Jeff Nuttall

Jeffrey Addison Nuttall (8 July 1933 – 4 January 2004) was an English poet, performer, author, actor, teacher, painter, sculptor, jazz musician, anarchist and social commentator who was a key part of the British 1960s counter-culture. He was the brother of literary critic A. D. Nuttall.

Nuttall was born in Clitheroe, Lancashire, and grew up in Orcop, a village in Herefordshire. He studied at Hereford College of Art, (1949–1951) and Bath Academy of Art, Corsham Court (1951–1953) He married Jane Louch, his former art teacher in 1954 and in the same year gained a teaching MA at The Institute of Education in London followed by National Service completed in 1956. With is family he moved to London in 1959 where he worked as a secondary school teacher in Finchley. He was active with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) until 1962, then inspired by Alexander Trocchi and Peter Currell Brown, he committed to making art to change society. Connecting with other avant-garde writers and artists in Group H including Bob Cobbing, John Latham, and Bruce Lacey, his modernist/anarchist persuasions found expression in painting, writing and poetry.

In 1963 Nuttall produced the first of 17 issues of My Own Mag with contributions from William Burroughs. MOM was one of the first underground magazines which were a defining feature of the 1960s counterculture.

During 1965 Nuttall staged early Happenings at Better Books in London These included the sTigma environment with John Latham, Bruce Lacey, Islwyn Watkins and Criton Tomazos. Later in the same year he participated with Latham in the International Poetry Incarnation at the Albert Hall instigated by Allen Ginsberg.

An overload of creative work and marital difficulties caused Nuttall to retreat to the Abbey Art Centre where he formed The People Show in 1966, one of the first and longest lasting Performance Art groups. During 1967 he contributed regularly to International Times, and wrote Bomb Culture, his personal account and critical analysis of the birth of the alternative society. The book was published in 1968 and then in 1970 as a best selling Paladin paperback. During this time Nuttall was teaching and writing in Norwich and would move first to Bradford College of Art in 1969 and then to Leeds Polytechnic Fine Art Department where he was a senior lecturer for ten years from 1970 to 1981. Nuttall was active in Performance Art collaborating with Rose McGuire (Priscilla Beecham), and influencing other performers and students including Marc Almond. His presence in the Fine Art department did much to define the radical creative ethos at Leeds.

Nuttall was the author of over 40 books. These included novels (Snipe's Spinster (1975)); poetry (Objects (1976)); cultural commentary (Common Factors/Vulgar Factions, with Rodick Carmichael (1977)); and biography (King Twist: A Portrait of Frank Randle (1978)). He was elected Chairman of the National Society of Poetry in 1975 and with Eric Mottram tried to introduce radical modernist poetry occasioning the Poetry Wars.[10] From 1978 to 1981 Nuttall was poetry critic for The Guardian.

As Head of Fine Art at Liverpool Polytechnic 1981 to 1984 his tenure was marked by controversial teaching initiatives, residencies at Deakin University Australia and increasing alcoholic consumption all of which contributed to his early departure in 1984.[11] With his partner Amanda Porter he lived in Portugal from 1986 to 1987, producing paintings and ceramics exhibited at the Flowers Gallery in London. He continued writing, broadcasting, performing, playing jazz cornet and working with the People Show again. As a character actor he began taking cameo roles in film and television making 63 appearances between 1989 and 2004.

With his last partner, Jill Richards, he moved to Abergavenny, Wales, in 1991, and later to Crickhowell. His creative output continued with soft sculptures, landscape paintings, poetry, and writing. His last two books were Art and the Degradation of Awareness (1999) and Selected Poems (2003).[12] Jeff Nuttall died aged 70 on 4 January 2004 while waiting to perform with his Jazz band at the Hen and Chickens pub (known as the Hen and Chicks) in Abergavenny.