I was unemployed at the time. Apart from them, I hated every second of school. People used to go on about how soulless life in those new towns was, but that was not my experience of Stevenage. We meet in the Kings Arms, a genteel coaching inn in the main street. It's a place with heavy oak doors, tasteful decor and a few unobtrusive pictures. 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. "No. It is a romantic picture, that idea of Cole Porter always writing lyrics on the back of cigarette packs and menus. John Cooper Clarke was born on 25 January 1949 in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, UK. 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. Look whos played there: Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, you name them. "Which is odd," I suggest, "because, just to take one couplet from 'Beasley Street' [from Snap, Crackle And Bop]: 'There's a dead canary on a swivel seat / There's a rainbow in the road'; these are lines that any poet from TS Eliot to Betjeman would have been very proud to have written. nicoleec Imagine trying to read in the interval for" It is quite hard to convey the venom with which he delivers the next three syllables. ukje11ybean 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. unknownuser "[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. Its like men wearing short trousers. Yes. "Yes?" l33wilko [2] Rabid also released his debut LP O est la maison de fromage'? Many people have told me that they do use the writing of poetry to concentrate their mind on some pressing metaphysical problem. He doesn't care for the musical arrangements, by yet another 'late' associate Martin Hannett, acclaimed producer of, among others, Joy Division. "Keats, Baudelaire, Poe," I suggest to Cooper Clarke. He had Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughan, Sinatra obviously the great American songbook. Where I grew up, the one unmistakable sign of homosexuality was to betray some interest in your appearance.". 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. windymiller Is the father of a daughter, named Stella. The template was the 1933 Busby Berkeley movie 42nd Street. This is a man whose work has been praised by, among others, Jack Kerouac's co-conspirator Gregory Corso, and Yevgeny Yevtushenko, both of whom he knew. Its not really a mullet. And cheese and chutney sandwiches. Clarke was born in Salford, Lancashire, in 1949. It's his reluctance to discuss narcotics - "and it always, always comes up" - that mean that he will very rarely subject himself to interviews of any length. 2016 Zip Style Method. 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 used to have to fight his audiences to be heard; now they hang on his every inflection. One thing: when I met Linton, I knew I had to tighten up my game in the wardrobe department. One of the more fortunate breaks in his poetic career, he suggests, was that he looked like a punk before punk rock arrived. Have you ever seen Our Cartoon President? This is "an advert," as he explains, "that I wrote for the Martini people, on the understanding that I would receive a year's supply, or a lifetime's supply, whichever was the greater, of their enervating beverage." It's often asserted that he wrote nothing in his lost years; this isn't quite true. "They were unusual in that they were very nice, if that isn't an insulting word; very shy and immediately endearing. In 1988, he made an appearance in two UK adverts for Sugar Puffs, taking second billing to the Honey Monster. DJ JetSet - Fifty minutes of Marko Frstenberg (th How Psychedelic Drugs Can Help Patients Face Death. If memory serves, you are marginally safer in the Three Jays. But if I were ever to be asked for my rider requirements they might well involve a box of Mr Kiplings French Fancies, which I would stash for a 3am snack. and Football Focus. (De rouille et d'os) [Original De xido y Hueso (Orginal Motion Picture Soundtrack). US 'Blackmails' EU Into Agreeing To Hand Over Pas North Korea Threatens Seoul With Military Action, Tim Burgess's golden rules of rocknroll excess. Pink first, then yellow. Nobody likes their own hair but Im glad Ive got hair to hate. And we had to know the whole 12 pages, because on command, at any moment, you might be called on to stand up and recite a particular verse. 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. The outfit was another form of fighting talk, one he has stuck with in a journey that has seen some extremes. I credit this experience as one that led me to a lifetime of writing. The It Man John Cooper Clarke 5. I was in Salford when I saw that. I found your poem Kung Fu International on one of my dads punk CDs when I was eight (Im 33 now), and I remember listening to it over and over, and pausing so I could write each word down and learn to recite it. VD, with its hard, accusatory consonants. For a period of months, Cooper Clarke was also host to John Cale, meaning that, "I'm no name-dropper, but for a while I had two-fifths of the Velvet Underground living at my place." No way do I ever approach my work as a way of working out my own problems. "I was too late. Be kind to people. Neither marriage nor routine employment suited him at the time. Keep it quiet, but I plan to make a movie in Jaywick some day. Tickets available here, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Poetry in motion: John Cooper Clarke photographed in London earlier this month by Antonio Olmos for the Observer, TheSpecials: Respect people. Ginger Wildheart. Dr John Cooper Clarke at the Firestation Arts Centre 21/06/17, Treasure in the History of Things by Katherine McMahon, Review: John Cooper Clarke w/ Mike Garry and Salena Godden Apple & Snakes 30th Anniversary 01/12/12. 20.00 gbp. 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. Thats more or less the way Ive dressed since 1965. After that, old ladies started to hit me in the street with their umbrellas.". She was also an unpublished poet. He really does look more and more like Max Wall as he gets older. The poet-performer talks to Tim Adams about his new book and tour and, further down, answers questions from readers and famous fans. "I was ill all the time as a boy," he says. I visited him on one occasion with a view to suggesting that I help the poet manage his career, such as it then was; an offer I never quite brought myself to make, on the grounds that this world was not one that anyone with a fleeting acquaintance with the Mental Health Act would want any part of. As it happened, the record company boss conceded, he stumbled upon the more enduring talent. I will never resolve. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Well, for one thing, mono could produce the Phil Spector wall of sound. evidently john cooper clarke - dvd. I think he moved to the States for a while, but Im not sure the act travelled with him. (I Married a) Monster from Outer Space John Cooper Clarke 8. "I believe I was thinking you know that bit in On the Waterfront where they throw the informer off the roof, and the line is: "He could sing, but he couldn't fly". We had a brilliant English teacher called John Malone, who somehow conveyed his love of 19th-century poetry to an entire class of rough kids at Higher Broughton secondary modern school. Tim Adams: I imagine you held your own in those battles?Oh, I was the king of the block. Antarctic Monkeys I could have saved the world a whole lot of heartbreak. It included the lines: "Rotten here in jail / The communal TV has gone, / Everyone knows that one of us has got it / But we don't know which one / And he's too scared to turn it on. 36acm He is an actor and writer, known for Control (2007), Rust and Bone (2012) and The Souvenir (2019). It is a kind of a dream town, as Im sure Wilko knows, coming as he does from nearby Canvey Island. [10], Clarke appeared in a 1982 music documentary compilation Urgh! "My doctor told me. What is the worst act you opened for, and why? When this piece was used in The Sopranos, there was a communal surge of pride among Cooper Clarke's longstanding admirers, at the knowledge that this work by the poet could resonate as powerfully with New Jersey as it does with Moss Side. And it caught on. "I'm not joking. But all poetry - all writing - is aural. 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". Goldshaw began handling Clarke's affairs, and the two toured with the Mescaleros and several times supporting the Fall. 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. The truth is, Caligula, if I was opening for them, they were better than I was. What do you call my haircut? Yes. Gazing at those windswept hills and imagining the unspeakable horror of actually being out there. 'Make the world go away. Barry Evans and his young friends were all mods in a mod town. John Cooper Clarke - What's In My Bag? Around this time, he performed on stage with several punk and post-punk bands and continues to perform regularly. John Cooper Clarke - Home. "It's hard to convey the aggression of those audiences." Partly that was because ever since I was a teenager I had been taking what you might call pep pills, so I was invariably a little bit artificially jazzed up when I walked out on stage. Ive never been good at advice. Like his concert last October at the larger Royal Festival Hall, the event sold out many weeks ago. Will he only be happy when he has lost all of his fingers? [21] In October 2020 Clarke published an autobiography which took its title from his poem I Wanna Be Yours. He will turn 70 next year. Seven young guys are approaching us, wearing hoods. I won't be the one whose life is turned into legend. "Because of his accent and his appearance, and because he never went to college," he says, "a certain kind of people make assumptions. ", His fragile frame is the result not, as some assume, of his years as a heroin addict, which are long behind him, but a legacy of the TB he suffered as a child. It's a level of popularity that is unprecedented in the history of performance poetry. They have one daughter, Stella. Much of that gift lies in his voice: you cant help but smile when he talks. Cooper Clarke's Salford vowel sounds remain untarnished by two decades in the South East. Didn't his dick almost drop off once? It was hand to mouth. Im fashionable once every 15 years, for about three months. this time it's personal cd. I dont like low-rise, hipster trousers on men. I didnt meet her then, but she was in the audience. Ive never been offered an honour by the Queen, but Id be happy to accept. Much the same is true of Clarke, from the other side of the Pennines. (catalogue number NOZE 1), which was a collection of live recordings, demos and rehearsals. There are two pubs: the Three Jays and the Sheldrake. He set a very high bar. ("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. "Her writing has this effortless quality. newmanshh He is an actor and writer, known for Control (2007), Rust and Bone (2012) and The Souvenir (2019). Its a one-poet show by Luke Wright, capturing a heady mix, -Collated by Claire Trvien Its that time of year again, where end of year lists sprout across the internet, tilting, reviewed by David Mitchell Punk poetry, fifty years on It is fifty years since the summer of love. John Cooper Clarke SUB89 22.06.12 Lydia The Girl With the Itch through to Rotten Here In Gaol AboutPressCopyrightContact usCreatorsAdvertiseDevelopersTermsPrivacyPolicy & SafetyHow. John Cooper Clarke concert schedule will typically have 25-50 tour dates. 1978 Disguise in Love. They have one child. Your germs are splattered about. I remember thinking, this must be what Stalingrad was like. 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. I wish I had an answer. He brought his collection of records and a record player, which was new to us. 9.50 gbp. Im thinking of withholding my tax until they call a halt to HS2. Worst act? The truth is Im not just a practitioner of poetry when I am on stage I am like the police: never off-duty. on sale a riot of our own by johnny green & garry barker. That terrible inertia they captured that brilliantly.". As the great Bill Withers once said, the writing of songs involves a kind of magic I dont mess with. "Fancy Tony saying that." Copyright 2017 sabotagereviews.com. [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. The Kray family had a bolthole there. This period is chronicled in keyboard player James Young's outstanding memoir, Songs They Never Play On The Radio. I believe that John Cooper Clarke should be regarded as being among the very best writers in Britain. He speaks with love of the life he has created there, referring often to his wife, Evie, and daughter, Stella, his guiding lights. the very best of john cooper clarke - cd. ", "The trouble with that poem," he says, "is that I started out by painting a bleak picture for the first few verses. But you have to keep your request down to three words. I'm in a good place now.". Is Vince the ageing Savage, [who] betrays no kind of life, but the smell of yesterdays cabbage and the ghost of last years wife in Beasley Street based on anyone in particular? And he said, 'Because it does not bark, and it knows the secrets of the deep. 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. Adams: I imagine you held your own in those battles? 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