Interview with Tim Wells

Published in X Magazine

Sitting at the back of the bar in an overcoat, tattoos up and down both arms, you’d never imagine this man was the editor of a long standing poetry magazine or someone known for their poetic verse. But Tim Wells is something of an enigma. Behind his thick cockney slang lies a brain itching for new stories as he scratches down bits of conversation in the pubs and markets of east London.

Beginning his writing career in the hallowed halls of his local primary school, Tim waited ‘til he got a bit taller before he began performing on the poetry scene in the late seventies and early eighties. “There was a lot of dancehall music going on at the time (Eek A Mouse, Yellowman and Lone Ranger were massive) - I was doing poetry. Did a lot of skinhead shows and ranting poetry was really big at the time so I was doing a lot of shows with them. I was doing gigs with Seething Wells, Attila the Stockbroker, John Cooper Clarke, Ginger John the Doomsday Commando and Phill Jupitus…I got to be the token working class skinhead at a lot of these but I got to shag a lot of social workers and teachers so there were some fringe benefits.”

As it often goes with writers and performers, Wells took some time off writing to pursue other things. “In the early nineties I started writing poetry and stuff again and did a show by chance really cause there was a friend of mine that did this open mic for a laugh. It was in Hackney, run by a very camp man dressed in orange with very orange skin - quite frightening. I did my stuff and he came up afterwards “I must have a date” and I was like I’m not really like that. He actually meant to book me for a poetry show.”

In the mid-nineties, not long after he returned to the scene, he started Rising Magazine (with the aptly titled tag line “Tough on poetry. Tough on the causes of poetry.”) which is currently in its 33rd issue. “We did the first issue pretty much as a joke. There were probably about 4 people in it but we probably used 12 different names. We did 100 copies and it sold out within a week so I was just like alright then, there must be a market for this…I wanted to publish a magazine that I’d want to read to be honest, which is still where I’m at.”

A long running debate in poetry circles revolves around the idea that the poet can either be a page poet or a performer but not both, which Wells doesn’t shy away from. “I’ve always filled Rising with well known, what people call, big name page poets and well know spoken word poets…To be honest, I think a lot of the time it’s definition only promoters and publishers use. But in terms of reality, yes, there are certainly poems that work better written and there are poems that work better read. That’s certainly true but I don’t think that should prevent a poet from doing either really…At the end of the day, it’s how it reads on paper. I mean it’s a book. And to be honest, if I enjoy it, I’ll put the fucker in. It’s as simple as that.”

Not only does Wells perform in the UK and run a magazine but he also finds time to take his brand of working man poetry to the states on a regular basis. “I do a lot of shows in America and I’ve been about twice a year for the past 8 years. Mostly New York cause these days it’s really easy to get from London to New York and we’ve got some very good contacts out there with people like Cheryl B.

I find it easy to do shows in America because in England it’s like ‘oh, he’s just a cockney git.’ where in America it’s ‘he’s ethnic’ It’s sad that you have to play to that but it does work.. So a lot of things that get thrown up in England don’t necessarily apply in New York so I find it very easy to get work there. Also the fact that I cover things from a very different angle than American writers goes down well. One of the biggest differences [between the US and the UK] that I find certainly in New York and certainly in, let’s say, LA - maybe less so in the centre of the country - but certainly with some poets, they just get hung up on ethnicity. And sex. And it’s formulaic…”

"I think a lot of the time writers write lazily is because this is what they think a poet should write about, so I actually find it very unoriginal. The stories I relate to are human stories. Take Baden Prince for example or Cheryl B. Baden writes a lot about being a big, black man and Cheryl writes a lot about being a New York lesbian but neither of them actually sit out with a big sign around their neck saying that. That’s cause they’re writing human stories in which they feature. I’ve never been either of those things but I can relate to their stories ‘cause I find them funny, I find them sad and, on a human level, I think they’re great. Whereas someone stands up and does a poem that goes "Love me. Love my foibles" it’s like ugh - not really - there’s nothing to work with there. Having said that, there’s a lot of enthusiasm in America which is great. I mean we’ve had some really good shows out there"

In an unusual move this past March, Tim Wells joined forces with 4 other transatlantic poets, Sarah Kobrinsky, Luke Warm Water, Cheryl B and Roddy Lumsden, and hit the mid-west of America. They came together as a true cross-section of what is happening in the English-speaking poetry world today. Remarkably the whole idea for the Plains English Tour began with Sarah at their local pub. “She quite rightly pointed out that when people went to America they tended to go to the east coast or west coast and never down the middle. So she was saying it’d be great if we could come and see it. I was like, yeah, sounds good enough, I’m always up for an excuse to travel, get drunk and meet strange girls.”

"It was actually the easiest tour we’ve ever organized ‘cause every one of the venues was super helpful though they were all freaked out. They were literally saying over the phone ‘oh why are you coming here.’ As soon as the first person said that I thought that we’re doing the right thing." To understand this reaction, you need to understand the mentality of small towns in the centre of the country. When you’re from a place that only has one poetry venue or in most cases none, you eat up anything new like a pool of piranhas. Given that, it’s understandable why they were so warmly received. Not only did they make the cover of two daily papers but they found themselves with their own poetry groupies that came to almost every show.

The most encouraging thing that came from this tour occurred when a group of students travelled over from Fargo, where the poets had toured, to get a taste of England for themselves. With this in the back of minds, there are plans of more tours and further exchanges of poetry, writing and performance in the near future. My hope is that the audiences will still remain the same enthusiastic and welcoming group they were when Tim came to town and gave those prairie folk a bit of east London and a little bit of his reality: “I don’t think cause I’m a poet., I’m the voice of a generation. I’ve known for a very long time that the voice of people is Homer Simpson.”

A Man Can Be A Drunk Sometimes But A Drunk Can’t Be A Man, If You Can Read This You’re Too Close, and A Boys Night Out in the Afternoon are available from Donut Press, London.

Rising is free with an SAE (or for foreigners $1US). E-mail timmywells@hotmail.com