BENNETT! A LIFE!
Too poor to be born Malcolm Bennett was brewed in or around Merseyside sometime in the late 1950's. He went straight to the end of his education picking up 'O' and 'A' levels on the way, as well as winning several Wirral history and poetry prizes. Plus, as a school prefect and House Captain he got to shag all the best girls. A great athlete he played football for Liverpool Boys and represented his planet in the 'Great Ale Strangling Contest' of 1971.
After being forced out of Art College after only two weeks he went on to make a packet smuggling drugs, diamonds and guns throughout Europe. However, after being shot in the hand he returned to England where he founded é publications .
In the summer of 1979 Bennett broke ranks with the poetry circuit and began performing under the banner of CIGARETTES, a powerful combination of poetry and experimental slabs of synthetic noise. Several shows followed before Bennett was raided by the Vice Squad who had received complaints from the town Mayor that he was distributing pornographic material to young girls (heh-heh). A drama drenched court case followed, and a small fine. Then, after recording his first record, TOTAL, for Skeleton Records and more performances under the name of JUNK ART, Bennett was gaoled for the first time for striking a gang of police officers repeatedly with his head, hands, feet and mates. The record came out while Bennett was in. Upon release Bennett performed several more times around Merseyside before he emigrated to Bristol in 1981.
Two dramatic performances followed under the name of PUFF, SEX AND TROUBLE before Bennett was hauled back to Merseyside to be prosecuted for further offences under the Obscene Publications Act as well as several drug charges.
Upon his release Bennett once more travelled to Bristol where he formed THE POWER AND THE GLORY, a mixture of Bennett's 'BATTLE PROPAGANDA' and a synthetic onslaught of sound, composed by his life-long friend and comrade, Steve Haley. This brutal attack on art, religion and politics earned a mixture of hatred and respect throughout the country, as well as seventeen facial stitches. At this time Bennett was interviewed by BBC TV however, all subsequent transmissions were banned on political grounds.
Bennett and Haley, the fellow thin pauper mentioned above, then toured the country. Despite being either banned or ignored by all the national music press, word of Bennett's unique stage persona reached the ears of the then fledgling Channel 4 TV. Subsequently Bennett was asked for an interview which was recorded but then, at the last minute, suppressed. Later that year é publications published a slim volume of Bennett's 'BATTLE' poetry and segments of his earlier work titled BATTLE POET. This, like several other é publications, was sold on the street by the author and his comrades.
At the end of 1982 Bennett toured Belgium and Holland, resulting in him gatecrashing the ONE WORLD POETRY FESTIVAL in Amsterdam and was the only poet to receive an encore, despite the presence of the likes of William Burroughs and Yevgeny Yevteshenko. After this Bennett was invited to speak at the inauguration of the revolutionary poet Bibikov as parliamentary candidate at the Museumplien. At one stage the crowd became so incensed that the police had to move in to keep order. Rioting ensued and Bennett was subsequently deported. This period was to move Bennett to write THE CLAIM OF MALCOLM BENNETT, a savage indictment of the British welfare system, which was published by é publications in April 1983. Later, Bennett was invited by the Authorities to give a series of lectures at Bristol colleges about this poem and others.
At the end of the year Bennett was invited back to Holland to perform at the ONE WORLD POETRY FESTIVAL, once again receiving accolades from the poetry establishment and young girls.
Throughout 1983 Bennett had been working on a new dictionary of the English language which he called WOODSPEAK. This resulted in his writing of BRUTE! a book in WOODSPEAK which was an instant sell out, and led to a second BRUTE! (BRUTE! 2) being published at the beginning of 1984. However, tired of Bristol and the lack of commitment from his comrades Bennett published THE WAR SCROLLS, a spirited directive to fellow artists, and moved to London where he lived rough for a period.
At the end of 1985 Bennett was asked by the BBC to return to Bristol for one final performance, which he agreed to do for an undisclosed sum. The most remarkable thing about this show is that it was Bennett's twelfth TV recording to date but the only one transmitted.
Shortly before the start of 1986 Bennett began scripting and directing pop promos and other 'stuff' like that.
BRUTE! 3 & BRUTE! 4 followed before he met Bob Lawrie of Blink Productions, who saw something special in Bennett. They worked on many award winning projects together for several years, including their collaboration on the epic two minute film MALLET! Starring Robert Pugh as Bennett's psychotic DSS Fraud Investigator, Jim Mallet.
In 1991 Bennett's son, Thomas Wolfgang, was born, which led to them leaving the chaos of London to return yet again to Bristol where Bennett founded ULTRA! Magazine and worked as Director of Publications for Bristol City Football Club.
Sadly, Bennett then fell into drug addiction and wasted a number of years before finally being imprisoned again in 1998. On his release the following year he returned to London where he wrote and published a number of children's books, such as MORGAN THE HERO and THE TIME TUNNEL, as well as a series of pamphlets about the history of London.
I, BRUTE! Is the authors latest collection of short stories and he will be touring the country reading throughout 2010.
Bennett now lives in The Pub.
