James Jackson (28)

To call James Jackson (1980 - 2019) a multidisciplinary performance artist is somewhat of an understatement. As far as populist performance art goes, James Jackson had his hand in nearly every aspect: performance artist, poet, author, musician and even professional wrestler. Based in Melbourne, Australia, Jackson began his career with playing in the goth metal band Gethsemane, who released a self-titled album in 1999. After Gethsemane disbanded in 2000, he formed his next group - Dr. James and the Zero Patients. The Zero Patients were a post-punk revival group that performed around Melbourne in the early 2000's and even recorded an EP that was not released until 2011, long after the group disbanded in 2003. At the urging of friend and mentor, renown Australian poet Shelton Lea, Jackson persuaded the Melbourne performance poetry scene in 2004. It was only after Shelton’s death in 2005 that Jackson began to seriously hone the skills that would see him become one of Melbourne’s most controversial but respected performance poets. In 2007 Jackson released Yeah Yeah! It's James Jackson Live In Melbourne!, an album showcasing the best of his readings up to that point. Later that year James Jackson staged James Jackson: Monster of Poetry, an interactive, multimedia event became the first show of its kind in the history of the Overload Poetry Festival. It included the screening of the documentary Monster of Poetry which explored James’ life and work as a performance poet, poetry and Andy Kaufman-esqe shock performance art. 2008 saw Jackson first hip hop mix-tape: Pimpin’ Gnomes: A Backyard Demo. In 2009, he teamed up with performance artists “The Watermelon Man” Frank Baressi and produced, written, directed and starred in two successful shows for the Melbourne Fringe Festival - 2009’s The Peadophile Terrorist and the Fight on Box Hill and 2010’s The Artoholic’s Fix. This was followed by the launch of James’ first collection of poetry Two Minutes Hatefuck published by the Unapologists Press in 2010. In 2011 he formed the hip-hop group Section 10 with Raf Brunswick, Jez P.A. Speelman and "The Rowdy Man" and in 2013 they released the Hip Hop Party mixtape. Jackson has performed hip hop extensively during this period, including with Team Red and The Low Priests. Through-out the mid 2010's, he continued to be a predominate fixture on the Melbourne performance poetry scene. In 2017, Jackson returned to playing rock music with his group King James and the Thirsty Men. Along side his musical and literary career, Jackson was also a known figure on the Melbourne wrestling scene. He began his career as a professional wrestler in 2000, trained by Australian wrestling legend George “The Hitman” Julio, he commenced working for Australian Championship Wrestling as “The Beast” managed by any Aussie wrestling legend Kurt Von Schneider. In 2007 Jackson began working with New Aussie Wrestling as a colour commentator. Encouraged to return to the ring by his trainer George “The Hitman” Julio, Jackson joined the roster at NAW in 2009 and became the Heavyweight Champion in 2011. Jackson also held a Bachelor of Arts in Youth Work and Masters of Writing and Literature. James Jackson died 21st November 2019 in Melbourne, Australia.