One Shoe Mickey's a Verbfoot Jack
For the last year I have been working on a cycle
of interrelated texts/songs/lyrics that
purport to have been
written by the mythical One Shoe Mickey.
Mickey is a former refugee who has somehow found his way to
England. Mickey is what the people of London call him,
although I believe he has had many names, and has
existed throughout history.
Like in all the best superhero adventures,
our Micheal has taken a bang on the head and this has
our Micheal has taken a bang on the head and this has
cleared his senses. Now he sees the world for what it really is, a bloody mess.
This he can cure,
This he can cure,
he believes, with his miraculously acquired superpower:
Kindness.
Kindness.
Also, In his mixed up brain he thinks that shoes should only be worn
one at a time,
because there is only one god.
He also thinks that gloves are significant; they must be - he sees so many of them
dropped on the London street. He has come believe that they are the souls of all the sons, daughters, wives, mothers, nephews, lovers, friends and kind strangers etc lost on all the long and desperate roads emmanating from the war that never ends. He thinks he can somehow reunite them all, mend them all, all the lost and broken things of the world.
Among the gloves he seeks the One True G’love, a mythical glove that may or may not relate to his own lost family. Maybe its the Universal G’love, containing the last secret of the universe......
Mickey makes many friends here in England, as he trudges from dawn til dusk around the city, some most unexpected, and they all have thier stories too and Mickey is the boy to tell them.
Ian Mckean and I have worked a number of these texts into songs - a whole album’s worth, which we have begun to record. In the meantime I have also been making two books:
Liver & Lights No 56, One Shoe Mickey is a Verbfoot Jack.
This is an entirely hand hand printed book made from a confection of low budget block printing methods and containing one of Mickey’s most pointed observations of the world and its sorry condition. It probably the most labour intensive book I have ever made, a labour of love for all the Mickeys. It is made using 100% recycled materials in a very limited edition of only 40 copies.
Liver & Lights No 57. One Shoe Mickey, a song cycle.
This is an A5 paperback containing the complete cycle of texts and song lyrics written by Mickey; his view of the world, his friends, his journey, the city. The book is profusely illustrated in full colour by Mickey’s ongoing collection of lovingly rendered glove paintings, which I have been intermittently posting on instagram.
Here is his meagre vittles,
but all he meets can share it,
and how the one true glove
will bind them all,
for all can wear it.
The books are in production. If you want to reserve
one of the hand made ones
you can send me
£40.00 inc.p & p
and I will keep one for you.
There really won’t be any more than forty because
they are so labour intensive and the printing methods
destroy themselves in production somewhat.
You can pre order the paperback too… for £10…
that makes a nice round £50 for the lot.
Postage for the paperback only add £2.00 Free if you order both together
Cheques to Liver and Lights Scriptorium, 229 Railton Rd London SE2 0LX
Bank details on request for direct payments.
