Mike Garry : "Whenever Johnny and me play Belfast, Van Morrison is sat in the front-row for the whole gig"

A frequent visitor to these shores with fellow Mancunian man of words Dr. John Cooper Clarke, Mike Garry is set to blow minds on October 13 with the release of Handwritten Miracles, a collection of his poems intertwined with the musical stylings of The Cassia String Quartet.

Different to anything else you’ll hear this year, it’s likely to have more than a few celebrity purchasers.

“Whenever Johnny and me play Belfast, Van Morrison is sat in the front-row for the whole gig,” Mike enthuses. “We actually got to meet when we were having dinner one night in the Europa hotel. This gangster-looking guy comes over and says, ‘Good evening gentlemen, Mr. Morrison would like to invite you upstairs for an intimate gig he’s doing.’ Long story short, he’s now mates with Johnny Cooper Clarke and rings him up whenever he’s in London to go to dinner.”

Van The Man isn’t the only member of the Antrim Mike Garry Fan Club.

“When Andrew Weatherall died, David Holmes got in contact to tell me that Andrew, who he was close to, loved my poetry,” Mike explains. “Andrew had very kindly done a remix for me and I’d seen him at a gig of mine so I knew he was a fan but not to the extent that David says he was.

“Anyway, Holmer rings up out of the blue to ask if I’d write a poem for Weatherall, which I’ve yet to finish but I will. I’m not cool, I don’t know who these music heads are, so literally while he was talking I Googled David and discovered all this fucking unbelievable stuff he’s done.”

The David Holmes connection doesn’t end there.

“A few months ago, a DJ mate of mine said, ‘Listen, I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve done a bootleg of one of your poems put over the top of the David Holmes remix of ‘Belfast’ by Orbital.’ Like I say, I’m not cool, I don’t go to clubs but it sounded great! She’s played it a couple of times at gigs and the audience has gone crazy.”

The last time Hot Press chatted to Mike was in connection with ‘St. Anthony: An Ode To Anthony H. Wilson’, his and Elbow man Joe Duddell’s tribute to the legendary Factory Records boss, which manages to squeeze Steve Coogan, Iggy Pop, Richard and Judy, New Order, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Christopher Eccleston, Terry Christian, Philip Glass, Shaun Ryder and Craig Charles into the accompanying video.

“You look at the list of names and think ‘Logistical nightmare’ but everybody was, ‘Yeah, absolutely, tell me what you need from me’,” Mike enthuses.  “When I went to New York to work with New Order and Philip Glass, Iggy Pop was sat behind me in rehearsals and summonsed me over for a chat. He says, ‘Mike, what a poem, man. Tony Wilson gave me my first English TV appearance.’ Everybody has such huge respect for him.”

Mike professes to not being cool, but is on first name terms with virtually all of The Smiths.

”I knew Morrissey really well because I worked with his dad,” he reveals. “Mike Joyce has written sleeve notes for the album and I used to work with Johnny Marr in a clothes shop in Manchester called Stolen From Ivor’s. I also knew him from football - he was a tricky winger who as a full-back I had to mark. When I was a librarian, Craig Gannon, who was doing a Musicology course at the time, would take books out and always bring them back late. Knowing he was in The Smiths, I used to let him off the fines!

“Our American tour manager whose name, I kid you not, is Johnny Christ was supposed to introduce me to Andy Rourke in New York but Andy was too ill and, of course, has now died,” Mike adds sadly. “He’s the only The Smiths member I didn’t get to meet.”

Talking of New York, Mike and Johnny Cooper Clarke were on the guest-list for a big show there last month.

”The Fontaines D.C. manager, Trevor Dietz, brought me over to play the Workman’s Club when the band were still dead small,” Mike concludes. “I did a bit of harassing DJs on their behalf in Manchester – ‘You’ve got to hear these guys…’ - so next Saturday we’re going to see Grian & Co. play in New York with Arctic Monkeys who are mates of Johnny’s.”

Oh to be at that after-show party…

Handwritten Miracles is out now via Limefield Records.