The Grand National Lobotomy

Synposis

The Grand National Lobotomy is a two way book comprising an anthology of poetry and the script of John Watts’ play The Last Picasso. The poetry is divided into sections including Life & Death & Philosophy, Up & Away Characters Observed, 10 Poems in a Day; all reflecting John’s sardonic humour. The Last Picasso is the story of a writer resolving things with his daughter before his death. In exchange for helping him, Picasso is allowed to return to earth and create one last great artwork!

About the Author

John Watts’ 34 year career has included 20 albums & 3000 concerts festivals worldwide. His family were singers. He developed his musical career in punk clubs while studying clinical psychology and working in mental hospitals. He and his band Fischer-Z were signed by UA Records alongside The Buzzcocks and the The Stranglers. The band toured Europe and North America with artists such as Bob Marley, The Police and Dire Straits. European success increased exponentially with Red Skies Over Paradise (1981), establishing John Watts as a ＂political commentator in song.＂ His first three solo albums included the experimental The Iceberg Model (1983). A second Fischer-Z era included single success, ’The Perfect Day’ and the political ’Say No’ single. During this period Watts performed to 167,000 people at a Peace Festival in East Berlin alongside James Brown. He made Destination Paradise (1991) at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios and his next 3 albums continued to highlight some of the darker areas of human exploitation in their lyrics.

He returned solo again with Thirteen Stories High (1997) before producing Bigbeatpoetry (1999) with DJ Ingo Worner - revealing a radical approach combining poetry, prose and song lyrics. His current era of multimedia solo material began with Ether Music & Film (2002), where he travelled internationally in search of random musicians and recorded them in situ on his laptop. Real Life Is Good Enough (2004), included a book of poetry and short stories. His 2010 last solo release Morethanmusic added improvised orchestral cut-ups and a filmic dimension.