I Wanna Be Yours: John Cooper Clarke

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All in all a very enjoyable and entertaining insight into the life and time of the phenomenon that is Dr John Cooper Clarke - just one that could have been significantly better by virtue of being more succinct.

Adams, Tim (5 April 2014). "John Cooper Clarke interview: 'Poetry is not something you have to retire from' ". The Guardian . Retrieved 4 July 2016. Clarke was born in Salford, Lancashire, in 1949. [2] He lived in the Higher Broughton area of the city and became interested in poetry after being inspired by his English teacher, John Malone, [3] whom he described as "a real outdoor guy, an Ernest Hemingway type, red blooded, literary bloke". [4] During an April 2018 episode of Steve Jones's radio show Jonesy's Jukebox, Clarke revealed one of his early inspirations to be the poet Sir Henry Newbolt, reciting from memory a portion of Newbolt's poem "Vitaï Lampada". Agenda of Council on Wednesday 19 July 2023 at 2.00 pm". Salford City Council. 12 July 2023 . Retrieved 19 July 2023. In the middle of all that music there is, and has always been, the sound of John Cooper Clarke, whose rapid fire delivery of pointed, observational lines of simple gloriousness instilled in me a love of edgy performance poets. I do, however, credit 8 Out of Ten Cats Does Countdown with a renewed interest in Clarke's work, his performances on my favourite gameshow an instant audio reminder of the times of my youth. (Health Fanatic - look it up, the final stanza has always been in my head ...).A lot of the poems are fun, if not profound, although they're mostly pretty sound (There, a little poem in a review for you, even had a rhyme) On December 20, 2021, Clarke made a guest appearance in We Wish You a Mandy Christmas, a Christmas episode of Mandy (TV series), playing the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. One of the greatest and coolest things I've always been able to tell people is that, not only do I live in the town where Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Humpty Dumpty were written, but that the captivating individual that is John Cooper Clarke lives here. And when you happen to see him, in these very ordinary settings, it's a bit like magic. He has such a striking and inimitable presence, it's like seeing a Tim Burton character come to life. He's like Edward Scissorhand's older and more sensitive brother. I was eagerly anticipating this and got it within a few hours of release; went for the audiobook version because JCC has one of the most characterful and listenable voices in showbusiness. Felt wrong listening to it at my usual 1.5 speed so I set it at normal pace and 15 hours in John's company later I'm going to start again at the beginning. I was really excited when I found out that he was going to be releasing an autobiography. His crazy and random tales from his crazy and random life. I couldn’t wait. I listened to I Wanna Be Yours on Audiobook. I wanted to hear how John Cooper Clarke told his stories. Would they be like his poems? Would I be totally mesmerised and engaged. The answer to both of those questions is yes. His lyric style does not end at his poetic outputs. I genuinely feel that his lyricism and enunciation would be like having an every day conversation with John Cooper Clarke.

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. [15] That same year, Clarke featured in rapper Plan B's feature film Ill Manors and subsequently the Ill Manors album. [18] Clarke receives an honorary doctorate from the University of Salford, 2013 His acquaintances run the gamut from Bernard Manning to Nico - via everyone famous from Manchester and the punk/post punk era. John Cooper Clarke – Post-War Glamour Girl / Kung Fu International – CBS – UK – S CBS 6541". 45cat . Retrieved 23 May 2014. On the whole, I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys modern poetry, though I'd also suggest searching out some recordings of him performing his own work as well since that's the way it's really meant to be consumed. Clarke is a great raconteur and in this book - social historian, a hugely engaging, eminently (on the whole) likeable personality, a punk poet of the people, who has been hugely influential in both poetry and culture alike.AM". Arctic Monkeys. 24 June 2013. Archived from the original on 28 June 2013 . Retrieved 9 October 2015.

When I quit I felt really badly done to,” he said. “I didn’t want to quit. I don’t think anybody does. You feel you’re doing it for society. I thought I was doing everybody a favour. Everybody was worried about me; what can I say? No one wants to be a source of anxiety to everybody they know. You’re just trouble.” John was a heroin addict for a few decades, so the second half of the book contains a lot of detail about scoring drugs, many with celebrity addict pals and some are truly hair raising tales. Miraculously he survived despite nearly dying on three occasions. One time, whilst with Nico in Amsterdam, he scores off an old, skinny guy with grey greasy hair and no front teeth. It's only years later he realises, whilst watching the film Let’s Get Lost, that it was Chet Baker. The second quarter, which has some overlap with the first, describes JCC's first forays into apprenticeships, the working world, and his career as a performance poet. In a book of many surprises, one of the earliest is that John's first regular residency as a performer in Manchester's clubs was at Bernard Manning's Embassy Club. As he says, whatever your view of Manning's comedy, he was a master at what he did in terms of running a nightclub and encouraging new talent - however grudgingly. JCC also frequently encountered Northern disco entrepreneur Jimmy Savile - but the less said about him the better. A joy to listen to, punctured with his trademark caustic wit and wisdom, Clarke the People's Poet is capable of a florid turn of phrase, but keeps the lyrical flourishes infrequent enough to be impactful. Clarke the Cabaret Comic can't resist the occasional corny feedline punchline but there are more proper laughs in here than the majority of memoirs by better-known comedians, and the humour, which runs the gamut from playground to gallows, never distracts from what is a remarkably controlled narrative of an out-of-control period in the life of one of Manchester and Britain's finest.

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John Cooper Clarke (born 25 January 1949) is an English performance poet who first became famous as a " punk poet" in the late 1970s. [1] In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he released several albums. Around this time, he performed on stage with several punk and post-punk bands and continues to perform regularly. In ‘Wanna Be Yours’, Clarke recounts his life from early years growing up in Salford, to dedicated follower of fashion, via failed attempts at a music career, through embryonic proto punk poetry to life as a household name, playing the London Palladium and residing in Colchester (of all places).

Clarke, John Cooper (2020). I wanna be yours. London. ISBN 978-1-5098-9610-3. OCLC 1148197088. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link) I Wanna Be Yours is very much a book of four quarters. The first, detailing his childhood and early life in a mainly Jewish area (he acted as a "shabas goy" for his orthodox neighbours) of Salford in Manchester is fascinating: as a piece of writing on the social history of this part of Lancashire in the early 50s it is glorious, vivid and full of detail. JCC's writing evokes so much atmosphere that you can visualise everything in glorious sepia. a b Bell, Nigel (August 2002). "The Very Best of John Cooper Clarke". BBC . Retrieved 23 February 2008. Lyrical Genius". Daily Record. Archived from the original on 2 July 2007 . Retrieved 20 August 2007. Alex Turner also has "John Cooper Clarke" tattooed on his arm I also enjoyed “I’ve Fallen in Love with My Wife,” written in 11 stanzas, most ending with the title. It begins,

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I started out with a book by British poet John Cooper Clarke. I've seen Clarke several times as the Dictionary Corner guest on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, and I always really enjoy him. It took me a while to get one of his books, though, since it seems that his focus is mostly in spoken word performance rather than published work. This turns out to make a lot of sense because his poetry absolutely BEGS to be read aloud. There is something about his word choices and the way he strings them together that I find extremely enticing. a b Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrateded.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p.74. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. The first part of the book, had me fascinated, since JCC is not far off the age my Dad would have been and so his fascination with the cinema and movie stars was something also that my Dad used to treasure. It feels a little like we're being invited into his world just a little at this point. The poems can be witty and funny, but along with some bitterness and cynicism and a lot of crudes and foul language, so it's not to everyone's taste if you are not aware of the poet and you are just taking it off the shelf. I went for the audiobook version and it's sublime. I could listen to John Cooper Clarke read the telephone directory. To hear the great man read his hugely entertaining autobiography is a rare treat.