Les Barker is an English poet, who is famous for his comedic poetry and parodies of popular songs, but he has also produced some very serious thought-provoking written works.
Work
Barker was born in Manchester. He studied accountancy before he realised that he had a talent for writing. At the beginning of his career he toured around folk music venues as a solo performer, and later with The Mrs Ackroyd Band Barker is not a singer and the Mrs Ackroyd Band, with classically trained vocalists Hilary Spencer and Alison Younger, with keyboard player Chris Harvey, have enabled his parodies to be sung live. He toured around Britain and such countries as Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America and Canada. Barker is the author of 77 books and has released 20 albums. His books readers contain a mixture of monologues and comic songs with serious songs. The monologues tip the hat to Marriott Edgar. Like Edgar, Barker has created several recurring characters and themes such as 'Jason and the Arguments', 'Cosmo the Fairly Accurate Knife Thrower', 'Captain Indecisive', 'The Far off Land of Dyslexia' and Spot of the Antarctic, which have become trademarks of Barker's work. Both his funny and more serious songs have become standards for other singers such as Waterson–Carthy and June Tabor. He is also one of the few writers to get the Welsh place named Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantisiliogogogoch into a song successfully. In the mid 2000 Barker moved to Wrexham, Wales. and has learnt Welsh, producing two books of poetry written in the Welsh tongue. In 2008 he got an award of the NIACE Inspire Award as Welsh Learner of the Year, and recited his poem "Have you Got Any News of the Iceberg?" in Welsh at the presentation in Swansea. In 2009, a campaign by his folk fanbase sought to have him chosen as the British Poet Laureate. After a heart attack in January 2008, Barker began solo gigging again. Barker has remained firmly rooted in the circuit of folk clubs and festivals. He has also performed as part of a double act with Keith Donnelly under the name "Idiot and Friend". Barker launched a new tour of folk clubs in England and Wales in 2017 and 2018.
Guide Cats for the Blind
Barker also wrote a poem called "Guide Cats for the Blind" which later became the title track of a double fundraising CD for the 'British Computer Association of the Blind'. The Association runs a program called EyeT4all, which aims to make computers accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired. Barker also agreed to the recording of a series of albums. So far between £40,000 and £50,000 has been raised. Five "Guide Cats" albums have been produced, "Guide Cats for the Blind", "Missing Persians File", "Top Cat, White Tie and Tails", "Cat Nav" and "Herding Cats". The CDs contain performances of Barker's poems by members of the folk world like June Tabor, Martin Carthy, Steve Tilston, Mike Harding and Tom Paxton and well known figures like Jimmy Young, Nicholas Parsons, Brian Perkins, Terry Wogan, Nicky Campbell, Robert Lindsay, Prunella Scales and Andrew Sachs.
