john cooper clarke lydia

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. Often referred to as "the bard of Salford",[9] he usually refers to himself on stage as "Johnny Clarke, the name behind the hairstyle". He really does look more and more like Max Wall as he gets older. "You," he quoted from memory, sitting in the half light, "who like a dagger thrust, entered my complaining soul; sweet and potent as a host of demons, came wild, beautiful wretch infamous to whom I'm bound, like the convict to the chain, a stubborn gambler to his dice, the drunkard to his revelry. 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. But all poetry - all writing - is aural. I have to confess that jeggings were one solution. Mine is arbitrary I keep meaning to get a favourite word. Trains coming down the middle of the road. Queues round the block, as you can imagine. I may be prejudiced. I have another reason to thank Linton: we went on tour together in 1981, all around the UK, and when we appeared in Essex, that is when my wife was first introduced to my work. Though he has travelled a long way from his native Salford, it has never left him. 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. They were never out of the dry cleaners Id only wear them to weddings, funerals and gigs, and Ive still got them now. It plays over the closing credits of 'Stage 5', from the final series, in which Christopher Moltisanti relapses into opiate addiction. 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 is an actor and writer, known for Control (2007), Rust and Bone (2012) and The Souvenir (2019). 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. "That was great for a while," he tells me, "Until Ron was in the news for having that fight with his wife. 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. The performer, who is still occasionally stopped in the street and asked how much he charges to haunt a house ("That," he replies, "would depend how many rooms you have") is the sort of figure that cab drivers don't stop for. I believe its the kind of thing Charles Baudelaire aspired to: you know, the guy with the overview, a mirror reflecting the entire Parisian crowd. I hate the word itself. She loved John Betjeman, and she introduced me to his writing. My look is very easy to maintain but that wasnt always the case in the 80s, I couldnt find anything. Poetry is a phonetic medium. "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. They have one daughter, Stella. 1982 Snap, Crackle & Bop. LancsMark 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. [21] In October 2020 Clarke published an autobiography which took its title from his poem I Wanna Be Yours. harryrossgorman John Cooper Clarke (born 25 January 1949) is an English performance poet, who first became famous as a " punk poet" in the late 1970s. goldthing Because what I do isn't, 'work' as any sane person would understand the term. It is a romantic picture, that idea of Cole Porter always writing lyrics on the back of cigarette packs and menus. I'm a much more confident person than I was. [2], Clarke has attributed his early success in part to the influence of the English poet Pam Ayres. But now, finally" He pauses, not wishing to appear immodest. 2, The Trip: Curated by Jarvis Cocker & Steve Mackey, Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984, Short Circuit: Live at the Electric Circus, Streets: Select Highlights From Independent British Labels. I didnt understand those lyrics, but they gave me an idea of an adult world. Didn't his dick almost drop off once? "It's hard to convey the aggression of those audiences." I was in Salford when I saw that. "The bottles were bad. Clarke has lived for the past 25 years in Colchester, Essex. 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.) He was a magic realist right to the end. The poet has something of a gift for talking his own work down. His agents saying: Dont go screwing it up again, youre opening for Doris Day at the London Palladium. And why did Lenny choose the Palladium for that routine? "I remember that Manchester air was officially declared the worst on the planet back then," he says. It would be wrong to dismiss John Cooper Clarke as nothing more than a nave creator of knockabout rhyme. There's only you and me have not been up there Robert, but then the night is still young.". The dinosaurs," he goes on, "took people as they found them. Launcelot His father George was a skilled engineer. Be kind to people. At the same time," he adds, "they were a picnic compared to the working men's clubs. 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. "And I've never heard their albums. [Pause] He's a cunt. 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. ", He seemed to have arrived fully formed, performing brilliantly incisive poems such as 'You Never See a Nipple In The Daily Express'. Tim Adams: I imagine you held your own in those battles?Oh, I was the king of the block. 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'. I mean Elvis was a world-changing event for me. As for people who sneer at him as a 'performance poet' - didn't Homer declaim?". 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. But drug addiction really is the most tedious of subjects. 'Yes mother, I had to go to the doctor. His set is characterised by lively rapid-fire renditions of his poems, usually performed a cappella. 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. evidently john cooper clarke - dvd. I really do. 9.50 gbp. She was well, and recovering, and looking forward to Spain. John has a brilliant and retentive mind and an exhaustive knowledge of all kinds of culture. ", 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.' There is no greater accolade for me. Him and Grard de Nerval: the guy that wore the powder blue cape and walked a lobster on a leash. In 1979, he had his only UK top 40 hit with "Gimmix! everything is fine love your government, John Cooper Clarke - (Not) Lydia Lydia (Northcote Social Club 4/4/12). His gentleness of manner means that, even at venues in his adopted home county, he can get away with tormenting audiences with their own vowel sounds delivered in an excruciating tone of laryngeal menace that might frighten Ray Winstone. He left a will on 28 Dec 1676. Budd Schulberg, Clarke adds, "what a writer. wilburysteve What he did was extremely brave, especially for a self-confessed coward." He is an actor and writer, known for Control (2007), Rust and Bone (2012) and The Souvenir (2019). Shock-haired and irreverent, he's been shaking up the literary establishment with his wry wit and clever couplets for decades. Bonnaroo is held in Manchester, Tennessee. The Bard of Salford John Cooper Clarke became a doctor today after receiving an honorary degree in his home city. "I'm not joking. Was there ever any talk of you joining the Fall?Are you kidding? There is no Japanese term for. Much of that gift lies in his voice: you cant help but smile when he talks. DaveM66 I Wanna Be Yours John Cooper Clarke 4. It is fair to say we were not on expansive speaking terms. There are many subjects he does not enjoy broaching on the record, and heroin is chief among them. Now, Im no expert, but I think when it comes to guys, the less said about the hips the better. 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. Im self-employed, my friend. Stereo, my ass. Ivy League suits and three button coats things that you might buy at John Simons. And that," adds the poet, who is 66, "is why I have lived to be considerably older than you are. Clarke lost much of the 1980s to a heroin addiction, when he lived in a flat in Brixton with Nico, the late singer and muse of the Velvet Underground; he dislikes any attempt to glamorise that period, and is reluctant to discuss it in detail. I didnt meet her then, but she was in the audience. 2016 Zip Style Method. You wouldnt have known she was there. The poet, Elvis Costello recalls, taking up the story, eventually appeared and announced that he'd left a sign reading: "Beware. I hardly ever get the trains these days, but I know one thing for a fact: they should spend a few billion on improving the current network rather than on HS2. As the great Bill Withers once said, the writing of songs involves a kind of magic I dont mess with. 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. What else have we got?, Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give: 'Books play a huge part in resistance', 'Silly question!' Four of Clarke's five lots made a loss, giving a total loss of 233.54. The band's Alex Turner has said he is very fond of Clarke's work and takes inspiration for lyrics from his poems. "Genesis. Believe me.". Put the Pain in Spain. He was closer to my age than my parents. They have one child. I won't be the one whose life is turned into legend. US 'Blackmails' EU Into Agreeing To Hand Over Pas North Korea Threatens Seoul With Military Action, Tim Burgess's golden rules of rocknroll excess. 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'd love to get it published. "Solid gold geezer that / From the solitaire pin through the mink cravat to the snake-eye studs on his kid suede spats / Solid gold geezer that / Lives in a solid gold flat / With a girl worth a million / Plus VAT / And a caviar-guzzling cat. "Sometimes," the actor Steve Coogan once said, "I ask people: 'Have you ever heard of Cooper Clarke?' (I Married a) Monster from Outer Space John Cooper Clarke 8. Well, that's a harsh judgement in my book. "But where did you get the dead canary from?" And the private sector has upped the standards of concourse retail in general, which used to consist of a couple of broken cig machines. In October of 1981 Clarke appeared in episode 2 of series 3 of The Innes Book of Records (TV series), reciting "Evidently Chickentown". [15] That same year, Clarke featured in rapper Plan B's feature film Ill Manors and subsequently the Ill Manors album. It is a small part of what he does. Zip Style Method Zero: A Martin Hannett Story 1977-1991 North by North West Me and My Big Mouth Disguise in Love The Very Best Of New Wave Post Punk: 1977-1981 John's in the Money (Evidently John Cooper Clarke, Vol. I may be simple minded. The reason John Cooper Clarke has been so patronised, Liverpool poet Adrian Henri once argued, "has to do with his association with music. ", Nico and Clarke were never lovers, Alan Wise told me, over tea in his local caf in Manchester. 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. For details and tickets visit johncooperclarke.com, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. "I always assumed she must have had it first, being older. Their only shared interest, he insists, was hiding heroin from each other. While there's nothing affected about his accent, the poet luxuriates in its extremes much in the way that fellow poet Linton Kwesi Johnson savours the cadences of Jamaican patois, or George Sanders revelled in the languid elegance of old-school English. After closing time. Apart from the one collection [Ten Years in An Open-Necked Shirt, which originally appeared in 1981, superbly illustrated by Steve Maguire] he has never been published. l33wilko The It Man John Cooper Clarke 5. 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. Call for Applications: Saboteur Awards and Festival 2023, Ludd Gang, edited by Alex Marsh, Dom Hale and Tom Crompton. Im obsessed with clothes and I find it very easy to write about them. Anything can kick you off. "People tell me I shouldn't. 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