‘I get mistaken for Sir Ian McKellen’ - poet Ian McMillan brings his orchestra to the Cornerstone Festival

Nov 25 2009 by Laura Davis, Liverpool Daily Post

WHEN poet Ian McMillan and his orchestra walk into the room, there’s often some confusion.

Because, while the Barnsley-based writer is sometimes confused for veteran actor Sir Ian McKellen, the band’s leader is mistaken for a 1980s pop star.

“We have to call him Luke Carver Goss, because we don’t want people to think he’s Luke Goss out of Bros, which would be tragic,” laughs McMillan, 53.

“Women of a certain age come up clutching their Bros albums.

“They’re surprised to see it’s just Luke, a little bloke with a piano accordion.”

Hopefully there will be no such confusion when Barnsley FC’s poet -in-residence appears at Liverpool Hope University’s Cornerstone Festival on Friday.

He will be bringing the orchestra, which also features a hurdy-gurdy, bass, guitar and violin, along with him.

“The trouble with the orchestra is that it’s quite hard to define what it is,” he confesses.

“It’s music and it’s me talking on top of the music, and it’s song, and then me sometimes interrupting the songs with words.”

His favourite part of the show is a single improvised piece, based on words provided by the audience at each venue.

“To me, it’s like part of the Bardic tradition,” he says.

“Somebody will shout out ‘geese’, and then somebody else will shout out ‘Tasmania’ or ‘watering cans’.

“Those words might suggest something tragic or something funny, and then Luke gives me a rhythm and the band join in and then I just open my mouth and words tumble out. It’s astonishing – I wouldn’t be able to do it if I didn’t have the music.”

This is also the most energetic part of the show for McMillan, he adds.

“Sometimes it’s more successful that others.

“It helps if you can get into a rhyming grove and a rhythmic grove. By the end, I’m like a little wind-up toy because I’ve been so full of energy that I end up running up and down the stage like a little doll.”

THE Ian McMillan Orchestra is at the Cornerstone Festival on Friday. Tickets £8 (£5 concs), 0151 291 3578.