Rodney Relax

The Poetry of Rodney Relax

Where there’s poetry, anarchy and energy, Rodney Relax is to be found. He was one of the group of writers who were the dynamo for Rebel Inc in its early days. Then with Sandie Craigie and some others he generated a sporadic literary efflorescence, the Yellow Café, which always guarantees a night that will etch its way into your memory.

Rodney, who has been called Edinburgh’s punk poet legend, is not an easy man to box. He has played diverse gigs from the Bongo to Leith Dockers Club and they’re always innovative, often with video and music as well as words. Jem Rolls of Big Word says his ‘darkly comic and unvarnished’ work ‘punches through the page’. A lot of other people agree. At a time when many people bemoan the difficulties of getting poetry into the book chains, Rodney’s latest venture into print, Dark Afore Nine, a joint publication with Graham Brodie, Jim Ferguson and John McGarrigle, has sold out its print run of 300 and he has had to retrieve the few remaining copies to supply the copyright libraries. Nae wurri.