Kerouac Lives! A Centennial Celebration In Words And Music Simon Warner And Heath Common

A show combining conversation, readings and an exciting and original soundtrack.

Kerouac Lives! will bring together Simon Warner, a specialist on the Beat Generation and popular music, acclaimed poet and spoken word performer Heath Common, some of the author's most revered writing and eight new songs responding to his tumultuous life and tragically early death.

The specially composed score, with lyrics by Heath Common and music by John Hardie, will blend multiple styles - from rock and soul to jazz - in a commentary on Kerouac's rise from backwoods New England to global fame as the writer of novels, essays, travelogues and poetry only to meet an alcoholic end in 1969 aged 47.

The production will feature lively discussion between Warner and Common, telling the writer's rollercoaster story supported by key extracts from significant Kerouac works, including The Town and the City, Doctor Sax, Big Sur and, of course, from On the Road itself.

Simon Warner comments: 'Kerouac spent his short yet full life writing with an almost manic devotion to the art. But he did it to a constant soundtrack - on record players, car radios, in concert halls, via jukeboxes and in bars and cafés. Music was his most trustworthy companion, whether jazz or country, blues or Broadway ballads. It seems logical to tell his tale through words and song.'

Intriguingly, Kerouac's vagabond life, a symbol of freedom during a period of conformity, would become an inspiration to the next generations of rebels, particularly in the world of rock, as Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Jim Morrison, Tom Waits, David Bowie, Patti Smith and Joe Strummer all acknowledged the novelist's large impact on their own creative ambitions.

This special preview show will have an interval and will begin at 7.45pm finishing at 10.00 pm.