Item #40191 Playday. John SHARKEY.

188.

Playday.

Audio cassette (C60). Duration 30’ 26. A tape recording made by Fred Hunter of John Sharkey’s sound piece “Playday”, c. 1966, “originally written… for Situation Theatre Group with incidental music by Cornelius Cardew and his group AMM”. Voiceovers by J. Maguire, Paul Keeler and John Sharkey.

The tape is subtitled “A Play Away Day or A Crap First Take”, and at least one other version was produced, possibly with a “choir cluster”, but without AMM’s instrumental accompaniment.

Documentation on the piece is scarce, and although a basic title sheet printed by Fred Hunter is included with the cassette, it provides no additional information.

The recording itself comprises 18 tracks. The first three - “Sex”, “God” and “Love” - are one-word sound poems performed by Sharkey, who performs on a further six tracks, often to hilarious effect; other pieces feature Paul Keeler reciting poems, and on two tracks, J. Maguire. AMM provide improvised accompaniment on nine tracks (approx. 16 min.), and perform without voiceover on two more (approx. 4 min.).

The hiss and noise levels of the cassette have been digitally cleaned during transfer to the accompanying CD, resulting in a much improved audio quality.

No other recordings or documentationof Sharkey’s sonic collaboration with AMM could be located by this cataloguer.

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