Live Review

Howard Marks – O2 Academy, Liverpool

• 25th May 2010

“Lion shit can save your life”

Only one man could make such a statement seem like a sentence straight from the thin lips of Plato – only one man could say something so absurd with a thick Welsh accent and still seem like a prophet – only one man could utter those immortal words and mean them – that man is Howard Marks, that man is a living legend.

Famed for being at one point the world’s most wanted man, the former King of the cannabis smuggling world, a global runaway who had direct links to MI5 and the IRA – the first ever international man of mystery brought his tales of surreal rebellion and the story of his transformation from nuclear physics and Oxford education to toxic weed and American imprisonment, to Liverpool, and with the charm and wit he’s became renowned for made everyone fall deeper in love with Mr Nice.

Though what would have been a swagger in the 60’s is now a stumble in the 10’s; a full head of hair and glimmering eyes of boyish fun mean that the wrinkled version of Marks remains just as intelligent and coy about his exploits, speaking in an eloquent tongue of experienced anarchy, he muses over cannabis like Kundara would over love or Nietchze about humanity – completely in awe of his subject of choice, an expert in his chosen field.

Clutching A4 paper in his hands and reading lines that are double spaced for ease of delivery, the crowd is reintroduced to Howard’s famous airport adventures and how his humour and distaste for the rule of law has got him out of more trouble than it got him into, how his love for a good time made him friends and lost him friends and how his insatiable appetite for fulfilment led him to Jamaica, Argentina, Paris, Amsterdam and Cardiff, with a spliff in hand and hope in heart.

In one particularly interesting segment of the show, Howard muses over Tobacco, in what will probably be a future book entitled “In Praise of Tobacco”. Here, we are enlightened with his whimsical facts and figures about Hitler’s proposed banning of the substance, how what is smoked now is not what was first imported and how the governments increasing banning of the substance seems hypocritical in the face of quicker deaths i.e. suicide!

These are the topics that the soothing tones of Howard’s voice treat an audience with, an audience that holds no common ground other than a deep admiration for Howard, an audience that spans dramatically in generations. I, 18 years old, am hear with my Father. Aside from our significant gap in years and experience, there are students, pensioners, teachers, stoners, actors and bouncers piled into Academy 2, all foolishly worshipping at the altar of Marks.

Split into two sections separated by an up and coming Geordie band “The Smokin Barrels” who produce an uncomfortably empty sound of “Lad” indie; kind of like Oasis without a chorus or The Enemy without designer clothes, they were a necessary evil in the break up between Howards first and second segment.

The second half of the show sees Howard at his most droll and vulnerable as he commits to Q&A, something always potentially deadly in a Liverpool audience. Despite the obligatory scouse screams of spliff-related wonder and the occasional flirtatious quip from a martini-soaked, middle-aged office worker, the audience did ask some genuinely inquisitive and interesting questions, some that Howard wouldn’t dare to answer! Pushed about whether or not he knew that members of the Royal Family smoked the holy smoke, Howard wisecracked that he’d have to keep schtum, after all he’s “after a knighthood!”

St Howard Marks does have a ring to it, even if that ring is one of contradictory brilliance. In the coming months, the general public will be introduced to Howard’s life in the upcoming biopic Mr Nice in which Howards doppelganger and lifelong friend Rhys Ifans will don sunglasses, eloquent passages of speech and the odd drop of marijuana in what is sure to be a family-friendly (not) blockbuster (not) pushing the boundaries of modern cinema (not). What it will be though is an onslaught of anarchy and fun marked with unrivalled hedonism and a peek into Britain’s golden years.

“Lion shit can save your life – if you put it in your house, after smuggling drugs, the sniffer dogs will smell it through the door and think a lions waiting for them. They’ll scamper away and leave you scot-free” or words to that effect.

You’ve got to admire the genius of someone who’d risk his safety with excretion. Ever the great pretender and the elusive force of manic brilliance, Howard Marks Live is just as compelling as his novels, in fact, probably even more so as througout his speeches, the enormity of his legend and the burden of his brilliance trickles through his teeth and tongue, leaving him sound more like a prophet than a drugs baron and more like a poet than a stoner.