Jackie Hagan - a short tribute

A short tribute to the great Manchester Poet who passed away yesterday

I first met Jackie Hagan not at a Spoken Word night in Manchester that you may have expected to see her at the start of 2008 certainly not at an experimental doom metal gig at Levenshulme Cricket Club.

I don't remember whether the band were any good but was head-hanging near the front of the stage when a little pink-haired girl came up and tapped me on the shoulder and said “You’re Andy N”

“Yeah,” I stopped.

“I saw you read at Freed Up, you were fucking mint,” She smiled "But this lot are fucking shite" and stumbled off leaving me stunned as well as the band. 

I saw her two weeks after Freed Up, and she looked at me stunned and said "I said that?" when I told her what happened. I nodded adding I thought two of the band were going to punch her. In response, she just shrugged her shoulders and then went on stage and blew everybody else with her poetry smiling slightly thinking at the carnage she had caused. 

That’s what I loved about Jackie Hagan she didn't worry about what other people thought about her, she was a one-off, and although I hadn’t seen her for ages since she went down ill, her passing stunned me me earlier today, she certainly was a one-off. She will certainly not be forgotten.