Peter Hancock

 In January 2002, Pete Hancock made his first inroads into performing (apart from a punk band in his mid-20s) with a musical cabaret performance as Duke Hancock, with his wife, Glenda the Cocktail Goddess, and close friend, Ellis Martini at JJ’s Bar “Sunday Session” in Brighton, England.                                                                 

He was also trying his hand at stand-up comedy, performing his first gig as Jinx Jones, Welsh porn star in April 2002.   

Candy-Coloured Ghetto

There’s a candy-coloured ghetto

On the edge of the old town

After Uncle Sam came and huffed and puffed

And blew the old house down

In for a penny, in for a pounding

Felt some kind of guilt

So, when the dust had settled

This is what they built

Yeah, after the huff and puff and bluster

Had just about died down

Came the candy-coloured ghetto

On the edge of the old town

You can see the broken windows

From nearly off a mile

Missing or discoloured teeth

In the middle of a crooked smile

Breaking up the pastel pinks

Yellow, green and brown

Of the candy-coloured ghetto

On the edge of the old town

Some say you should make yourself scarce

After twilight time

But bad guys can still make hay

While the sun shines  

Sometimes a place can go

Ragged, wrong and rotten

Pushed aside, passed over

Gang-banged and forgotten

You hear some talk about these places

And you wonder if it’s fair

Everyone’s got to live somewhere

And someone’s got to live there

Heard of how a car broke down

And, of course, they got jacked

Watches, jewellery, wallets gone

Some kind of property tax

But when some other guy got a flat tyre

Some church-folk rallied round

Sleeves rolled up, did what was needed

Got him back to the old town

Maybe the world’s a dangerous place

Wherever you might go

Is it outwith the bounds of chance

You might get mugged in Monaco?

You drop your guard for just one second

And that’s all that it takes

Rich-man’s ghetto or third world favela

The cookie crumbles, them’s the breaks

Not too far away there’s a gated community

The price of a condo guarantees immunity

Lifestyle choices with complete impunity

A digi-code away from all the lunacy

They look out at the world below

They dream different kinds of dreams

Cause now there’s filthy rich and dirt poor

And little else in between.

They close the blinds ‘cause it’s getting dark

And the dusk it starts to frown

On the candy-coloured ghetto

On the edge of the old town.

He performed this at various London venues but a change of direction came when he was mugged in May of that year. The incident spurred him to write about his experience in the form of poetry, a form he has worked with ever since.

From October 2003 to April 2007, he organised, promoted, MCed and performed stand-up, poetry and music with

Glenda the Cocktail Goddess and in-house ukulele band, The Ukelazies, at a night called Cabaret Cosa Nostra in London, England.

Last year he worked with London producers Just 1 Dimension to put a musical element to his poetry, performing with them at a festival last June.

In addition to the UK, Duke has performed at Vancouver Poetry Slam, and, more recently, in Buenos Aires, Puerto Escondido (Mexico), Windsor (Ontario) and Toronto.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEfuF8KRUPA&feature=related