Penny Rimbaud

Ratter claims to have changed his name by deed poll in 1977, as, in his own words, he "wanted to be his own child". The surname was taken from that of the French symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud; the forename was chosen because Rimbaud's brother Anthony would refer to him as "a toilet-seat philosopher" (a penny being the price to enter public toilets in those days). ==Early life==

Rimbaud was expelled from two public schools: Brentwood School in South East England and Lindisfarne College in North Wales. In early interviews, he claimed to have studied philosophy at Magdalen College, Oxford, but later claimed that this story had been fabricated "so that they couldn’t disclaim my role as an intellectual." ==Artistic life==

In 1964, Rimbaud appeared on TV's Ready Steady Go! to receive a prize from John Lennon after having won a competition to produce artwork depicting the Beatles' song "I Want to Hold Your Hand." Rimbaud worked briefly as an art teacher before becoming disillusioned with education, and then spent some time working as a coalman. ) and Gee Vaucher, 2002 In 1967, inspired by the film Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Rimbaud and Gee Vaucher, both vegetarians, set up the anarchist/pacifist open house Dial House in the Epping Forest of southwest Essex, which has now become firmly established as a "centre for radical creativity." Crass At Dial House in the early 1970s, Rimbaud co-founded the Stonehenge Festival along with Phil Russell, better known as Wally Hope. Crass Records released Acts of Love, an album of Rimbaud's poems set to classical music in 1985. A book of Gee Vaucher paintings accompanied the release. Written works Rimbaud's written works include the originally self-published Reality Asylum, a vitriolic attack on Christianity that appeared in heavily revised form on Crass' 1978 debut album The Feeding of the 5000, as a longer single and as a 45-minute spoken-word monologue. Other writings include: Rocky Eyed, an extended poem attacking prime minister Margaret Thatcher and her government following the 1982 Falklands War, which was recorded as the Crass album Yes Sir, I Will; The Death of Imagination (a "musical drama in 4 parts"); and The Diamond Signature (published by AK Press). Oh America is a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks and the United States' subsequent war on terror. It includes the line, "Give us justice which is not the searing spite of revenge, peace which is not the product of war nor dependent upon it." ==Current work==

at The Vortex, Hackney, 30 November 2006 Rimbaud contributed several spoken-word tracks to the 2008 Japanther album Tut Tut Now Shake Ya Butt and spoken-word vocals for the Charlatans track "I Sing the Body Eclectic" on the album Who We Touch. ==Bibliography==

See also Crass discography. Rimbaud plays on all Crass albums and singles. • ''Christ's Reality Asylum'' (Crass Records, 1992) • The Death of Imagination – Musical drama (Red Herring Records, 1995, featuring Eve Libertine, with vocals by anti-humanist artist A-Soma and music by A-Soma and Sarah Barton.) • Savage Utopia (Babel Label, 2004, performed by Crass Agenda) • How? (Babel Label, 2004 – Rimbaud's interpretation of Ginsberg's Howl) • In the Beginning Was the WORD – Live DVD recorded in 2004 at the Progress Bar in London, performed by Crass Agenda • Tut,Tut, Now Shake Ya Butt with Brooklyn-based duo Japanther (Truth Cult, 2007) • Acts of Love – fifty poems set to music, featuring Eve Libertine, recorded 1984 (Existstencilism, 2012) • Kernschmelze (Concerto For Improvised Piano) - Penny Rimbaud (Exitstencil Press, 2015) • What Passing Bells (The War Poems Of Wilfred Owen) - Penny Rimbaud (One Little Indian, 2018) • War & Peace - Penny Rimbaud (One Little Independent Records, 2019) • Christ's Reality Asylum - Penny Rimbaud, Eve Libertine, Hugh Metcalfe (One Little Independent Records, 2020) • How? - Penny Rimbaud (One Little Independent Records, 2020) • Arthur Rimbaud In Verdun - Penny Rimbaud (One Little Independent Records, 2020) • You Stare - Penny Rimbaud, Eve Libertine, Marko Vojnić (Do It With Others Records, 2021) • Corpus Mei - Penny Rimbaud & Youth (One Little Independent Records, 2021) • Kernschmelze III - Penny Rimbaud & Kate Shortt (Caliban Records, 2022) • S LENCE - Peter Vukmirovic Stevens & Penny Rimbaud (One Little Independent avant-garde subsidiary Caliban Sounds, 2022) • You Stare - Marko Vojnić, Penny Rimbaud, Eve Libertine - Mikado Koko Generative Cut-up (Do It With Others Records, 2023) == Filmography ==

• Girlfriend in a Kimono – as Rimbaud in Dominic Thackray's anti-romance, 2005. • For These Who Die As Cattle – A recital of Wilfred Owen's War Poetry, with jazz cellist Kate Short, and pianist, Liam Noble, filmed at King’s College Chapel 2016. • How – A reinterpretation of Allen Ginsberg’s classic 1954 poem ‘Howl’ with cellist Kate Short - filmed at London’s Abney Park Chapel in Summer 2017. • Time and Place – A lockdown movie originally shown Rebellion 2020 Online Festival. Final cut to be released in 2021, filmed by Skype. ==References==