Bob Cobbing, 1920-2002
Bob Cobbing, the internationally-celebrated soundtext poet, performer and publisher, died in the early hours of Sunday 29th September 2002. This is a quick page of photographs assembled in Bob's memory; some writing about Bob can be found elsewhere on this site, and a page of tributes has been posted on the Lollipop website. My thoughts are with Jennifer, and with Bob's family and friends.
Peter
Follow these links to view the Guardian and Independent obituaries of Bob Cobbing.
etruscan books in Devon publishes Bob's Shrieks and Hisses: collected poems vol. 16 and kob bok: selected texts 1948-1999 (if any of these are sold out, try Small Press Distribution in the USA).
Bob on the web (as of 23rd December 2010):
- Ode To Gravity: Interview with Bob Cobbing (September 20, 1972)
- Bob at the British Library site
- 'From the Bombast of Vachel Lindsay to the Compass of Noise: The Papers of Bob Cobbing at the British Library'- excellent illustrated essay by Chris Beckett
- cris cheek on Cobbing
- cris cheek on Domestic Ambient Noise/Moise
- "Time in the School of Cobbing", by Adrian Clarke
- Cobbing page at the Electronic Poetry Center
- Photos of Bob and Friends at Clive Fencott's website
- Peter Finch on Cobbing
- Turkey Trot by Allen Fisher (memorial to Bob)
- Bob at Intercapillary Space
- "Bob" lives on at MySpace
- Cobbing at MERZnite
- Cobbing at PennSound (mp3 audio)
- QuickTime movie of Bob
- Cobbing feature at Riding the Meridian
- Essay by Robert Sheppard at Jacket Magazine
- Collaboration between Bob and Robert Sheppard
- Robert Sheppard on Bob Cobbing and concrete poetry
- Robert Sheppard on Domestic Ambient Noise and Third ABC in Sound
- Bob Tribute by Scott Thurston
- Cobbing audio at ubuweb
- Essay by Cobbing at ubuweb
- Lawrence Upton on collaborating with Cobbing
- Lawrence Upton on Cobbing and the book as medium
- Newspaper cuttings etc about Bob at Lawrence Upton's site
- Wikipedia page on Cobbing
Jennifer Pike and Bob Cobbing, London, 18th March 1995. I took this photograph after reading in London for the first time, at one of Bob's Writers Forum workshops.
Bob later produced the above photocopy treatment of the photograph, which was used as the editorial of issue 6 of Object Permanence magazine.
This photograph was taken the same day, and shows (l-r): Robert Sheppard, Stephen Farrell Sheppard, Bob Cobbing and A.W. Kindness.
Bob Cobbing and Peter Manson, Writers Forum Workshop, The Victoria, Mornington Place, London, 18th March 1995 (photograph by Eilidh Whiteford).
Lawrence Upton and Bob Cobbing performing at the London Artists' Book Fair, late 2000 or early 2001. Photograph by Ursa Deniflee, courtesy of Elizabeth James.
...and another photograph of the same event.
I don't know who took this photograph of Bob and Jennifer at a poetry festival in the mid-1960s. It was given to me by the poet Hayden Murphy.
(l-r): dom silvester houédard, Pete Brown, Bob Cobbing and Ernst Jandl performing the Kurt Schwitters sound poem Fury of Sneezing at Arlington Mill, Bibury, Gloucester, June 1966. This photograph appeared, courtesy of Hayden Murphy, in issue 4 of Object Permanence magazine.
Bob and Maggie O'Sullivan reading from O'Sullivan's A Natural History in 3 Incomplete Parts at the London Musicians Collective, 9th September 1985. Photo courtesy of Maggie O'Sullivan.
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