i was born in stratford east london in 1956.

i auditioned for the london underground (with mick jones of the clash and tony james of generation x) but failed and was guided initially by david bowie's original manager ken pitt.

my musical influences would be david bowie, other punk artists (from the yardbirds and the animals, through to iggy pop, love, the doors, subway sect and the sex pistols etc) bertolt brecht, jacques brel, tom lehrer, randy newman, ray davies, and ghetto musics like reggae and ska.

i have been cited as influences on billy bragg and benjamin zephaniah.

onstage me = voice and acoustic guitar. i have also performed with my own bands and with backing tapes.

i began performing in 1978 when other punks were bands. punk and reggae poets were myself, john cooper clarke and linton kwesi johnson.

wordsmiths of the day were elvis costello and ian dury.

i dropped a couple of tapes (the bedroom tapes) into a local record shop 'small wonder'. (it was the only local shop that was any good apart from one in leytonstone and the record stalls in petticoat lane, both of which stocked slightly underground stuff or reggae imports from jamaica).

small wonder started their own label and released three of my eps. the first one 'safety pin stuck in my heart' was regarded as a punk classic. all three were singles of the week in music papers and form the backbone of the current anagram cd 'best of'.

i was involved in the punk scene by now and started going out to punk clubs, while also being a member of a community theatre group (soapbox theatre). i was also working in the EAST advice centre and occasionally busking, playing my punk songs and making no money. pete stennett at small wonder suggested that i should take my guitar to the clubs and play, so i did.

i was sold on by small wonder (in part) to polydor records and released a vinyl lp 'grubby stories' (half acoustic and half electric). at this point, people started saying that punk had now officially died (because i'd signed with polydor) and my musical career became part custard. the grubby stories album wordsheet almost caused a strike at the factory in walthamstow (half amile up the road from where i lived) because there were swear words on the album. people obviously didn't swear in real life. i promoted the grubby stories album with a different group from the one which was on the album, playing very few of the songs from  the album and did not take polydor's advice on most things, as i had no real awareness of (or interest in) playing the music industry game. polydor dumped me soon after.

the polydor material is now available only on second hand vinyl.

i had started playing gigs on an almost daily basis and had progressed to playing huge venues as support act to people like the buzzcocks, the jam, the police, u2, sham 69, ultravox, hawklords, steel pulse, roy harper,  and others. i also appeared at anti racist concerts including the one at victoria park hackney with the clash, x-ray spex and tom robinson.

at this point, i co-wrote a play (with tim fywell) called 'babytalk', which was put on by the youth workshop of the royal court theatre. i also released a small book of poems (called 'poems') which the tower hamlets arts project released.

i had recorded some demos of new material for polydor, which became a vinyl ep 'tonight', which some people say charted in belgium. i formed a three piece group which toured the uk occasionally, as well as playing festivals in holland and italy.

i provided two songs at this point  for a film called 'rough cut and ready dubbed', which has since been released on video and dvd and continues to be shown as part of festivals and in cinemas.

i started to do more diverse stuff such as songs by jacques brel  and poetry/ music review gigs (ghosts of individuals with people like anne clark kevin hewick and attila the stockbroker, which got me banned from a few mainstream rock venues).  .

i went on to keep playing in the uk and europe with the support of dave kitson and his label red flame. i recorded three vinyl lps for red flame, two of which are fairly well reflected on a cd called 'treasures from the wax museum'. this material was bought by cherry red and is now available for licensing from them, along with the tonight ep. 

i recorded a cd (pillow tension) with my last group on a greek record label called lazy dog in 1994 and then moved to new zealand.

in recent years, my releases have been mainly retrospective, with the exception of two releases on beat bedsit, an independent uk label. both of these (floating population and dark side of the room) are currently available  from beat bedsit and through my website:

patrikfitzgerald.co.uk