of band and writer seem to be rising above the national into overarching concepts that, like the work of the best, apply at any number of levels".
Books
Operation Emerald (as Dominic McCartan) Pluto PressPluto Press
Pluto Press is a radical, progressive, independent publisher based in London. Pluto Press specialises in "progressive, critical perspectives in politics and the social sciences", and describes itself as "one of the world’s leading radical publishers". It has published authors such as Noam Chomsky,...
, London,1985. ISBN 0 7453 0006 5
War Without Honour (Fred Holroyd
Fred Holroyd
Captain Frederick John Holroyd was a British soldier who was based at the British Army's 3 Brigade HQ in mid-Ulster, Northern Ireland during the 1970s. He enlisted as a gunner in the Royal Artillery, and three years later, in 1964, he was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps...
with Nick Burbridge) Medium, London, 1989. ISBN 1-872398-00-6
On Call, Envoi Poets Publications, 1994. ISBN 1 874161 24 0
All KInds Of Disorder, Waterloo Press, 2006. ISBN 1-902731-29-8
The Unicycle Set, Waterloo Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-906742-28-7
Plays
Neck and Cutting Room (1987)Vermin (1991)
Cock Robin (1992)
Grosse Fugue (BBC Radio, 1995)
Scrap (1996)
Rites Of Passage (BBC Radio, 1999)
Albums
The Enemy Within (1989)World Turned Upside Down (2001)
Claws And Wings (2003)
Disorder (2004)
Goodbye To The Madhouse (2007)
All Kinds of Disorder (2008)