John Evans (writer)
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John Evans has been described as "one of Wales' most uncompromising and original contemporary artists and writers"[1] .
He started his career as a singer and frontman for the punk band the The Tax Exiles. The Tax Exiles were regulars at The Roxy, and all other punk venues in 1976-1978. In the Early 1980's he embarked on a solo career as was signed to the Situation 2/4AD record label recording a single, Sister Soul, under the name John Marlon for them. For the last ten years he has worked as a full-time writer and filmmaker and has become the leading figure in the New Wave of Welsh writing. His work has been described variously as post-punk, post-modern and even "impossible to categorise". Throughout - from his underground films, or his most recent books Industria, G.B.H., and his novel Giants - he breaks the boundaries and conventions of traditional forms to combine words and images in an innovative style which is both fascinating and repellent. Often writing about his native South Wales Valleys, his work has been defined as "the voice of the disaffected, alienated youth of the south Wales valleys, the street voice of post-industrial Britain rattling to its death" [1]
John Evans has also written a number of factual books, among them an economic, social, and cultural examination of post-industrial South Wales, ''How Real Is My Valley? - Postmodernism & the South Wales Valleys'', and the natural history work, ''The Red Kite in Wales''. The latter book relates to his interest in wildlife and the countryside, and he also breeds and owns a strain of dogs which he describes as "old-style, Nineteenth Century Fox Terriers".[citation needed]
The interest and acclaim for Evans' work has spread throughout the UK and beyond. His work has also been compared to writers like Kathy Acker, William Burroughs, Alain Robbe-Grillet, and bands like Pere Ubu, and Joy Division.
During 2004, in a public poll to find the "greatest Welsh men and women of all time", John Evans was voted at number 27 out of a list of 100 names also nominated by the public.[citation needed]
