Patrick Ready was born in Minnedosa, Manitoba in 1947, the eldest son of a Welsh storyteller and a university librarian of great renown, whose colourful career took him and his large family to campuses across North America. In 1971, Patrick travelled in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, walking much of the way. Years later, his formative experience would become the subject of an amusing, self-published memoir.
In 1972, he went west, working in the oil fields and lumber mills of
northern Alberta. At one point he operated a gravel crusher and could
discourse at length on the different qualities of gravel. Having met
Hank Bull in 1967, the two corresponded and eventually began to
collaborate on audio, artistic and technological investigations under
the banner of HP. Following experiments with audio tape, they
started the weekly "The HP Radio Show" in 1976, broadcast on CFRO-FM
Vancouver Co-operative Radio. The show's name was soon changed to the
"HP Dinner Show, scientifically designed to help you prepare, eat and
digest your dinner". It ran for eight years. At the same time, HP
directed the "Luxe Radio Players", created shadow plays, built a
whisky still, a time machine, a Tesla Coil and produced numerous films
and performances. Their influences included Alfred Jarry, (they saw
themselves as Pataphysicians), William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin,
Allen Ginsberg, Nikolai Tesla and C.V. Boys.
Patrick was particularly inspired by failed inventions of the 19th
century. One of these, water powered radio, became the subject of his
two-year residency at San Francisco's legendary "Exploratorium". He
made many life-long friends in the Bay Area and would return
frequently.
Returning to Vancouver in 1980, he worked as technical director of the
Western Front and the Vancouver Art Gallery, where he met the woman
who would soon become his wife, Susan Smyth. They had two children,
Will and Iris. Throughout the 80s and 90s, he shared a studio with
sculptor Alan Storey and collaborated on projects with Jerry Pethick,
Buster Simpson, Nick Bertoni, Susan Subtle and many others.
He continued his interest in radio transmission* and wrote
continuously, producing columns for "Front Magazine" and "Geist", amassing
a large body of mostly unpublished material. In later years he would
return twice to Afghanistan, working for NATO to set up radio stations
and train women broadcasters.
A brilliant engineer and technologist, Patrick was blessed with his
father's gift for language and a delightful, self-deprecating sense
humour. His wide ranging imagination sent him in many directions. He
was an authority on palindromes, swamp gas, kites and clepsydra. One
of his last inventions was an ingenious board game based on Roman
Catholic theology.
