Sunday 4th May 07:00 PM
Rare recent live shows have seen JCC guesting with Lilly Allen... and
touring Australia with Muse & The Killers
Listen out for John Cooper Clarke on the forthcoming new series of The Sopranos
He Married a monster from outer space....But he never saw a nipple in the daily Express !!!
The punk poet without peer - appeared with The Buzzcocks, Elvis
Costello, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Fall, Richard Hell and the Honey Monster - comes home for one night only.
in a vain attempt at bourgeois credibility, Lenny changed his name to John Cooper Clarke and under this title embarked on a polysyllabic excursion
through Thrillsville, U.K. Yes ... clad in the slum chic of the hipster, he issued the slang anthems of the zip age in the desperate esperanto of bop.
John Cooper Clarke, the name behind the hairstyle, the words walk in the grooves hacking through the hi-fi paradise of true luxury ...'
John Cooper Clarke stormed into popular cultural consciousness in the early 80's with the albums Zip Style Method and snap crackle (&) bop - a
volatile cocktail of rock and poetry informed by the punk-aesthetic - further documented by the film and the book - Ten Years in an Open-Necked Shirt. This high energy poetry, uniquely transposing 'the gaudy
iconography of tin pan alley, the kandy bar rhetoric of advertising, X-films and comics', pins back and pierces the thickest of ears and just keeps coming
at you.
Clarke is still the role model for any young performance poet not suffering from premature brain death. His Beasley Street remains the
greatest piece of writing in the English language. - NME 1997
Clarke slings his poems on the floor and attacks the mike like a bouncer grabbing a drunk's lapels, and instantly sets the muse's old mama heartbeat pumping the vital juices through the nation's cultural
bloodstream again.' - Neil Spencer NME
Clarke punctuates his poems with fancy footwork. Volleys of technicoloured idiom rattle across the auditorium and richochet off 500 "Right to Work" badges. We're tumultuous, yelling, groaning, screaming for more.' - Val Hennessy New Society
[Clarke's] work belongs to the popular and populist oral tradition that amplifies a singing consciousness as it moves from primeval woodland, through complaints about enclosures, to industrial ballads and modern songs which mention fish-fingers. Like many of these anonymous poets, Clarke
writes a form of native pidgin or English Creole, with a throbbing and exultantly dionysiac wildness.' - Tom Paulin Sunday Times
Pride of Manchester (biography and buying the stuff)
March the Mad Scientist (fan page including transcribed lyrics)
Tummy Time (watch the JCC Sugar Puffs advert in Quicktime)
John Cooper Clarke was born in Salford, 1949. As a teenager, he performed his poetry in Manchester's folk clubs, where he met Rick Goldstraw (Eric
The Ferret !) who invited him to join his band, the Ferrets.
In 1977, having given up on becoming a stand-up comedian, John joined the likes of Ed Banger and Jilted John on the books of Manchester punk label,
Rabid. Supporting the likes of The Buzzcocks and Warsaw, he amazed audiences on the local punk circuit with his good-humoured high-speed Salfordian
poetry.
Thanks largely to Anthony H.Wilson, John inherited the title, 'The Punk Poet', after receiving radio and TV exposure for "Suspended Sentence". In
the song he voices his opinion on the capital punishment debate with tongue-in-cheek lyrics like, "Sit right down - write a letter to the Sun
Say... "Bring back hangin' for everyone". The track was included on his debut "Innocents" EP which also boasted "Psycle Sluts", described at the
time by Frank Zappa as one of his favourite songs, praising John as 'a man with exquisite diction'.
Touring the Manchester punk circuit in his tight drainpipe trousers and jacket, winkle-picker shoes and dark shades he was soon signed up to CBS.
He released the single, "Post war Glamour Girl", which was later included on his 1978 debut album, "Disguise in Love".
In 1979, John supported Elvis Costello on his breakthrough 'Armed Forces' tour, and released the Top 40 single "Gimmix!". His 1979 live album,
"Walking Back To Happiness", failed to sell as well. The album included a song dedicated to Conservative Government minister Michael Heseltine, who was also later attacked on a later visit to Manchester University. It was interestingly entitled "Twat"..
His 1980 album, "Snap, Crackle And Bop" was a far better release and included the classic emotional track "Beasley Street". To promote the
album he toured with Durutti Column, for the first time using a backing band, The Invisible Girls.
"Me And My Big Mouth", a 'best of' compilation album was released in 1981 to little success, a fate which was also enjoyed by his 1982 "Zip Style
Method" album. This was to be his last release and in the following years John's drug abuse saw him spend most of his time in and out of the rehab clinic
with his addict partner, Nico.
John Cooper Clarke had illuminated the punk scene of the 1970's with his comical and intelligent verse.
CHARLIE CHUCK at
www.charliechuck.net
Tickets: £15.00 adv
Doors Open: 7.00pm
Website: www.johncooperclarke.com/Pages/thejokes.htm
