he qualified in fine arts at ravensbourne art college in the early 1978, at this time, began making super eight cine films.

soon after leaving, he began working as a guitarist/performance artist using musical instruments often as almost "props" for his performances, throwing scorn on the notion of musical technique as a means to an end, as a result, sound that performing was the end as a means to make a statement which was nevertheless both uniquely creative and highly imaginative as well absorbing to watch. this he did with some of the early tony oxley ensembles, where he was given carte-blanch and so was able to contribute to some stunning performances by the group - in particular, the bracknell jazz festival in 1979.

his activities as an organiser and animator for his club - the klinker in north london, has always kept him very closely connected with a very diverse range of artists, often initiating projects and providing his venue as a platform for key performers from the contemporary national and international scene.

the other main long-standing project is with birdyak. they have performed over the years nationally (with support from the arts council of england) and in europe.

other current groups/projects include the extreme quartet, fo batman, skip, and solo, all of which are always significantly challenging and provocative events.

1959
PREAMBLE:
Concretion from within creates the specific place.
Taut, radiant, articulate, but strange to language
The absolute strains to become aware.
Eye, standing at extreme perimeter, listens.
Becomes the medium of the heard;
Touch makes it move: returned to motion,
Light, stepping from its latent anonymity,
Explodes in sound.

1969
THE SHAPE AND THE SIZE OF POETRY:
IT SEEMS TO ME that almost all the valid experimental work going on at the present in British poetry can conveniently be considered under the heading "concrete"...
CONCRETE POETRY, for me, is a return to an emphasis on the physical substance of language - the sign made by the voice, and the symbol for that sign made on paper or in other material and visible form. Leonardo da Vinci asked the poet to give him something he might see and touch and not just something he could hear. Sound poetry seems to me to be achieving this aim.
PARTLY it is a recapturing of a more primitive form of language, before communication by expressive sounds became stereotyped into words, when the voice was richer in vibrations, more mightily physical. The tape-recorder, by its ability to amplify and superimpose, and to slow down the vibrations, has enabled us to rediscover the possibilities of the human voice, until it becomes again something we can almost see and touch. Poetry has gone beyond the word, beyond the letter, both aurally and visually. Visual poetry can be heard, smelt, has colours, vibrations. Sound poetry dances, tastes, has shape.
PARALLEL to this total use of sound, is picture poetry which extends communication by utilising primitive sign which is also direct, expressive and universal. Poetry in these forms is closer to physical being, at least one step nearer to bodily movement. Gone is the word as word, though the word may still be used as sound or shape. Poetry now resides in other elements.

1972
MUSIC FOR DANCING:
BOTH visual poetry and sound poetry incorporate elements of rythm. One can move inwardly to a sound poem or interpret it in outward movement or dance. One can, by empathy, enter into the spatial rythms of a visual poem, or can give it full muscular response. So both sound and visual poetry are steps to the arena. Visual poetry is the plan, sound poetry the impulse; visual poetry the score and sound poetry your actual music for dancing.
COMMUNICATION is primarily a muscular activity. It is potentially stronger than everyday speech, richer than those monotonous seeming printed words on the page. The moment an O becomes larger and fatter or an S more rythmically snake-like, at that moment does drama enter into the score. Or by superimpositions or photographic distortions, one can animate even a typed or printed text.
SAY "soma haoma". Dull. Say it, dwelling on the quality of the sounds. Better. Let it say itself through you. Let it sing itself through you. The vowels have their pitch, the phrase has potential rythms. You do it with the whole of you, muscular movement, voice, lungs, limbs. Poetry is a physical thing. The body is liberated. Bodies join in song and movement. A ritual ensues.

Bob Cobbing