Jock Scot obituary
Poet who wrote only one collection but was a prolific live performerAgainst considerable odds, some self-created, Jock Scot, who has died aged 63 from cancer, transformed himself from a punk fringe-player into a much admired performance poet on the UK’s underground literary scene. Where is My Heroine? (1992), his only written poetry collection, was an autobiographical, confessional work, simultaneously harrowing and hilarious, detailing his several years as an addict.
He followed it with My Personal Culloden (1997), a spoken word album that seemed more his metier, the lines delivered in his soft Edinburgh burr. The material again came from a world he knew well; there were self-explanatory titles such as Just Another Fucked-up Little Druggy on the Scene or There’s a Hole in Daddy’s Arm.
It was a tribute to his distinctive, unusual character that he could make tragic material so funny. Another poem, All Over the World Girls Are Dreaming (About Me), clearly indicated Jock was no believer in false modesty. The Caledonian Blues (2005) was recorded with Gareth Sager of the Pop Group.
But it was as a live performer that Jock best expressed himself, often opening events for music acts including Ian Dury, Joe Strummer or the Libertines; a daring master of the pause, he could silence rowdy audiences with his words.
Once he had overcome an early tendency to fall over in mid-performance from his pre-show intake – insecurity drove his consumption of drink and drugs – his sparse, minimalist performances could be riveting. Last year, already ill, he performed at the Barbican with the indie rock band British Sea Power, ostentatiously tearing up his script as he left the stage – a sense of histrionics was second nature and for much of his life he motored on little more than his paradoxical sense of self and his handsome personality.
He worked and lived in the gap that drew together distinctly low-life characters and the more louche end of Britain’s aristocracy, and allegedly “difficult” individuals discovered in him a kindred spirit. Perhaps unexpectedly, for Jock could have been a character in one of his novels, Irvine Welsh listed him as one of his all-time heroes. “With his feral good looks and unerring dress sense, Jock Scot brought a glamorous edge to whatever high-profile occasion he deigned to attend,” said the performance poet John Cooper Clarke.
The actor Anna Chancellor, with whom he had a five-year relationship and a daughter, Poppy, said that “Jock had an instinctive radar into what was unique and original. That person could be in any guise – not a rock star but a farmer or a dinner-lady.” The Clash bassist Paul Simonon considered Jock “the most Scottish person I have ever met, an excellent representation of that tribe”.
Son of Dot and Jock, he was born John Leslie in Leith, and might well have remained north of the border had he not made his way backstage after a 1978 Dury gig in Edinburgh. Sensing his mettle, Dury invited him to London, where he was initially paid by Stiff Records for spreading “good vibes”.
Jock’s Scottish family was large and impoverished, shipped out from Leith to a council estate in Musselburgh, on the coast outside Edinburgh; a craggy terrain where he became a knowledgable ornithologist. Home life involved a strict, puritanical code of knowing your place. His father had fought in Burma and died young, from asbestosis.
This marked a political turning-point for his son, a clever, arty boy who loved books but seemed incapable of holding down a job, even a brief stint as a librarian. Jock became a fervent supporter of hard-left socialism; Matt McGinn, the Glaswegian folk singer and poet noted for his distinctly Scottish beat humour, was a hero.
Through his wit, Jock dragged himself away from his upbringing, always ready with a quip or, preferably, a surreal incident. Working briefly as a bus conductor, he received a warning for leading his passengers in mass communal singing; finally he was sacked after hopping off the bus on to a pub stage where, still wearing his uniform, he sang songs with a punk group.
When he was diagnosed 20 months ago as having 100 days to live before cancer killed him, he refused chemotherapy, living as he always had. He had finally found peace in his marriage in 2005 to Helen Montgomery, even taking Helen’s surname, to the confusion of the benefits department that funded him.
She survives him, along with their daughter, Iris, Poppy, and a third daughter, Tara, from a relationship with Joanne Scott.
Jock Scot (John Graham Manson Leslie), poet and performer, born 21 September 1952; died 13 April 2016
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