"That," I suggest, "can't have been easy". Even though quite often you literally couldn't see it for the smoke. See full bio [6] He began his performance career in Manchester folk clubs, where he began working with Rick Goldstraw and his band the Ferrets. [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. 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. You put the Shat in Shatter. 2 (liane Reyes). [Pause] He's a cunt. "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. I begged the poison I abhorred. The Changing Face of Planet Earth Too bad to be true. Cale, who was 'in his vodka period' was, the poet recalls, 'a lovely guy, but a bit of a handful. ("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."). I credit this experience as one that led me to a lifetime of writing. You would persuade yourself that they could be Franciscan monks. "The hotel roof is decided on," Thomas wrote, "but the parcel needs a warning message. Otherwise, I ask for the apparatus for a gin and tonic. Anybody who calls themselves Genesis is well overdue a good hiding, you know what I mean? I will never resolve. Its the same with trouser pockets in my experience. ", 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. Your germs are splattered about. ("My family crest," Cooper Clarke once remarked, "is four white feathers on a yellow streak.") Cooper Clarke met the Cologne-born icon in Manchester in about 1980. 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. One of the frustrating things for admirers of Cooper Clarke is the limited amount of work he has published and recorded. The first lyrics I became aware of would have been in the pre-rocknroll 1950s, when my Uncle Dennis was demobbed from the RAF and he lived at our house for a bit. Phil Spector is obviously out of circulation right now, but I am keeping the faith alive. Elvis and Frank, though, was the first glimpse of an eternal conflict I could never resolve. They have one child. Gazing at those windswept hills and imagining the unspeakable horror of actually being out there. And it caught on. It will be John Cooper Clarke. 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%. "Sometimes," the actor Steve Coogan once said, "I ask people: 'Have you ever heard of Cooper Clarke?' Fool." The game's up, Clarke.' The Kray family had a bolthole there. 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. John Cooper Clarke (born 25 January 1949) is an English performance poet, who first became famous as a " punk poet" in the late 1970s. He stayed with me occasionally in London in those years and he was not an ideal guest: getting up around 4pm, then sitting up past dawn, working through my library of low-budget horror films. Saboteur Awards Festival 2022: The shortlists! They'd all have been sat in the bar, meditating on their flares." He is married to Evie. Beasley Street (Live) E John Cooper Clarke 6. A much underrated garment, the jegging: they never need ironing and they hold their colour. "Over two decades on," he says, "some kinds of reputation never leave you. Yes. It is things that he might eat if he ever did turn up to my show: which is to say various heavily flavoured, deep-fried, lavishly salted snack treats. Are you a soothsayer? I think," Costello continues, "this might be why he is not greatly regarded by literary snobs. "Keats, Baudelaire, Poe," I suggest to Cooper Clarke. And I thought: Wow, imagine being young and living in a mod town like Stevenage! And then I did for a couple of years. Antarctic Monkeys "Bloody hell," says Cooper Clarke. 271 people have seen John Cooper Clarke live. She does the business. Worst act? "I have two heroes in my life," he says. But I have to say that view was by no means unanimous. For me, I think it might turn out to have some gifts but dont get me wrong, my wife is French and half of my daughters relatives live in France. Clarke also recorded a song with the band entitled "Dead Man's Shoes". I prefer to see it as a sexual relationship that is recognised by the police. poetry quote black t-shirt. And then when you arrive at the so-called Northern Powerhouse, you will find you cant get a train to Blackpool or Burnley for about two years. It won't be me. Four years ago, I remind the poet, we were shivering in driving rain on the seafront in Brighton, just after midnight. The standards werent high. But thats the secret: the sound of the language, those sonorous words. He has embraced old age as an opportunity to indulge the kind of recklessness traditionally associated with youth. That movie, Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, starring Barry Evans, for which Traffic did the theme, was set there. The poet and performer on keeping his clothes simple, stapling them back together, and being fashionable once every 15 years for about three months. and Football Focus. The truth is, Caligula, if I was opening for them, they were better than I was. 1980 O est la maison de fromage ? (catalogue number NOZE 1), which was a collection of live recordings, demos and rehearsals. "Great that, innit, that 'Fool'?" "Those gigs could be tricky," Cooper Clarke says, referring to the punk era, "but at least broken glass and saliva are an acknowledgment that you are actually in the room. 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'. "Please," he asked the audience at Shepherds Bush, "if you ever see me in a vegetative state - drooling and incontinent, having to be reminded of my own name - just leave me in peace. Everest. But all poetry - all writing - is aural. As a scene, that was the best treatment of drug addiction I have ever seen. I may be simple minded. ", That last word, Costello says, "was rendered hilarious by his voice in a way which is just impossible to replicate in print. dth64 What are your recollections of touring with the reggae poet Linton Kwesi Johnson?They are only good, put it that way. I dont try to explain it. And since you ask, Chickentown is among my favourites, not least because of that and its appearance in the penultimate episode of The Sopranos. If its true, as I claim in the title poem of my book, that I am the Luckiest Guy Alive, its for two reasons. Each of these things," he went on, "makes it far from absurd to compare him to Baudelaire, or Verlaine, or Rimbaud.". Her run of success on the British TV show Opportunity Knocks led both Clarke and his mother to believe that he could make a living at poetry.[8]. Brooshski 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. It was a time of letters left unopened, heavy curtains warding off the maddening reality of daylight and, as he would concede, anxiety and reclusiveness. That judgmental 'V', hanging over romantic proceedings like the Damoclean sword of justice, rendering enjoyable sex utterly impossible. I really like the idea of being a poetic hack. Two words: Hitler, Nuremberg. Thats another thing I have always avoided: peg tops. If they say, 'John Cooper Clarke? ', 'Anything wrong?' 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! When you first started out, did you get stage fright? I learned a long time ago that if you wear trousers where you can put something in the pockets, you will put stuff in those pockets and before you know it you are clad in jodhpurs. I used to think trees were dirty, because when I was a kid in Salford you'd climb them and come off filthy, it was like you'd been up a chimney and even if you got a stretch of park you just had to scrape the grass and there were, like, cinders underneath it was horrible[5], His first job was a laboratory technician at Salford Tech. 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. I dont have a problem with the leisure bit though. Was there ever any talk of you joining the Fall?Are you kidding? "No," he laughs. Bonnaroo is held in Manchester, Tennessee. 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. I pray that you are successful. His last original solo album was released 32 years ago, which is all the more irritating because the four collections he did record for CBS, especially Snap Crackle & Bop (1980) and Zip Style Method (1982) remain remarkable testaments to his gifts as a writer. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . Thats an intelligent question too, from Ben, because lyricists have probably influenced me more than any other poets. August 24, 2017 October 21, . He came into the office pulling a suitcase and immediately he sat down he was unzipping it to reveal his latest pride and joy, a handsome hardback collection of his poetry, entitled The Luckiest Guy Alive. There is no doubt that you can get a better cup of coffee since privatisation; youd have waited a long time for an espresso in 1975. On the Page vs On the Stage Frankie Vah by Luke Wright. ", 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.' 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. It is also more true to life. I rest my case. 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. 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. 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. mac_abre 'Move to another country, you sick, dripping, filthy, home-wrecking little bitch. HelenK I think of it more like Tin Pan Alley work. When two dozen paramedics have to put on high-vis tabards and possibly die in trying to rescue him? Poet; Movie star; Rock star; TV & radio presenter; Comedian; Social & cultural commentator. Where will it end? I know for many people our departure from the EU is the worst thing thats ever happened. I should say that all my characters are an amalgam or something, Craig, but Vince was the bloke in the downstairs apartment when I lived in Plymouth for a while, real name Frank. Erik_Debonair To bloody keep it bloody clean. To approach a poem as if it is a puzzle to be understood is to miss the point. Not with the laudanum, but The Lake District. Tim Adams: I imagine you held your own in those battles?Oh, I was the king of the block. I loved it, man, I loved it. I was in Salford when I saw that. Their only shared interest, he insists, was hiding heroin from each other. "I told him the answer is that I read my stuff out loud and I get paid for it. And if so, how did you combat it?I didnt get it too bad. "My doctor told me. He is an actor and writer, known for Control (2007), Rust and Bone (2012) and The Souvenir (2019). Who were the lyricists who inspired you to write the way you do? This includes lines like "I've got amnesia and dj vu at the same time. John Cooper Clarke", "BBC One Would I Lie to You?, Series 9, Episode 3", "Would I Lie to You? 'BEYOND THE Sidi Tour with Yehiya Arby - Artiatanat. Many people have told me that they do use the writing of poetry to concentrate their mind on some pressing metaphysical problem. Sievey said. Who on earth needs to get to Manchester 15 minutes quicker? Wright, 31, has clearly modelled himself on Cooper Clarke, but has developed his own distinctive voice, and humour. "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. John Cooper Clarke (born 25 January 1949) is an English performance poet, who first became famous as a "punk poet" in the late 1970s. deadgraham, John Cooper Clarke at Cliffs Pavilion, Southend-on-Sea, England, John Cooper Clarke at Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth, England, John Cooper Clarke at Brighton Centre, Brighton, England, John Cooper Clarke at The Forum, Bath, England, John Cooper Clarke at Eventim Apollo, London, England, John Cooper Clarke at St David's Hall, Cardiff, Wales, John Cooper Clarke at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, England, John Cooper Clarke at Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland, John Cooper Clarke at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, England, John Cooper Clarke at O2 Apollo Manchester, Manchester, England. 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. raysgigs His response has become something of a mantra. Some are held together by staples because the linings falling out, but you see them in photoshoots and they still look the business. 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. In the mid-Eighties he shared a flat in Brixton with the music entrepreneur Alan Wise, and Nico, former member of the Velvet Underground, and one time partner of, among others, Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison and Alain Delon. Its an intelligent question, Phil, not least because I am old enough to have a historical perspective of the railways, but not yet too old to have lost my memory of how things were. "You and John Lennon. He reserves the style for poems such as, 'Solid Gold Geezer.' drew1992 The brown ones Id give away. Whereas I, in that situation, tend to err on the side of caution. "I first saw you opening for bands at clubs like The Electric Circus in Manchester when I was still at school," I tell him. And it's not that bad.". Baudelaire was my hero. It is a kind of a dream town, as Im sure Wilko knows, coming as he does from nearby Canvey Island. I didnt get into show business to be pushed around by the likes of Mark E Smith. When we eventually arrived at the one diner that was still open, the owner, not being a man of letters, was initially reluctant to let him in. The cover features a Peter Blake painting of his stick man profile, and embossed graphics in Scrabble tiles. I wish I had an answer. People mention murder, the moment you arriveId consider killing you if I thought you were aliveYouve got this slippery qualityIt makes me think of phlegmAnd a dual personalityI hate both of them, Your bad breath, vamps disease, destruction, and decayPlease, please, please, please, take yourself awayLike a death a birthday partyYou ruin all the funLike a sucked and spat our smartieyoure no use to anyoneLike the shadow of the guillotineOn a dead consumptives faceSpeaking as an outsiderWhat do you think of the human race, You went to a progressive psychiatristHe recommended suicideBefore scratching your bad name off his listAnd pointing the way outside, You hear laughter breaking through, it makes you want to fartYoure heading for a breakdownBetter pull yourself apart, Your dirty name gets passed about when something goes amissYour attitudes are platitudesJust make me wanna piss, What kind of creature bore youWas is some kind of batThey cant find a good word for youBut I can, You Never See a Nipple in the Daily Express. Read John Cooper Clarke's poem for Topman's show at London Collections Men. Anyone would dig it. That performance undoubtedly made him a popular figure in the Manchester pub scene of the mid-1970s. There is no greater accolade for me. Alone. Did you ever think you could stop using smack [heroin]? "They did but she basically just moved in on me in Brixton. It is sensationally good, in the manner of Family Guy or King of the Hill. Everyone seems to have one. It was a mistake in the 60s and it doesnt look any better on some fat fuck in Shoreditch now. Nobody likes their own hair but Im glad Ive got hair to hate. She was exemplary. Gradually, and very quietly, John Cooper Clarke has become one of the finest stand-up acts in the history of the art. Occasionally it would appear out of the mist, just for a day, like some demonic equivalent of Brigadoon." Much of that gift lies in his voice: you cant help but smile when he talks. Clarke, who claims [bogusly] on stage at Shepherd's Bush that he is half-Jewish, delivers old school gags such as: "Hooker opens up in a new area. They deserve it. Launcelot 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. Pinchy & Friends - Sleepy The Bug (ft. Warrior Queen) - Aktion Pak. "But once I got in there," he tells the audience, "I knew I was in the right place when the clock struck twelve and a cake jumped out of a girl. I've got an STI.' "How," I ask the poet, "did you hear that she'd died?" Poetry is a phonetic medium. I remember thinking, this must be what Stalingrad was like. "Time flies, slides down the wall," Sievey said, from memory, his eyes half closed. Was Nico easy to live with? "All I can say is that I love what I do now. He still seems a little bewildered by his recent trajectory, which has seen him appearing on shows like Have I Got News for You? His perennial UK tours he is just about to embark on another are invariably sold out to audiences of all ages. It is a romantic picture, that idea of Cole Porter always writing lyrics on the back of cigarette packs and menus. 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. | What do you call my haircut? It wasnt easy: it is an unnatural act to get out there and draw that much attention to yourself. "[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. This was at Bernard Mannings Embassy Club in Manchester. [23] He has appeared as a guest on the comedy panel show Would I Lie To You? Whats your favourite word? Because it is fabulous the first time. We meet in the Kings Arms, a genteel coaching inn in the main street. coastangel A Music War, in which he performed his poem "Health Fanatic". Ever! I keep it simple: a dark suit with a pale shirt. Clarke's poem "Out of Control Fairground" was printed inside the Arctic Monkeys' 2007 single "Fluorescent Adolescent" CD. "I prefer to do this one from a stage," he told the audience, "because BBC bleep operators have sued for repetitive strain injury and my swear box doubles as a high yield pension fund. And get it off my shoulders.'". This is my default look. The big production number at the end concludes, you recall, Naughty, bawdy, gaudy, sporty, Forty-second Street. 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." [Mimics doorbell] 'Oh, hello Audrey. 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. everything is fine love your government, John Cooper Clarke - (Not) Lydia Lydia (Northcote Social Club 4/4/12). It is a small part of what he does. I never put a geographical stamp on it. 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. The fact is you need help, though. That terrible inertia they captured that brilliantly.". Britain's best loved and most important performance poet. But you have to keep your request down to three words. Kind of literate punk, he said. 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? [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?! 10.00 gbp. "I remember that Manchester air was officially declared the worst on the planet back then," he says. There is little question that Cooper Clarke could, should he so wish, fill that historic Kensington venue single-handedly. Why is the drug addict spat upon, and the climber of Everest revered?
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