Hartlepool 21st August 1977

   1. The Bogey Man

   2. Wychwood Benn

   3. The Necrophile

   4. Sweet Lenina

   5. Pax Romana

   6. Mrs Fanshaw

   7. Shrivelrous Males

   8. Cafe Ole

   9. The Saga of Jack, Doris and the Arab

10. Noah and his Chopper

11. Natasha the Flasher

12. Slaves to the System

13. KerryGold

14. Charlie Fink MBE

15. Hector the Dope Sniffing Hound  Lyrics   Picture of Hector

16. WPC Sadie Stick, MacLagan and Bomber Dina  Lyrics   Cartoon strip    Illustration of MacLagan & Sadie

17. Flasher Jack and Annabelle in Scarborough  Cartoon strip

18. The Ancient Briton

Hartlepool 11th May 1980

   1. Saudi Arabian Alcoholics Anonymous

   2. The Vegetarian Cat

   3. The Gorgon, Parts I & II

   4. Status Quo, Parts I & II

   5. The Goal of a Mole

   6. Rioting in Grosvenor Square, Parts I & II

   7. Keep on Good Terms with Worms

   8. How Divine

   9. The Terrible Werewolves, Parts I & II

10. The Whitby Dracula

11. The Necrophile

12. Greekspeke

13. Mirrorland

14. The Ancient Briton

15. WPC Sadie Stick, MacLagan and Bomber Dina

16. Hector the Dope Sniffing Hound  Lyrics   Picture of Hector

17. Flasher Jack & Annabelle in Scarborough Cartoon strip

All songs recorded live in Hartlepool in 1977 and 1980 and written, composed and arranged by Mike Absalom in the 1970's.

Copyright Mike Absalom.  

Cover illustration by Cornelia Weinmann.

1977 recording by Dave Wilkins, 1980 recording by Graham Whitley

Live in Hartlepool was recorded at The Nursery Folk Club and the Folk Song Club in Hartlepool. At the time Mike was best known for his rambunctious stage shows in theatres before large student audiences. His college shows consisted of convoluted pun-filled scripted plots, interspersed with his own songs and poems, and featured lots of (primitive) technical gadgetry, including pre-recorded sound effect clips, loud gunpowder detonations and exploding speaker cabinets, together with handfuls of supplementary audience pleasers in the form of Sunday (and Monday to Saturday) joints tossed liberally into the crowd. On these two CDs, however, are the only surviving recordings from that period, as far as we are aware, of Mike playing in a small and intimate setting to a folk club audience. He wraps his songs in spontaneous patter, exchanges repartee with hecklers and Hartlepool wits, and is clearly so completely at ease that he feels free to brandish a monkey on a gallows, re-write verses as he goes along and launch into new untried compositions at will as his breakneck presentation unravels. The 1980 performance is probably Mike’s last performance in Britain before he left to live in Canada in June of that year.

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