I didnt understand those lyrics, but they gave me an idea of an adult world. I remember sitting backstage one night with Cooper Clarke and the late Chris Sievey, alias Frank Sidebottom, another former cult hero who has been propelled to mass fame, in his case posthumously, through Lenny Abrahamson's film, Frank, released earlier this year. 1), The Best Punk Album in the World Ever! The poem, he says, has had to be retitled "Bi-Polar Inmate Diary". It would be wrong to dismiss John Cooper Clarke as nothing more than a nave creator of knockabout rhyme. bands to watch for '92 (Melody Maker, January 4 1992), Ted Lasso Season 3 to Premiere Spring 2023, Motionographer | Motion graphics, design, animation, filmmaking and visual effects, Gugun Power Trio - Far East Blues Experience/Solid Ground/Soul Shaker, Art BOOOOOOOM! My answer is this, though: they all have their uses; its invariably a matter of context. That terrible inertia they captured that brilliantly.". CliveHR "It wasn't. Where do you get your trousers from?The short answer, Jarv, is River Island or Marks & Spencer, the skinniest they do. He arrived in traditional garb: pointed boots, strides clinging to stick-insect legs, dark jacket, buttoned-up white shirt, generous shades, Ronnie Wood hair beneath a tall grey felt hat. "In the French, it's imbcile.". djkeos Explorers," he adds, "actively annoy me. [15] That same year, Clarke featured in rapper Plan B's feature film Ill Manors and subsequently the Ill Manors album. He pays the money and limps home after receiving a severe pasting. [2] He returned to live performance in the 1990s, appearing again with Suns of Arqa in 1992 at The Witchwood in Ashton-under-Lyne. But I know by their name that I hate them. He was previously married to ?. ', They were great, those dudes, but Baudelaire was the baddest motherfucker on the block.". I credit this experience as one that led me to a lifetime of writing. Alone. With horrible results.". ", His father worked at Trafford Park, the biggest industrial estate in Europe. Capacious trouser pockets are like a new living-room shelf: the moment you put it up it becomes occupied not only by favoured ornaments but by half-squeezed-out tubes of Neutrogena hand cream and stuff. The sun has set. Ginger Wildheart. To bloody keep it bloody clean. That is the story of the Donald, and because in this business I learned long ago you should never knock success, I cant help admiring the crazy fucker in some way. Ex-Israeli spy boss attacks Netanyahu and Barak La Trobe 'torture' study anguish l33wilko I never put a geographical stamp on it. nicoleec monastreet (at) gmail (dot) com twitter/exilestreet. The theme of the big estate is the great British automotive industry: Wolseley Drive and Morris Road and Austin Crescent. In the past, I have worn a more adventurous colour palette but Im red/green colour blind so its an area of anxiety for me. nicklawrance He is married to Evie. "Even then, I remember wondering how on earth you'd come to be there." He and Garry are usually to be found supporting the older star. I thought very carefully before I embarked on mine," he explains. The one message I would like to send out is that this is not something you can pick up and leave alone just like that, you know. All of my tomorrow's. Are lousy coz of you. Thats more or less the way Ive dressed since 1965. How do you feel about Brexit not the crap leading up to it, but the actual exit?I dont even want to talk about it, to be honest. But if you ask me, I do think the free movement of working people has impacted badly on the poorest members of our society, which is bad for both the immigrant workers and bad for our workers, because it has driven down wages and conditions. He toured with Bill Nelson's band Be-Bop Deluxe in 1978 and was signed by Epic Records, who issued the studio album Disguise In Love, produced by Hannett, in 1978. He used to have to fight his audiences to be heard; now they hang on his every inflection. I began with a question from one of the many performers who, no doubt, owe just a little bit of their style and delivery to watching Clarke with an audience, seeing how it might be done. Because they weren't prejudiced. Occasionally it would appear out of the mist, just for a day, like some demonic equivalent of Brigadoon." Now you, being unprejudiced, would give them the benefit of the doubt. Back then there was only me and him doing poetry on stage, so we cranked it up a gear, not least because our audiences often had no prior interest in poetry. If anything, I go for a high-waisted trouser the Simon Cowell except I wouldnt attribute it to him, Id attribute it to flamenco dancers and matadors. But in Colchester, we've talked for more than six hours in a single session and the most life-threatening substance he has ingested has been a Glenmorangie. That performance undoubtedly made him a popular figure in the Manchester pub scene of the mid-1970s. If its true, as I claim in the title poem of my book, that I am the Luckiest Guy Alive, its for two reasons. "I've never really known," he says. But that is really the way I do it, keeping that dream alive. The retreat Psychic TV - Live @ Shiva's Erotic Banquet LA (24 Linda Lovelace and Deep Throats 40-Year Legacy. If you haven't previously encountered his work, you might start with 'I Married A Monster From Outer Space', a poem inspired by the 1958 film of that name. They have one child. louisdj It goes without saying. "But where did you get the dead canary from?" The role of driver and minder, which Green has adopted out of affection, is one that the poet describes as "Gentleman's Travelling Companion". No. What are your feelings about Jaywick?Dont get me started on Jaywick. When I moved to Essex, among the first things everyone said was Dont ever go to Jaywick, its a toilet. A Music War, in which he performed his poem "Health Fanatic". John Cooper Clarke performing at the 3rd International Moscow Open Book Festival (3 ) at The . You couldnt have that in stereo. Plus its very asexual you should like that at the Guardian looks just as right on Joan Jett as it does on Keith Richards. Consider the dinosaurs. No one can be that busy. As for people who sneer at him as a 'performance poet' - didn't Homer declaim?". My message is always the same: dont even do it once. Because it's very unusual that somebody manages to kick it. this time it's personal cd. But there is one attribute, very commonly found in lesser talents, that, you sense, John Cooper Clarke is never going to develop: an unshakeable belief in his own greatness. Lowry." I operate on a capsule wardrobe because I spend a lot of time on the road, so I aint got the whole rainbow spectrum of colours in my luggage. "I don't want that again. Everest. View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro, Evie Britain's best loved and most important performance poet. Whats your favourite gig venue, and why?It has to be the London Palladium, at which I have the honour of appearing again next month. You deserve not the reward of freedom from your slavery. Jon the Postman would climb up on stage at any gig he attended and do an impromptu a cappella version of Louie Louie by the Kingsmen. Thats the gold standard, not just for me, but worldwide. They have one child. With the passage of time, I suggest, such periods of lassitude in poets, or even stand ups like Lenny Bruce, become not just pardoned but somehow regarded as magnificent. Bonnaroo is held in Manchester, Tennessee. (? I dont graze. '", His delivery, stage presence, and an enviable ability to think on his feet, mean that, like a great actor or musician, he bears repeated viewing. Where I grew up, the one unmistakable sign of homosexuality was to betray some interest in your appearance.". ", He seemed to have arrived fully formed, performing brilliantly incisive poems such as 'You Never See a Nipple In The Daily Express'. Der Geschmack von Rost und Knochen (Orginal Motion Rust og bein (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). Whats your favourite word? Their only shared interest, he insists, was hiding heroin from each other. "Well, I shouldn't say it, but I really do love that couplet." What is it that mono can do that stereo cant?Hi Lauren. He would have been very surprised if he had found out that people would sit in a room poring over his words in a textbook.". British Rail, like any monopoly, had undoubtedly got complacent. As it happened, the record company boss conceded, he stumbled upon the more enduring talent. [20] On their 2020 eponymous debut album, English band Working Mens Club pays homage to the poet in the track John Cooper Clarke, referencing his poem "Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman" and book The Luckiest Guy Alive. Upon receipt, Clarke commented: "Now I'm a doctor, finally my dream of opening a cosmetic surgery business can become a reality. afrobeat, afrofunk, afrojazz, afrorock, african boogie, african hiphop RE-UPLOAD: The Sisters Of Mercy - No Time To Cry - German TV - 1985 (Proshot DVD), [request] Private Tapes Vol.1 : Tsunematsu Masatoshi (1981), William Eaton - Music by William Eaton (1978), The Trauma of Beautiful Things Audio Recording, Update: Signed copies of the Barney Bubbles book available. I figure any town in the whole world has an equivalent of the fictional neighbourhood I describe. "Well, I'm with Coleridge there. At that time, as he puts it, Andy Warhol's former muse, who appears in Fellini's La Dolce Vita, "had her own gaff in Sedgley Park [North Manchester]." John Cooper Clarke Top Songs 1. An edited version of Wilson's observation, reproduced as graffiti on the wall of an underpass, served as the opening scene for Evidently John Cooper Clarke, director John Ross' remarkable 2012 documentary for BBC4. We meet in the Kings Arms, a genteel coaching inn in the main street. Chris Harford Keep it quiet, but I plan to make a movie in Jaywick some day. He had fixed on his sartorial style in the unlikely arena of Bernard Mannings Embassy Club, where he acted as compere in the early 1970s, warming up an audience united by their shared antipathy to performance poetry. Wrong on both counts, Jim tee many Martoonies. Others include the use of his anthem 'Evidently Chickentown' to close a final-season episode of The Sopranos; his memorable appearance in, Ill Manors, the 2012 film by Plan B, and the tireless support of other younger artists, notably Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys. He brought his collection of records and a record player, which was new to us. Why is the drug addict spat upon, and the climber of Everest revered? on 14 August 2015[24] and again on 7 January 2022.[25]. Where will it end? Two words: Hitler, Nuremberg. ", One of his regular companions on the road, in the early days, was Elvis Costello. Every style of English suburban house is represented there, but all at two-thirds scale. 'Mere verse' as some might call it, is the kind of thing that everybody thinks they can do - and they're quite right, they can. Its like men wearing short trousers. Launcelot My influences are people like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis that kind of American, smart, preppy look. It was created originally as a holiday place. But once I'd had the disease, it left me prone to every kind of pulmonary disorder. DJ JetSet - Fifty minutes of Marko Frstenberg (th How Psychedelic Drugs Can Help Patients Face Death. The truth is Im not just a practitioner of poetry when I am on stage I am like the police: never off-duty. New Avalanches Mixtape? Baudelaire was my hero. Official Sites. The first guy goes in, 'screw me stupid.' I can't remember what happens next" and his list of "songs I wrote where I made one mistake in the title, that later became big hits for other artists." This period is chronicled in keyboard player James Young's outstanding memoir, Songs They Never Play On The Radio. He will turn 70 next year. Cooper Clarke met the Cologne-born icon in Manchester in about 1980. TheRealDavidF Nick Cohen, our columnist, broke off from columnising to recite extended passages of Clarkes verse first committed to memory when the poet was sharing spittle-flecked stages with Buzzcocks and the Sex Pistols back in the day. [12], Clarke released Zip Style Method in 1982, but thereafter performed his live act less frequently, spending much of the 1980s mired in heroin addiction, living in a "domestic partnership" with singer and fellow addict Nico. Like Ranulph Fiennes. [Mimics doorbell] 'Oh, hello Audrey. But if I'd have been around in Bavaria in 1935, I could have told them. It was National Poetry Day. ("Things are gonna get worse, nurse / I'm not optimistic / I've got a mouth shaped like a purse, nurse / And a bungalow smelling of piss and biscuit. ", "The trouble with that poem," he says, "is that I started out by painting a bleak picture for the first few verses. "I remember that Manchester air was officially declared the worst on the planet back then," he says. There is no Japanese term for. Believe me.". They deserve it. I really do. The Gary Lucas & Gods and Monsters - Jedwabne, Can - Deadly Doris (from The Lost Tapes), Rupert Murdoch admits NoW phone-hacking cover-up. This is my default look. Series 1 - Twisted Romance (2 Nov 2016) . He was previously married to ?. On stage, Cooper Clarke delivers a mixture of stand up and poetry that is unlike any other act before or since, and in that sense, to use another word that would make him cringe, he has invented a genre. Stereo, my ass. [2] His first releases were on Tosh Ryan and Martin Hannett's independent label Rabid,[7] starting with the EP Innocents in October 1977. So I had lines like: 'The choice Iranian on my foil / It runs like virgin olive oil / I'm living the life of a decadent royal / It could spoil, it could spoil, it could spoil you / Rotten here in jail. "I'm not joking. ", When Nico died after falling off her bike in Ibiza, in July 1988, her Daily Telegraph obituary remarked that 'she gave up heroin for cycling, which proved to be the more lethal recreation.' That glorious bank of french horns bleeding into a mess of cellos and strings. "And I've never heard their albums. Not with the laudanum, but The Lake District. Have you ever been offered an honour by the Queen, Sir John? The fury of the crowds really was quite alarming at that time. [4] He also duetted with Reverend Jon McClure at a Reverend and the Makers concert at London's Spread Eagle, performing the poem "Last Resort", which would later be released as the B-side for the band's single "Heavyweight Champion of the World". I once went clothes shopping with the poet, and the store owner had to explain that he had nothing to fit Cooper Clarke (5' 10", chest 32", waist 27", weight 116lb.) (Play Loud)". Because what I do isn't, 'work' as any sane person would understand the term. But I persuaded my wife to drive me there one weekend and on arrival I turned to her and said: Weve never been here before, sweetheart, but I sure have dreamed about this place. The streets are all sand. I was on drugs. We had to learn The Lady of Shalott, by the late, great Alfred, Lord Tennyson, which was 12 pages long, and I have to say I am all the better for it. Of course you still occasionally have that voice in your head that says: 'You are going to get rumbled; what you're doing is just a piece of piss. Is that a stage name? "When we walked out, tentacle in hand / You could sense that the earthlings would not understand / They'd go nudge-nudge when we got on the bus / They'd say, 'It's extra-terrestrial, not like us / And it's bad enough with another race / But fuck me. Simpo "That," I suggest, "can't have been easy". Someone asked him, 'Why a lobster?' Did you ever think you could stop using smack [heroin]? Like a Night Club in the morning, youre the bitter endLike a recently disinfected shit-house, youre clean round the bendYou give me the horrorsToo bad to be trueAll of my tomorrowsAre lousy coz of youYou put the Shat in ShatterPut the Pain in SpainYour germs are splattered aboutYour face is just a stain, Youre certainly no raver, commonly known as a dragDo us all a favour, here wear this polythene bag. 1978 . John Cooper Clarke at the Contains Strong Language spoken word festival at the University of Hull in 2017. his is my default look. i just wanna be yours t-shirt. His vocals from both of his Suns of Arqa tracks have been used on numerous remixes by the band ever since. [15][29], "Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt (film)", John Cooper Clarke performs Beasley Street at Hammersmith Palais, "John Cooper Clarke interview: 'Poetry is not something you have to retire from', "John Cooper Clarke On Life In Higher Broughton", "John Cooper Clarke: 'It's diabolical how poor I am', "Plan B's Ill Manors set to hijack charts in Olympics opening week", "John Cooper Clarke honoured by University of Salford", "Does Rock 'N' Roll Kill Braincells?! The dinosaurs," he goes on, "took people as they found them. HelenK He was born in Salford, on the north side of Manchester on 25 January, 1949 and has one brother, Paul, 12 years his junior. And they have followed me all my days, because as you get older you keep finding some new dimension even in the simplest love song. [18], In July 2013, Clarke was awarded an honorary doctorate of arts by the University of Salford in "acknowledgement of a career which has spanned five decades, bringing poetry to non-traditional audiences and influencing musicians and comedians." [16][17], Clarke was the subject of a BBC Four documentary, Evidently John Cooper Clarke, in May 2012, screened as part of the BBC's Punk Britannia season. You get out of bed late in the day and nobody calls you a lazy bastard. Im self-employed, my friend. Neither marriage nor routine employment suited him at the time. I like a high waist if anything, like a flamenco dancer that rakish, swashbuckling look. "I was sent to Rhyl, to live with my auntie Eileen; she died of tuberculosis." Show business isnt easy and it instinctively goes against the grain to do my fellow performers down. Costello's musicians debated where to dump the pillow case in which they'd hidden the shattered glass from a picture frame above the poet's bed. In his autobiography The Big Wheel, Costello's former bass player Bruce Thomas describes an incident at a Copenhagen hotel when Cooper Clarke's room was substantially rearranged. Really, really badly. Now that he's enjoying his unforeseen Indian summer, I ask the poet, what can he find to trouble him? John Cooper Clarke was born on January 25, 1949 in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, UK. Antarctic Monkeys Here [at the Contains Strong Language spoken word festival in 2017] Ive also got a bolo tie, which chimes in with the snakeskin boots by Jeffery West. If you had to choose one adjective that least well described him, as a person or as an artist, it would be 'orthodox'. His will was proved on 25 Feb 1683/84. I think," Costello continues, "this might be why he is not greatly regarded by literary snobs. .and this years most read reviews are. Christopher gets back on smack and he's sat in that same position, in the market, just nodding out. Clarke has lived for the past 25 years in Colchester, Essex. Read John Cooper Clarke's poem for Topman's show at London Collections Men. He moved back to Manchester, focussed on his art and was eventually spotted by the head of CBS, the late Maurice Oberstein. I didnt meet her then, but she was in the audience. Series 15: Episode 1", "Pointless Celebrities Next on BBC One", "BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs, John Cooper Clarke, poet", "BBC Two Celebrity Antiques Road Trip, Series 9, Episode 7", "John Cooper Clarke: The punk poet whose time has come again", "John Cooper Clarke Post-War Glamour Girl / Kung Fu International CBS UK S CBS 6541", "Movie Highlights | Interviews, Quizzes & More", "Various Short Circuit Live At The Electric Circus (Vinyl) at Discogs", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Cooper_Clarke&oldid=1131745084, People associated with the University of Salford, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, "Pity the Plight" (2012 Ill manors album Plan B), This page was last edited on 5 January 2023, at 15:15. Put the Pain in Spain. Which of your poems are you most satisfied with?Well, that is a typically clever question from Christopher, who did a memorable performance of Evidently Chickentown in that Danny Boyle film Strumpet, written by Jim Cartwright. Let's say you and me were in Peckham. At one point in London he addressed the problem of "The social menace of STIs - sexually transmitted infections, by which Britain leads the world by a sizzling 64%. English punk poet John Cooper-Clarke first began performing his verse backed by a local folk group called the Ferrets, but with his rapid-fire verbal delivery and stinging social commentary, he quickly emerged as the poet laureate of the punk movement. coastangel What do you call my haircut? She was well, and recovering, and looking forward to Spain. December 17, 2017 December 22, 2017 Editor David Colmer, Diane Lockward, Fay Roberts, Jo Mazelis, John Cooper Clarke, Lydia Towsey, Mark Pajak, New Orleans Poetry Festival, Nina Bhakoo, . highwaytohell Cooper Clarke's Salford vowel sounds remain untarnished by two decades in the South East. present) (1 child). Neither is it exotic or romantic. It's called "Get Back on Drugs, You Fat Fuck". John Cooper Clarke, TV Smith, Joe Cairo, Ann Ziety 26 March 1993 at Covent Garden Community Centre (182) Immortalised on the earliest video recording of an A&S show at Covent Garden Community Centre - which reveals that the 'special guests' promised on the flyer are, in fact, Joe Cairo. "Because you know what the Japanese are like. "I have come to understand that there is some value to what I do. If memory serves, you are marginally safer in the Three Jays. He knew my brother, who still works for the GPO, the Royal Mail, so we have a bit of baggage, you might say. You helped the Fall in the early days, letting them rehearse in your house, and you were a lifelong friend of the other Bard of Salford, Mark E Smith. Many people have told me that they do use the writing of poetry to concentrate their mind on some pressing metaphysical problem. For details and tickets visit johncooperclarke.com, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Queues round the block, as you can imagine. Thats another thing I have always avoided: peg tops. If they say, 'John Cooper Clarke? Now, Im no expert, but I think when it comes to guys, the less said about the hips the better. As an audience member I know what I get from watching you perform. "[15] In 1987, he performed live (on crutches owing to a broken ankle) at the Albany Empire in London with Suns of Arqa, recorded two tracks ("Libera Me" and "The Truth Lies Therein") for their album Seven, and featured in the music video for the latter. TA: Would not doing it ever be an option?Not for me. As a scene, that was the best treatment of drug addiction I have ever seen. Blog Archive 2022 (44) 2022 (44) May (9) April (20) April (20) Somewhere between a narrative film, a series of music videos and a documentary, the film features interviews and performances by Clarke and Linton Kwesi Johnson among others. "[19] His poem "I Wanna Be Yours" was adapted by Arctic Monkeys and frontman Alex Turner for the band's fifth album, AM, released on 9 September 2013. '", If you've seen him regularly over the years, you might be surprised by the material he's dispensed with, or revives just occasionally. [1] In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he released several albums. People don't expect to sit down and read him.". Why not Skype if you are that keen to connect at speed? The fact is you need help, though. John Cooper Clarke has always been adjacent to musicians, but in I Wanna Be Yours he recounts his many attempts at forming bands of his own.Throughout the '60s, he was a member of a comically . ericte John Cooper Clarke: 'I've dressed the same way since 1965' The poet and performer on keeping his clothes simple, stapling them back together, and being fashionable once every 15 years for. He is an actor and writer, known for Control (2007), Rust and Bone (2012) and The Souvenir (2019). They died out. It is a small part of what he does. John Cooper Clarke - What's In My Bag? Clarke was born in Salford, Lancashire, in 1949. ", On stage, such classics as '36 Hours' may be followed by some surreal monologue that might or might not recur in a subsequent performance. John Cooper Clarke concert schedule will typically have 25-50 tour dates. Yes. on sale a riot of our own by johnny green & garry barker. "The hotel roof is decided on," Thomas wrote, "but the parcel needs a warning message. BBC Radio 4 - Dr John Cooper Clarke at the BBC (Nov 2016) Somebody once said that a wedding is a funeral where you can smell your own flowers. (De rouille et d'os) [Original De xido y Hueso (Orginal Motion Picture Soundtrack). He'd just finished a show in a small theatre and we were looking for somewhere to eat. It will be John Cooper Clarke. I need some encouragement. It runs every teatime on television in the States. Cooper Clarke has lived here for the best part of 25 years with Evie, his Picardy-born wife; the couple have a grown-up daughter, Stella. He is an actor and writer, known for Control (2007), Rust and Bone (2012) and The Souvenir (2019). ", One verse of 'Evidently Chickentown,' in its bowdlerised, recorded form, goes: "The bloody pubs are bloody dull / The bloody clubs are bloody full / Of bloody girls and bloody guys / With bloody murder in their eyes / A bloody bloke is bloody stabbed / Waiting for a bloody cab / You bloody stay at bloody home / The bloody neighbours bloody moan / Keep the bloody racket down / This is bloody chicken town.". "The haiku," he tells Shepherd's Bush, "is a three line discipline perfected in the 17th century in Japan by a poet called Matsuo Basho. "Her writing has this effortless quality. But lets rack our brains. Anyone would dig it. You give me the horrors. He'll intersperse such knockabout material with classic writing like 'Beasley Street', a stunning evocation of the trials of the underclass, which sounds like Engels' prose accounts of the Mancunian slums crossed with Bob Dylan's 'Desolation Row'. 9.50 gbp. The template was the 1933 Busby Berkeley movie 42nd Street. Will he only be happy when he has lost all of his fingers? "I did," is all he will say, "all of those things that you have to do. Pinchy & Friends - Sleepy The Bug (ft. Warrior Queen) - Aktion Pak. Get it wrong by even half a syllable, and you are condemned to an eternity of spitting on your ancestors, after committing ritual suicide in a public place. I may be prejudiced. [2] Rabid also released his debut LP O est la maison de fromage'? ", The definitive poem about drug addiction, Cooper Clarke told me back then, '"is 'The Vampire' by Charles Baudelaire. He reserves the style for poems such as, 'Solid Gold Geezer.' I may be simple minded. "Don't forget Eddy Arnold," he replies, referring to the country singer's version of a song by Hank Cochran. There are good reasons, he argues, for judging by appearances. I had the last line. Cale, who was 'in his vodka period' was, the poet recalls, 'a lovely guy, but a bit of a handful. "I first saw you opening for bands at clubs like The Electric Circus in Manchester when I was still at school," I tell him.

Manchester Tip Opening Times Newton Heath, Brielle Biermann Father John Macdougald,