Ken Campbell (1941-2008)
"I don’t believe I can believe, but I suppose I can suppose"
Teary-eyed overly sentimental types who bang on about 'preserving English/British culture' in the face of the manufactured threat of small boats invading our shores only ever seem to trot out cliches when pressed to define it... the middle classes offer up warm beer, cricket, the aristocracy, manners and the Church of England (if any of the distant reaches of the Union get a mention, it's shortbread and battered Mars Bars for Scotland, Male Voice Choirs for Wales and 'Guinness?' for Northern Ireland), alternatively from groups of eager to conform blokes you might get football, 'two world wars, one world cup', bantz and the sesh repeated ad nauseum... all examples seem to obsequiously doff a much-tugged forelock to or on behalf of the British Establishment, 'which must be preserved' by it's loyal bootlicking subjects
But true British culture- if it should be anything- defiantly and exuberantly cocks a snook at the Establishment and throws in an 'up yours' v-sign for good measure, it strives to be free, is open to the universe (the seen and the unseen) and is willing and eager to be astonished!
Esoteric investigation and pursuits hold no fear, only discovery and, lo! enlightenment
Sacred/profane, profound/irreverant, precise/digressive, defiantly intelligent and hungrily curious/silly... the best of British culture is exuberant contradiction overflowing with messy self-assuredness/self-doubt all the while confident enough to NOT drape itself in flags in search of some ill-fitting restrictive identity, it is mutable, liquid and relishes the forward momentum and potential of it's own keen wandering ever curious eye... or at least I wish it was
I didn't mean for this to be so long- when contemplating Ken my mind is prone to fizz and ping and expand and ramble- my intention was to post Ken Campbell on here because 1) I couldn't find much when searching and 2) he seems to me to define something essential and seemingly in rapid decline in Britain, a true disruptor (in the traditional anti-establishment sense, not the current vogue for being an awful cunt by shitting on people worse off than you and therefore cheerfully maintaining the status quo, disrupting nothing, maintaining your own privilege at all costs)
Campbell was an actor, writer, theatre director, ventroliquist, prankster, Jackie Chan fan and Science Fiction enthusiast... but always uniquely Ken Campbell
If you know nothing about Ken then start with this obituary here or this terrific blog piece from 2011 here
Or don't, I'm assuming you've already scrolled past before getting to this bit