Steve Rooney profile picture

Steve Rooney

About Me

I started performing poetry in Leicester in 2001, where I quickly built a reputation as "yet another platitudinous ranter". The steady realisation that audiences seemed more than capable of forming their own quite rational and progressive opinions without the aid of my shouting at them, led me to rant with a little less vehemence. Since those early days I've performed at gigs, slams, and festivals throughout the UK.

Most (though not all) of my stuff aspires, at least, to be humorous and looks mainly for (un)inspiration to the worlds of work, politics, popular culture and relationships. Some who've described my material have used words like "irony", "wit", and "ennui", and I'm not about to contradict them. Unless, of course, you're looking for a warm hearted celebration of life's myriad possibilities - in which case, I'm also definitely your man.

My life is not, as it turns out, anywhere near as unpleasant as the poetry might sometimes suggest. As Dr Hook might have sang, "When you're in love with a beautiful woman, the maintenance of a misanthropic, world weary persona, can become rather a strain." As well as being a solo performer I am also - along with Lindsey Warnes Carroll, Steve Carroll and Alex Morgan - part of Complex Trout. CT performs, promotes, and hosts spoken word events in Leicester and Nottingham.

When I'm not performing poetry, I mainly spend my time thinking how I really ought to be more proactive in securing gigs.

That's more than enough from me - here's Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash in possibly the coolest footage on YouTube or anywhere else.

and here's Emmylou Harris...

... and Son House


My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 18/01/2007
Influences: To associate my stuff with any of the following would be to pay each an irreparable insult, but I’m grateful to all of them for providing pleasure/ entertainment/ enlightenment – often all three...

POETS/PERFORMERS: Apocraphe / Sara-Jane Arbury / Jo Bell / John Berkavich / Valerie Bloom / Jean “Binta” Breeze / Brenda Read Brown / Lindsey Warnes Carroll / Steve Carroll / Marvin Cheeseman / Catherine Crosswell / Tracey Cruikshank / Zena Edwards / Lucy English / Rob Evans / Nathan Filer / Rob Gee / Andy Craven Griffiths / AF Harrold / Matt Harvey / Mark Gwynne Jones / Jane Kinninmont / Jenny Lindsay / Rosie Lugosi / Elvis McGonagall / Bob Mee / Marcus Moore / Alex Morgan / Esther Morgan / Rory Motion / Diké Omeji / Niall O’Sullivan / Rachel Pantechnicon / Emma Pursehouse / Michael Rosen / Jude Simpson / Skatz / Helen Thomas / Pam Thompson / Kim Trusty / Tim Turnbull / Byron Vincent / Claire Williamson / Luke Wright…

SOME OTHER WRITERS/BOOKS: Frankenstein / PB Shelley / Thomas Hardy / Graham Greene / Ursula LeGuin / The God of Small Things / Was / Homage to Catalonia / Primo Levi / Madame Bovary / Jean Rhys / Giovanni’s Room / His Dark Materials / Christopher Isherwood / A Star Called Henry / Decline and Fall / Paradise Lost / Philip Larkin / Brian Patten / Emily Dickinson / Simon Armitage / Carol Ann Duffy / The Tempest / Dr Faustus / The Picture of Dorian Gray / The Trial / Flowers for Algernon / I am Legend / Michael Moorcock / The Man in the High Castle / Sara Paretsky / Terry Eagleton / Paulo Freire / Caleb Williams / Fathers and Sons / Mr Pye / Charlie Brooker…

MUSIC:The Rolling Stones / The Sonics / The Stooges / The Clash / Talking Heads / The Pixies / The White Stripes / The Pogues / Velvet Underground / Them / The Yeah Yeah Yeahs / Be Your Own Pet / Old Crow Medicine Show / MC5 / The Specials / Original Ska / Crowfoot / The Forty Fours / Pig Iron Joe / The Revelators / 4-till-Late / Mike Rimer / Bill Monroe / The Louvin Brothers / The Stanley Brothers / Hank Williams / Chuck Berry / The Carter Family / Flat and Scruggs / Johnny and June Carter Cash / Bessie Smith / Jelly Roll Morton / Louis Armstrong / Sydney Bechet / Son House / Skip James / Memphis Minnie / Etta James / Sugar Pie de Santo / Martha Reeves / Solomon Burke / Muddy Waters / Howlin’ Wolf / Little Richard / Elvis Presley / Townes Van Zandt / Guy Clarke / Chris Smither / Emmylou Harris / Gillian Welch and David Rawlings / Lucinda Williams / Dolly Parton / Loretta Lynn / Nanci Griffith / Steve Earle / Paul Curerri / Stephen Duffy / bits of Dylan / bits of Cohen / Tom Waits / Randy Newman / Bruce Springsteen / Richard Thompson / Linda Thompson / Teddy Thompson / Daley Thompson / Claus “the vision” Thompson...

TELEVISION: Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel / Firefly / Bleak House / A Very Peculiar Practice / Brass Eye / Curb Your Enthusiasm (although I’ve since developed an intense loathing for any subsequent shows or films featuring famous people playing themselves, particularly where said famous people are clearly “not afraid to poke fun at themselves, and the whole, like, celebrity status thing” – Aarrghhh!) / Ripping Yarns / Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place / Dad’s Army / Cheers / Seinfeld / The Office / The Shield (although I’ve missed the last season) / The Simpsons / Columbo / Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock Holmes / Only Fools and Horses / Porridge / Roland Rivron’s Set of 6 / Smack the Pony / Big Train / everything with which Armando Iannucci is or has been associated / Nathan Barley / Boys from the Black Stuff / anything with Claire Balding presenting…

I'M GENERALLY A MILD-MANNERED PERSON, WITH A FAIRLY UNEXCITABLE SPLEEN. EXCEPT, THAT IS, WHEN CONFRONTED WITH:Postmodernist political theory / Central Trains / most of Channel 4’s output / Lynn Truss / Midweek, with Libby Purves / Leninism / nationalism / jingoism / faith schools / mysticism / new-age crankery / bonkers conspiracy theories / The Observer Music Monthly / Steve Lamacq / Jo Wiley / deep ecology / Michael Moore / Smooth Jazz / stylish bars and restaurants with minimalist interiors / Football Focus / Everton FC (when they finally build their new ground outside the City of Liverpool boundary, I’ll at last have a pretext for leaving them for ever)…
Record Label: Unknown Indie
Type of Label: Unsigned

My Blog

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