Glenn Goring

I was born in Kings College Hospital in Camberwell, south London.  After being thrown out of school at 16, I went to Ravensbourne Art College where I met Roger Wootton.  I soon discovered that Roger and I shared a passion not only for art but also for music.  We began playing Velvet Underground songs in traditional folk clubs, which, surprisingly, never went down at all well.  Our folk duo turned into a band that would eventually become Comus.  After making “First Utterance” and somewhat disillusioned with the music business I left the band in 1972, returned to Art College to finish my studies, and gained a BA in Fine Art.  I then moved to Norfolk in 1978 where I began a career as a freelance picture restorer and copyist of old masters as well as making my own paintings and sculptures. In 1990, I became an official copyist for the National Portrait gallery.

During the early eighties, I also started writing for stage and radio. Andrew Hellaby, with whom I had never lost contact since leaving the original Comus, composed the music and FX score for my play “Captain Jack Goes Down” which I also directed.

In 1989, I gained an MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia.  Here I was lucky enough to be tutored by Malcolm Bradbury and Angela Carter.  I concentrated mainly on writing narrative fiction and wrote several short stories and a novel.  However, throughout my life, I have never given up music.  With a group of friends, I formed a band called The Hollow Men.  I wrote songs, played the guitar, and sang.

In the nineties, my guitar playing went through a period of change.  I love flamenco so a guitarist friend of mine taught me some basic techniques.  We formed a duo and played a kind of hybrid flamenco-jazz-folk in clubs and bars in and around East Anglia.

More recently, in the 2000s, I won an award to develop an original film script based on a play I’d written. I was also commissioned to write a half-hour TV drama that was broadcast on Anglia television.

I’m still here in the wilds of Norfolk, painting, writing, making stuff and playing more music than ever.  I also have a passion for growing garlic and very hot organic chillies.  Roger and I are the chilli heads in the band.

Visit Glenn’s art website.