Rollins (spoken word)
By: Nick Holmes and Lucy Jones
Henry Laurence Garfield was born on February 13th 1961, and in a career-spanning three decades, he has been a prolific artist – singer, songwriter, actor, author, speech-maker, political activist, publisher, television presenter… and more.
“Big Hank” worked his way up from a roadie in the early 1980s hardcore scene, taking a series of dead-end jobs after he dropped out of college – disillusioned with the all-partying lifestyle of fellow students. Early contacts included Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye and H.R. of Bad Brains.
He first made his mark onstage with State Of Alert, replacing their frontman before joining the seminal Black Flag – quitting his job and moving to Los Angeles. Rollins fronted them until they split up in 1986.
By then, Rollins had become well-known for his extremely focussed and aggressive stage persona, squeezing a pool ball while he psyched himself up for the audience. Now building up his famous physique, he sometimes displayed his rage very obviously, fighting with an audience member at a gig in England – and he was assaulted himself by fans disillusioned with the direction Black Flack took in their latter years.
Henry formed The Rollins Band, releasing two albums, and also began producing highly acclaimed spoken-word release. His output is uncompromising, often humourous and always very, very angry. At the same time he took acting roles, featuring with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in “Heat” and Keanu Reeves in Johnny Mneumonic.
Make sure you get up on Sunday morning and let Hank’s sermon shake off your hangover – you will experience some true rage against the machine!
Must-hear Album:
Although his band won’t be rocking and err… rollin at Sonisphere 2010, festival goers can look forward to a spoken word from the man himself. Last year Rollins released “Provoked,” his 15th live spoken word album, but his best by far has to be “Get in the Van: On the Road with Black Flag”, which he won a Grammy for in 1984.
Watch this!
Henry Rollins’ spoken words are hilarious, insightful and witty all at the same time, but don’t take my word for it, check out his rant about rave music and modern rock bands here!
For a peek into the bizarre and fascinating world of Henry Rollins, visit his official website at http://21361.com/.
