Ian Horn

Music:

Member Since: 16/10/2006
Band Members: My first poetry project was Verses United, The Poetry of Football. I had been inspired by the fanzine movement of the 80's which gave a voice to supporters and gave me the confidence to edit an anthology. I also needed something to occupy my mind after losing my dad who had taken me to my first football match at the age of 2 years and 10 months. He used to say, 'I was younger than the club's mascot '- a black cat! Contributions came from Bobby Robson and Melvyn Bragg and included poems from Attila the Stockbroker, Don Paterson, Henry Normal (Steve Coogan's writing partner), Glyn Maxwell, Adrian Henri and a transcript of a BBC radio match report. 'Proof, as if any were needed, that football and poetry are synonymous. Who'd have thought that Stuart Hall and Tony Harrison could play together in the same team' - Nick Hornby.PERFORMANCE REVIEW ( Speakers' Corner@ The Yorkshire Terrier, York, January 2009.) Heading to the Deep South of York from his ‘Billy Elliot territory’ home in East Durham, it was a real pleasure to catch up with Ian Horn again. His poems carry a quiet restlessness, whether they’re reclining by the river in Amiens or itching with the Elvis dreams at the local karaoke, delivered with warmth and passion. For a bunch of personal reasons, ‘Where Hares Eat Grapes’ struck a particular chord, its measuredly irregular couplets maturing like the wine which offers ‘a mouthful of sky’, but it’s his classic catalogue of reasons for not lending someone your England shirt that capped the night. This was a relaxed but absorbing reading from a distinctive poet and performer. (Review by Oz Hardwick)
Influences: Miles Davis, Suzanne Vega, Kate Bush, Yes, Beatles, Weather Report, Billy Strayhorn, Billy Horn (my dad, Durham Miner, raconteur, dancer and jazz pianist) Derek Humble, Ivor Cutler, John Cooper Clarke, Derek Mahon, 'Going to the Match' L.S. Lowry, Hanne Hukkelberg, Massive Attack, Busta Rhymes, Adrian Mitchell, Belle and Sebastian, The Streets, Charles Bukowski , Italo Calvino, Andrey Tarkovsky, Robert Bresson, Peter Falk (Columbo), 'choose life' monologue from Trainspotting, Cezanne's Mountain, Durham Cathedral, Durham Miners, The letters of Van Gogh to his brother Theo. NEW PUBLICATION - 'The Singing Ducks of Amiens' 'Ian Horn has made what he calls the Billy Elliot territory of East Durham his own. Beneath the charm there is conflict between escapism and local pride. His word plays and pithy asides laugh at the passions in a way that pays homage, in the jester tradition of Chaucer and Cervantes. The Singing Ducks is an excellent companion to any journey. Quack on'. Jackie Litherland. 'A poet modest in his own estimation and a very pleasing reader setting out on a serious and humanely open-minded journey'. Mick Standen, Other Poetry. 'The persona he creates in his work reminds me very much of Chaucer's in The Parliament of Fowls casting himself as the onlooker while others get on with life. Chaucer's very funny poem ends with the ducks upbraiding the eagles for going on too long with their courtly wooing. It is that tone of the down-to-earth romantic eccentric that Ian brings off so well because we know he has the romantic in him'- Jackie Litherland.'The Singing Ducks is Ian Horn's exuberant and promising first collection of poetry. Tender and funny by turns, the poems radiate outwards from the mining villages and costal reaches of County Durham to a bright constellation of imaginative locations: Dublin, New York, the Balkans , Amsterdam and Amiens. A whimsical social historian of the post-industrial North and comic gentle ironist, Horn is ever alert to the strange and unexpected happenings that enter and transform the most mundane and ordinary lives. This is a distinguished debut by one of the likely lads of North-East poetry'.Stephen Regan, Professor of English, Durham University
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