e premte, 6 korrik 2007

Bow Wow Wow Erring


George Bowering shows are notoriously wild. Fans regularly invade the stage at the heed of Bowering's merciless taunts, which often causes serious problems for security. A prime example of this was during the encore of a show in Calgary, Texas in 1999, where George finished off with a frenzied delivery of one of his most popular poems, "Honey, would you be so kind as to fetch me a cup of water, I'm rather thirsty". On this occasion, the ensuing chaos forced George to leave the stage as it was ripped to shreds by the rowdy fans and the show abruptly ended, with stalwart Canadian punk legends D.O.A. never quite getting to the stage that night (and, so legend has it, not receiving their cut of the take from the door). Fred Wah, filling in for Joey Shithead that night, could be overheard exclaiming confusedly "what the fuck just happened?" Under more usual circumstances, George's fan base desperately attempt to touch their hero on the stage (tribute he encourages), and they even sometimes leave him gifts, (ham hocks, for instance, as was the case at the notorious Texas show). These fans are then usually escorted away from the arena by the security staff who have been issued pointed directives from above to discourage ham hock gifting (the much-debated "ZERO TOLERANCE FOR HAM HOCKS" proclaimation of 1996), but some of these Boweringos nonetheless escape the clutches of security staffers and resume their place back in the audience, contraband ham hocks hidden on their persons. The video for the Bowering poem "Will Never, Marry But Will Surely, Sally On Bikes" shows a remarkable sequence of successful stage invasions, including a rare cameo crowdsurf by none other than Ashley MacIsaac , with whom George has had tumultuous on-again-off-again relations spanning the past decade. On the live DVD "Who Put the 'V' in Victoria?" (released in 2004 through TalonAudiobooks) Bowering speaks with frankness to the many nameless would-be stage invaders at his shows, and during the poem "I am the Wolfman Between the Weeds" he proudly exclaims "You'll never make it onto the page - Never!", an arrogant and controversial statement that he has made come true on several occasions involving dust-ups with younger poets he's admitted he's felt threatened by (this includes the Ottawa chief Bowering Butter Cup extraordinare Cobbie MacStrangeway) . Bowering however usually prefers fans to make contact with him and not the other way around. In this way he is a true Canadian; one who wants only to eat their cake and have it too.

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