Interview: The Big J
Submitted by Janine on
Janine interviewed in 2015 by Stand Up and Spit about her 1980s incarnation as The Big J, ranting poet, and her 2010s poetic reincarnation.
1980s Ranting Poetry: The Big J
Janine performed poetry in the 1980s as The Big J. This section contains poems, articles and other bits & bobs from this historic era.
You can read more on The Big J page on the Stand Up and Spit blog.
Holiday in Sellafield
Submitted by Janine on
One from my 1980s days as The Big J. Windscale nuclear power station had been renamed Sellafield in 1981, as the government sought to rebrand it after a series of safety concerns ...
Forget the Costa Brava, don’t go to Benidorm
They’re full of germs and foreigners, and our camp is just as warm
The air is really bracing, and hidden costs concealed
It really is all good clean fun on holiday in Sellafield.
The 1980s Adventures of The Big J
Submitted by Janine on
Photos, clips and fanzine bits from the decade where punk without music was known as ranting poetry. Janine took to the stage as The Big J and produced fanzine Blaze!
'Stand Up And Spit' at the Poetry Library, South Bank Centre, London
Submitted by Janine on
02/09/2015 - 20:00
It's Tim Wells, it's Emily Harrison, it's me - and it's free!
At the Poetry Library, Southbank Centre, London SE1
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Ranting verse sprang from punk and reggae in the early 1980s.
This grassroots poetry was angry, political, sweary, boozy and funny – a predecessor of the vibrant spoken word of today.
The Housewife's Trial
Submitted by Janine on
An oldie from the 1980s, a decade of Thatcher, Reagan, crap haircuts and appallingly sexist washing powder adverts. They are not exactly bastions of feminism now, but in the 1980s we were subjected to images of women descending into hysterical panic because 'The dirt says hot but the label says not' (Ariel), their whites had failed the 'window test' (Daz) or were not 'bluey-white'.
The Truth
Submitted by Janine on
A poem written in 1985, back in my days as The Big J. I might choose different wording these days, but the point remains - depressingly - relevant. The illustration is from Wake Up! fanzine when it published this poem and the Housewife's Trial iin 1985.
