What people have said about Spike.

Chapbooks continued

The output

Toni Savage produced hundreds of broadsheets that he gave away free at the Leicester theatres, folk clubs and to interested people. Sometimes they were done for special readings or visitations by famous artists.

Another tale in A Paper Snowstorm relates how Toni acquired a vast supply of paper offcuts which he proceeded to use as the source of paper for his chapbooks and broadsheets. Hence he created Offcut Press as the publisher of his early broadsheets. In 1971 he commenced a series called the Phoenix broadsheets. Phoenix was the anglicised version of Fenice from his opera days and also homage to the Leicester Phoenix Theatre. There were 420 Phoenix broadsheets produced between 1971 and 1994, each with their unique number. Spike's poems were produced on Phoenix Broadsheet numbers, 61, 108, 121, 132, 270, 300, 310, 344, 383, and 408. Three others were produced that were not part of a series and another was part of the Folville Rise series of broadsheets.

The Folville Rise broadsheets were produced with the help of children from local schools when Toni took his press, type, ink and paper to them to experience this craft of handmade printing. Spike's broadsheet with the poem 'The Man' is Folville Broadsheet no. 2 and was printed at Folville Junior School in Leicester.

Toni's legacy

After Toni Savage died in 1994 and the name Phoenix Broadsheet died with him. His wife Cynthia continued to produce broadsheets but changed the name to Fenice Broadsheets. She produced more than 50 in this series before stopping because she was unhappy with the work she was being asked to do. Spike contributed one poem that was printed by Cynthia, 'Toni Savage of Leicester' in 1996.

The chapbooks and broadsheets are widely distributed in libraries. The chapbooks are more commonly found than the broadsheets. The Legal Deposit regulations in the UK require that copies of books be deposited at six UK and Irish libraries, British Library, Cambridge, Oxford, National Library of Scotland, Trinity College Dublin and the National Library of Wales. This explains why some libraries have a large collection but the distribution goes beyond Legal Deposit. Many libraries have copies that originated from Toni Savage and it seems that his role in printing and distributing poetry was recognised and his output sort by academic institutions. His work is found in many US and Canadian libraries resulting in Spike's work being distributed widely too.

The library with the biggest collection of Spike's work is the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York (SUNY). They hold eleven of the fourteen recognised Spike Milligan broadsheets and eight of the ten Milligan chapbooks. Their holdings of his other books are not so broad. However their holding of Toni Savage's output is considerable. Entering "Toni Savage" into the catalogue search yields 472 entries. I suspect they have all of his 420 phoenix broadsheets and more.