World premiere of dazzling Kerouac Lives! with Harrogate poet, Simon Warner and more shining at Hebden Bridge

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To mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of the author of On The Road, Common linked up with a small feast of talent to create Kerouac Lives!

A collaboration, principally, between leading Leeds University academic, author and renowned Kerouac expert Dr Simon Warner, northern songwriter John Hardie and Heath himself, this intensely knowledgeable new celebration in words and music - and film - of the Beat legend was performed for the first time last Friday night in a packed Wadsworth Community Centre set amid old mills, plunging valleys and the winding River Calder.

Rather than simply telling Kerouac's life in song or reading extracts from his finest work such as The Town and the City, On The Road, Doctor Sax and Big Sur, presenting a potted biography/history or offering an expert analysis of the meaning of his work, the new production aimed to do the whole lot.

Boasting a slim budget and cast of just five people, Kerouac Lives! proved to be a freewheeling triumph of big ideas on a tiny stage in this no-nonsense traditional community venue with a strong pedigree in live music high on the moors above bohemian Hebden Bridge.

Most amazingly of all, no big budget was required on the road to what turned out to be a triumphant production bursting with the sort of life the Beats themselves once embraced so hard.

The premiere of American Joyride - a dazzlingly impressionistic short film by US-based director Tom Knoff and writer Kurt Hemmer - proved to be the perfect scene setter for a deep dive into the life and work of Kerouac who, despite his death in 1969 aged 47, continues to influence writers and rock musicians to this day.

On a bare stage, the absence of props turned out to be a blessing, enabling the performers to get right to the heart of the matter.

The end result despite limited rehearsal time for Kerouac Lives! was thought-provoking and entertaining, built on rock solid foundations:

Illuminating conversation by Simon Warner and Heath Common.

Impressive new songs featuring lyrics by Common and music by John Hardie, performed brilliantly with controlled emotion by artist/singer Patrick Wise and easy charm by Brit School graduate Jessika Mae.

Last but not least, powerful readings from the likes of On The Road by bequiffed young Leeds actor Malcolm Webb, a ghostly but vibrant reincarnation of Kerouac, the writer’s spirit made flesh, gone but not gone.

As the wind howled outside in the nearby hills and the audience set off back into the dark, the small cast got on with dismantling the rudimentary stage.

All was now hush - the calm after the storm - but you got the feeling the writers of the Beat generation would have been impressed with Kerouac Lives!

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