John Cooper Clarke

Venue:

Bristol Beacon
Date:

Fri 7 Jun 2013

The ‘Bard of Salford’ returned on his 2013 UK tour, under the supervision of The Clash’s legendary tour manager Johnny Green.

Amongst the artistically diverse group of support acts were Simon Day (The Fast Show), Mike Garry, Thea Gilmore, Nigel Stonier. and a special appearance by Keith Allen and his band Grow Up.

Allen’s unforgettable introduction to Cooper Clarke’s entrance was “Our lead singer tonight, ladies and gentlemen, has the voice of Richard Burton, the tone of a 1957 Chevy and the legs of Shirley MacLaine.”

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Dr John Cooper Clarke, the bard of Salford, shot to fame in the 1970s for his quickfire delivery of dry, biting and hilarious satirical verse, touring with the likes of The Clash and Sex Pistols. The creator of ‘(I Married A) Monster From Outer Space’, ‘Evidently Chickentown’ and ‘Beasley Street’ has left an indelible mark on pop culture and become a fashion icon to many, with his distinctive appearance with the mess of black hair, drainpipe jeans and cuban heels. He has also inspired a new generation of artists, including Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys and rapper Plan B. Cooper Clarke has collaborated with both.

John Cooper Clarke is still much in demand as a socio-cultural commentator, regularly appearing on television and radio. He is still writing new material, which he performs worldwide alongside his best known work, and averages over 100 shows a year. He now uses the title Dr, after being awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Salford for contribution to the arts.

Reviews

The Speakers Corner 13/06/2013

The resurrection of John Cooper Clarke is complete. Having drifted in out and out of the public eye ever since he first exploded onto the punk scene in the 1970s, ‘The Bard of Salford’ is once again back on the airwaves, regaling audiences up and down the land with his timeless wordplay. Under the supervision of The Clash’s legendary tour manager Johnny Green, Friday evening saw the illustrious performance poet roll up to Bristol’s Colston Hall for the penultimate gig on this current UK tour. A tangible excitement buzzed throughout the historical Bristol venue as silver-haired rockers and defiant punk-dads sipped on their continental lagers, eager to catch a glimpse of the acerbic wordsmith in lyrical action.

First to the expansive stage was Simon Day, best known for his hilarious roles in the iconic 90s sketch show, ‘The Fast Show’. Opening the evening with a light-hearted stand-up routine that rather haphazardly poked fun at 21st-century living, his set was perfectly suited for the audience’s age demographic with the ‘lad-ish’ funny-man picking apart modern technology and deploying tales of mid-life drunkenness.

Shifting from comedy to performance poetry in the blink of an eye, next up was Mancunian Mike Garry. With his face tilted upwards into the spotlight that bathed the stage in a yellow glow, heart-breaking tales of urban decay were delivered with an evocative northern drawl. Glimpses of working class culture were fused with distinct references to a city that the nostalgic poet clearly treasures. Painting locations in one stanza before populating them with characters in the next, Garry’s ability to construct these intimately detailed scenes, often filled with tragic memories, was impressively immersive.

Providing a musical interlude, the extremely talented Thea Gilmore established herself from the offset with a beautiful voice that soared across the soothing strings-section of her supporting band. With further support from multi-instrumentalist Nigel Stonier, Gilmore silenced the vast expanse of the Colston Hall with a blend of foot-tapping numbers such as ‘Start As We Mean Go On’ and a powerful acapella rendition of ‘The Amazing Floating Man’, which demonstrated the purity of her mesmerising voice. Humble in her staggering talent, Gilmore was a strong addition to an already impressive line up of artistically diverse performers.

Introduced rather enigmatically as a world exclusive by Gilmore, next up was Keith Allen (or “Lily Allen’s dad”, as he jokingly re-titled himself), strutting onto the stage with his band ‘Grow Up’. Leading with one of the greatest introductions in recent memory, Allen proceeded with, “Our lead singer tonight, ladies and gentlemen, has the voice of Richard Burton, the tone of a 1957 Chevy and the legs of Shirley MacLaine.” From stage-left emerged the spindly, slight frame of John Cooper Clarke who plunged immediately into a rather surreal mini-rock concert that incorporated a unique cover of the Ramones’ ‘Blitzkreig Rock’ and culminated with The Clash’s ‘I Fought The Law’. Although it has to be said that singing is not Clarke’s strongest quality, the somewhat farcical but hugely enjoyable performance was unforgettable. The sight of Keith Allen hammering the keys on his keyboard while Clarke crooned his way through The Only One’s, ‘Another Girl, Another Planet’, was a peculiar moment in history that was enjoyable to be a part of.

Re-emerging with a gin and tonic in hand after the interlude, John Cooper Clarke charged relentlessly and often without any apparent direction through a ninety-minute set that was infectious in its delivery. Stringing together a chain of his most famous poems including the iconic ‘Beasley Street’ and ‘Evidently Chickentown’, Clarke’s performance often lost its focus to digressions – albeit hysterical digressions – yet it was clear that his passion for delicious chunks of language and razor sharp wit are still alive and kicking. Swaying under the single spotlight that bounced off the bard’s jet-black plumage, quick quips and rich vocabulary were generously applied across every line and it was a joy to see this iconic lyricist enjoying himself so much. John Cooper Clarke is a performer that exudes charisma in bucketfuls and although his hedonistic past seems to be catching up with him, glimpses of brilliance emerged time and time again; his devastating one-liners, playful manipulation of the English language and dazzling machine-gun verses still place the 64-year old in a league of his own. Long live the King.

Alex Saunders

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Bristol Post 10/06/2013

NEARLY 32 years to the day that I saw him supporting Siouxsie and the Banshees at the same venue, John Cooper Clarke looked almost exactly as he did the first time round.

With his pipe-cleaner legs, tight black suit, Ronnie Wood-style black, crow’s-nest hair and black sunglasses, not much has changed with the self-styled Bard of Salford. And although he would not reveal his age on stage – he is 64 – he joked that “I don’t buy green bananas any more, put it that way”.

With regular DJ slots on BBC Radio 6, a recent BBC4 documentary charting his career and a high-profile show at London’s Palladium, Clarke has not been more in demand since he returned from several years in the wilderness, much of it due to a crippling heroin addiction.

Cleaned up and now happily married with a daughter at college, this once-edgy punk poet has mellowed slightly. However, his quickfire poems of the 1970s and 1980s have stood the test of time and some have even appeared on the GSCE syllabus.

Billed as ‘Friday Night Live with John Cooper Clarke and very special guests’, the evening opened with a handful of support acts including Fast Show star Simon Day and an appearance from actor/comedian Keith Allen’s band Grow Up, with Clarke joining on karaoke-style vocals for renditions of two punk classics – Another Girl, Another Planet and I Fought The Law.

Carrying his trademark bag of notebooks and poems, Clarke then reappeared for his own 75-minute set, which featured new and old poems in between a succession of satirical musings and plenty of politically-incorrect jokes that often strayed close to Les Dawson territory.

But aside from the jokes, Clarke is still a highly-regarded poet and it was good to see that he is writing prolifically, with Bedblocker Blues and I’ve Fallen In Love With My Wife among the well-received newer material, much of it inspired by getting older. But it was the old favourites that people wanted to hear – and they were not disappointed, as Clarke performed lively versions of Hire Car, Beasley Street (and the updated, equally-good Beasley Boulevard) and, of course, the expletive-peppered Evidently Chickentown, a song made even more famous by its appearance in The Sopranos.

With his colourful language and near-the-knuckle jokes, Clarke may never be the poet laureate – but after four decades his position as the people’s punk poet is unassailable.

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