Pete Gage

David Evans’ death in a road accident in 1988, at the age of 59, bought to an abrupt end the career of one of the most distinguished watercolourists of his generation. The recent discovery of pictures remaining in his studio, nearly thirty years after the memorial tribute staged by the Redfern Gallery in 1988, provides the opportunity for a new generation to discover his work, though the publication of this first ever book on David Evans and the accom- panying touring exhibition. Evans’ strikingly large watercolours, (typically they measure over one metre in height or breadth), span two decades from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, evoking a vision that is still surprisingly potent today. They have all the period charm of the glam-rock era they so powerfully evoke but at the same time they are highly charged with the political energy of the pe- riod and mirror Thatcher’s Britain, with its Industrial unrest, its towns and country undergoing transformation, the Faulklands war and threat of the Evil Empire, the building of nuclear power stations and the dawn of awareness about Climate Change as a political issue. Evans was an ardent campaigner and environmentalist. The landscapes, (a homage to his native Suffolk) are peppered with industrial plants, landfill, scrap heaps, and encroaching roads and army maneuvers. Urban subjects, similar in some ways to the compo- sitions of Lowry, show factory plants, spectators’ sports, cafeterias, the interiors of museums, city centers and beach scenes.

This volume of 64 poems contains a small collection of 13 or so poems written by the younger Pete Gage. The final 51 poems in this third volume of Pete's poetry were written from 2021 to 2023, when the poet had come of age. (A ripe old age, you could say ) The themes of loss and love are still in evidence, now and then, along with aspects of Pete's on-going journey of self-discovery. The author has had a successful career in the music industry, including as lead vocalist with the group Dr Feelgood in the 1990s. He lives in Frome, Somerset.

This is the second book of poetry by Pete Gage, blues musician and former vocalist with Dr Feelgood, following 'Fifty-Six Poems' published by Hobnob Press in 2021. It is a collection of a further 44 poems from the hundreds he has written over 60 years, complemented by an equal number of his owncolour photographs. Spread throughout the book are seven sections of a long poem dedicated to his great friend, the esteemed water-colourist David Evans, who was tragically killed in 1987 whilst cycling near his home in Suffolk. The 'Gerontius' in the title of each section is represented by David himself, who moves along his own spiritual journey in death, as in Elgar's 'The Dream of Gerontius'. The author lives in Frome, Somerset, where he is a well known and respected performer on the local musical scene.

Pete Gage has had a successful career in the music industry, as lead vocalist in various blues bands, in particular the Jet Harris Band, Dr Feelgood, and latterly with his own 5-piece blues band The Pete Gage Band. In addition to being a Frome-based musician, Pete is both an artist and a poet, meticulously creating hand-painted mandalas based on Tibetan designs, but with his own westernized style. He studied graphic design in the 1960s at St Martin's Art College, London, and incorporated this training into the creation of his pictures. Reproductions of much of his work accompany these poems. Throughout his life since his late-teens Pete has written reams of poems and free-flowing prose. The 56 poems included here present a cross-section of his verse, often rhythmic, but equally often free. Some of his poems can be quite simple, whilst others can be very deep, such is the expanse of Pete's creative expression.