"Part of me dies under my overalls / I close my eyes and a woman calls / From a nightmare / Shave, shit, a shower and a shoeshine / That's it - sack time / Everybody looks like Ernest Borgnine.", He turned to Cooper Clarke. This period is chronicled in keyboard player James Young's outstanding memoir, Songs They Never Play On The Radio. In October of 1981 Clarke appeared in episode 2 of series 3 of The Innes Book of Records (TV series), reciting "Evidently Chickentown". ', They were great, those dudes, but Baudelaire was the baddest motherfucker on the block.". That terrible inertia they captured that brilliantly.". Around this time, he performed on stage with several punk and post-punk bands and continues to perform regularly. John has a brilliant and retentive mind and an exhaustive knowledge of all kinds of culture. 36acm I didnt meet her then, but she was in the audience. 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. I'm in a good place now.". Many people have told me that they do use the writing of poetry to concentrate their mind on some pressing metaphysical problem. Britain's best loved and most important performance poet. | Click here for tour details, John Cooper Clarke will be launching The Luckiest Guy Alive at an exclusive reading with Q&A session at Hoxton Hall, London N1, on 1 November. He was born in Salford, on the north side of Manchester on 25 January, 1949 and has one brother, Paul, 12 years his junior. With horrible results.". He had it all. "Great that, innit, that 'Fool'?" And it caught on. It was National Poetry Day. When I moved to Essex, among the first things everyone said was Dont ever go to Jaywick, its a toilet. Of course he does share certain qualities with other performers: things like a sharp wit, fearlessness in the spotlight, and a peculiar and restless imagination. It was once observed of Alan Bennett that the world invariably becomes an Alan Bennett sketch around him. The brown ones Id give away. goldthing In January 2018 Clarke appeared as a contestant on an academic version of BBC One's Pointless Celebrities partnered with historian Suzannah Lipscomb; they reached the head-to-head round. Radiohead 'Lotus Flower' (Austin City Limits - be Megaupload: Data access talks to begin on 26 April. He also starred in another 1982 film titled John Cooper Clarke Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt produced for the Arts Council of Great Britain and Channel 4. Stereo, my ass. Phone orders min p&p of 1.99. Explorers," he adds, "actively annoy me. But thats the secret: the sound of the language, those sonorous words. Unlike some of his fellow OAPs from the world of popular music, Cooper Clarke has understood the desperately absurd spectacle of an older artist seeking to cling to their youth. "I don't really look forwards in that way," he says. (De rouille et d'os) [Original De xido y Hueso (Orginal Motion Picture Soundtrack). His book choice was Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans, his luxury item was a boulder of opium twice the size of his head and his favourite track was "How Great Thou Art" by Elvis Presley. I loved it, man, I loved it. "Even then, I remember wondering how on earth you'd come to be there." "I did," is all he will say, "all of those things that you have to do. He closed the show at Shepherds Bush with his signature piece, 'Evidently Chickentown'. ", The work, once a struggle, is flowing freely from him. "No. One of Clarke's newer poems has the title 'Bed Blocker Blues'. After 20 years of performing the same material, Clarke re-established contact with guitarist Rick Goldstraw, who had founded Blue Orchids and played with The Fall and Nico. He's developed a routine in which he describes being invited to perform at the Bulimic Society's New Year's Eve Party, in Kensington. The poet has something of a gift for talking his own work down. Shards. There are good reasons, he argues, for judging by appearances. You're late home.' What are your feelings about Jaywick?Dont get me started on Jaywick. Ross' film has been one of a number of factors in the poet's belated but rapid ascent from cult artist to international icon. Cooper Clarke is largely indifferent to them. Where I grew up, the one unmistakable sign of homosexuality was to betray some interest in your appearance.". Its Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, rocknroll. "Better stand back / Here's an age attack / But the second in line / Is dealing with it fine / It's a day to celebrate / A destiny, a fate / It's a taking to the wing / A future thing. Grayclaret ", His father worked at Trafford Park, the biggest industrial estate in Europe. Are you a soothsayer? Mike Leigh interviewed by our readers and famous fans, Arundhati Roy: The point of the writer is to be unpopular, Lily Allen: We need to fight back against these forces, David Shrigley: Self-delusion is quite important if you want to be an artist, Zadie Smith: I have a very messy and chaotic mind, Liam Gallagher: Rocknroll saved my life, Yuval Noah Harari: Homo sapiens as we know them will disappear in a century or so, Stewart Lee: I dont know where the ideas come from and its terrifying. Erik_Debonair "I went to get the Buzzcocks," Oberstein once told me. It is a small part of what he does. Imagine trying to read in the interval for" It is quite hard to convey the venom with which he delivers the next three syllables. 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. You are not going to understand The Lady of Shalott you are a 10-year-old boy in Salford and it was written by a 33-year-old bloke 150 years ago. 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. I thought very carefully before I embarked on mine," he explains. I've got an STI.' Neither marriage nor routine employment suited him at the time. But not me. They spat and yelled at John because he was merely speaking. 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. So, to answer Jarviss inquiry: by default, during the low-rise years, I strolled the feminine range on the ground floor of Marks & Spencer. The role of driver and minder, which Green has adopted out of affection, is one that the poet describes as "Gentleman's Travelling Companion". I dont possess the equipment. However, their grandfather may be Thomas COOPER of Fluton with Silsoe, Bedfordshire, England. [Mimics doorbell] 'Oh, hello Audrey. JOHN COPPER CLARKE I FALLING IN LOVE WITH MY WIFE live in DUBLIN 2010_mpeg2video.mpg. 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. To approach a poem as if it is a puzzle to be understood is to miss the point. It goes without saying. On the Page vs On the Stage Frankie Vah by Luke Wright. The theme of the big estate is the great British automotive industry: Wolseley Drive and Morris Road and Austin Crescent. [Pause] He's a cunt. 2 (liane Reyes). John died 25 Feb 1684 in Barnstable. I wasnt thinking of Stevenage, though I did live there for a couple of years. We go and see them and they come and see us and we benefit from frictionless border controls. 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. To enjoy a renaissance, Cooper Clarke concedes, you must have been dead for a period. He will turn 70 next year. And if so, how did you combat it?I didnt get it too bad. In a back alley. Clarke's recording of "Evidently Chickentown" from his album Snap, Crackle & Bop was also featured prominently in the closing scene of The Sopranos episode Stage 5. He rang me one evening, a couple of years ago, and read me the first draft of what evolved into a piece called 'It's Rotten Here in Jail'. Can I make you cocoa? I begged the poison I abhorred. I remember one, a kind of agonised paean to opiates, that had the line "She's my best friend and enemy / Give me what I need. [2], Clarke has attributed his early success in part to the influence of the English poet Pam Ayres. You're late home.' ("My family crest," Cooper Clarke once remarked, "is four white feathers on a yellow streak.") Four years ago, I remind the poet, we were shivering in driving rain on the seafront in Brighton, just after midnight. ("This paper's boring, mindless and mean / Full of pornography, the kind that's clean / Where William Hickey meets Michael Caine / Again and again and again and again / You see all kinds of ugliness and hideous excess / But you never see a nipple in The Daily Express."). "They were unusual in that they were very nice, if that isn't an insulting word; very shy and immediately endearing. When Lenny Bruce was reduced to doing little 100-seat nightclubs he had this whole brilliant routine about a washed-up comedian whos given one last bite of the apple. ", I remember John Humphreys on Celebrity Mastermind, earlier this year, beginning to tease Cooper Clarke by asking him what the difference was between 'performance' poetry and [by implication], 'proper' poetry. Like a Night Club in the morning, you're the bitter end. 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. TA: Do you do much Skyping?Never. My trouser needs are simple: a narrow leg in a dark colour, with jean detailing. Bonnaroo is held in Manchester, Tennessee. The Luckiest Guy Alive by John Cooper Clarke is published by Picador (14.99). Publicity Listings But you have to keep your request down to three words. In 1979, he had his only UK top 40 hit with "Gimmix! What else have we got?, Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give: 'Books play a huge part in resistance', 'Silly question!' I was on drugs. I credit this experience as one that led me to a lifetime of writing. "I've been in Time magazine," he says, "but don't wait to hear me on [BBC Radio Four's] Poetry Please." Ever! Elvis and Frank, though, was the first glimpse of an eternal conflict I could never resolve. Do you get some element of therapy from writing and performing your poetry? John Cooper Clarke (born 25 January 1949) is an English performance poet, who first became famous as a " punk poet" in the late 1970s. The cover features a Peter Blake painting of his stick man profile, and embossed graphics in Scrabble tiles. "I remember that Manchester air was officially declared the worst on the planet back then," he says. 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. "Now that I come to think of it," he adds, "Spitting on my ancestors is what I do best. Cooper Clarke had not been deemed worthy to participate in that event. That's half an hour of my life you've saved me, having to explain it to you. To make the hips the focal point of a pair of trousers is, to me, a fashion mistake. No. Gazing at those windswept hills and imagining the unspeakable horror of actually being out there. poetry quote black t-shirt. 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. Tim Adams: I imagine you held your own in those battles?Oh, I was the king of the block. "Well," Cooper Clarke says, "he was a rent man, wasn't he?". Didn't his dick almost drop off once? He and Garry are usually to be found supporting the older star. A fan of the show for 60 years, he described it as having "all the finality of a suicide note, without the actual obligation of topping yourself". Writing is the prism through which you see the world. Prison had become like a never-ending party. He set a very high bar. It was a mistake in the 60s and it doesnt look any better on some fat fuck in Shoreditch now. Lydia, Girl with an Itch by John Cooper Clarke - YouTube 0:00 / 4:51 Lydia, Girl with an Itch by John Cooper Clarke 20,175 views Mar 6, 2014 Live at the Cambridge Junction 5th March 2014. "Genesis. Mention that the Bard of Salford was to visit the Observer office for this interview last week immediately prompted snatches of extemporised quotation from some of Clarkes more famous lyrics I Wanna Be Yours, Evidently Chickentown, I Married a Monster from Outer Space from those colleagues who had some grounding in his snarly Mancunian vowels and those who were not afraid of pretending. He has embraced old age as an opportunity to indulge the kind of recklessness traditionally associated with youth. No way do I ever approach my work as a way of working out my own problems. Hilda, his mother, worked as a cleaner. I cant talk that guy up enough. 10.00 gbp. lennie7 Popular John Cooper Clarke albums This Time It's Personal. "I met the whole band when they were starting out," Cooper Clarke says. 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. ", He seemed to have arrived fully formed, performing brilliantly incisive poems such as 'You Never See a Nipple In The Daily Express'. If memory serves, you are marginally safer in the Three Jays. Every time I saw him he had a meat-cleaver in his hand and the look of a man who might have been Henry Coopers psychotic kid brother. He has had the wit and the generosity to encourage protgs, such as fellow-Mancunian Mike Garry and Luke Wright, who grew up in Colchester. 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A Personal EXperience