The Third Way Of Educating

Did you know JCC was now part of the curriculatum? Well not exactly, but he is still criss-crossing the country as part of what he calls his, “GCE Tour...” where he is 'lecturing' to young students as part of their course studies... no doubt opening at least a few young minds...

In fact, judging from some of the student e-mail we have received here at the site, I personally will sleep easier at nights knowing there may well be some hope for the adults-of-tomorrow after all. (Student e-mail is in the Guest Book area - if I've had time to post it yet).

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The Darker Side

We are happy to report that we were recently somewhat instrumental in hooking up Emma Darke from the BBC and JCC with the result being an appearance on a show called ... "Inside Tracks" which will be broadcast on BBC Choice (their digital channel) on February 13th AND the 15th I'm (now) told.

The subject for the show is 'Anti love songs.' It features a three guest panel of JCC, Edwyn Collins, and Dot Allison, and is hosted by Sean Hughes. It promises to be good. so look out for it.

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Christmas 1998

News of a story about JCC on an old BBC Christmas show... Story in first person as told to us by Tiv who had the following conversation with John recently...

• “John told me about a BBC Choice show he did around Christmas 1998 - a football based thing hosted by Bob Mills. There were two teams representing Manchester United and Manchester City. John's team consisted of him, the Man United website guy and Ray Wilkins; their opponents were Eddie Large, the Man City website guy and Rodney Marsh. He said it was a great night and at one point he had to take a penalty against Peter Shilton. Needless to say he didn't score!”

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More Pin-up Really...

News of a JCC tidbit from some old soft porn magazine. Rumor has it there's even pictures of JCC with semi-clad females... More on this soon hopefully... Update: We have the picture ready to scan and boy are they tame.

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Johnny Does Boston: A plea for help

It seems that a Boston radio station DJ wants to do a Johnny Clarke retrospective (don't you have to be dead for one of those?)... Here's his personal request for help:

ATTENTION JOHN COOPER CLARKE FANS! My name is Dan, and in January (tentative date the 17th) I will be doing a J.C.C. retrospective on WHRB, the college radio station at which I work in Boston. I have spent the last year or so hunting down J.C.C. records, with some success, but for this special radio event I will need EVERYTHING, from the records that I haven't been able to find to any rarities/oddities (taped concerts, demos, interviews, even biographical tidbits you might know, etc. etc.) that people might have.

This is where you come in! The only 7"s I have been able to find are Innocents, Post-War Glamour Girl, and Twat/Splat. I STILL NEED ALL THE REST! And, again, any tapes or info or just about anything related to him would be of enormous help. I am looking to buy and/or borrow such items. If you are kind enough to loan something, I can guarantee 1) an immediate return once the program is over, and 2) that I will give extensive on-air thanks to you, along with a hearty plug for your home page or just about any other endeavor you might have.

We are a station with a very small budget (but a fairly large listenership), and we often depend on the kindness of strangers. Sadly, J.C.C. remains -- as you may know -- a virtually unknown entity here in the States, and it is my mission to do something (albeit small) to try to change that, as he is a personal hero.

E-mail me at dappel@fas.harvard.edu

Thanks,
Dan

So, help if you can...

Update... The show aired Jan 17-18 and according to Dan, the people in Boston enjoyed it.

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Lost Royalties:

It's great that this site is becoming more accepted as The Place for JCC info... The following is a copy of some e-mail we received the other week...

Dear Steve

I am writing from the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society in London. ALCS is responsible for paying to authors their share of fees resulting from the Photocopying Licensing Scheme, currently operating in UK educational establishments.

We are currently holding royalties on behalf of John Cooper Clarke for the title Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt (ISBN: 0099312409). I should be most grateful if you provide a contact address, so that I can send a set of registration forms to John Cooper Clarke.

Thank you for your help in this matter.

Yours sincerely

Rebecca Battarbee
Print Media Manager
ALCS
Marlborough Court
14-18 Holborn
London
EC1N 2LE

Obviously we informed Johnny he has money just waiting to be collected and we're happy to be of service...

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The Independent:

Rob wrote in with news that Clarkey has recently recorded a commercial which is being shown in cinemas for the Independent Newspaper. I'm hoping we can get a copy to put up on the site sometime soon. If anyone has more news, please let me know.

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I dunno:

Alf wrote in with this piece of info for y'all. Make of it what ye will:

“Look at the following transcript of the first four lines of 'I Married a Monster from Outer Space' taken from the album 'Disguise in Love'.

I fell in love with an alien being
whose skin was jelly, whose teeth were green
She had the big bug eyes and the death-ray glare
feet like waterwings, purple hair

Choose any word from the first line. Count the number of letters in the word and move that many words to the right. Continue until you can go no further. For instance, if you choose 'love', this has four letters so move four words to the right to get to 'alien'. This has five letters so move five words to get to 'whose' etc.

Whichever word you start with you will end at 'hair', surely JCC's trademark.

Is this coincidence or a sign that he is a super-intelligent alien showing off his mathematical skills?

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National Poetry day:

Tony informs us:

October 9th is National Poetry Day. To celebrate the BBC are asking people to vote for their favourite comic poem. There is a voting form at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/poetry/comic.shtml

Perhaps you would like to alert visitors to your site so they can vote for a JCC poem.

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JCC... Actor and DJ:

Andy from Glasgow writes in:

I saw John play the part of 'Bisto - the Foul-Mouthed DJ' in a play called 'Road' by Jim Cartwright at The Octagon Theatre in Bolton, back in 1989. The script of the play is available, and was apparently written with Johnny in mind for the part of Bisto.

He also did a DJ set in the interval, when he signed my copy of 'Ten Years...' His character's catchphrase was 'You'll get used to me - you'd better!' and he wore a Donovan cap with a stuffed glove on the front, arranged...errm...'two fingers, rampant,' if I can steal from 'Carry On Don't Lose Your Head'... He handed back the book and said “Nice Pen!”

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For Sale:

News has reached me that Steve Maguire is possibly, (or maybe), willing to offer some of his original illustrations from the 'Ten Years In An Open Necked Shirt' book for sale, in an 'Internet Auction' kind-of-style.

I think this is a great idea, but wonder if we can really do it because of all the different types of computers people use and the time difference if it's done live. I'm not sure what's best.

If anyone has any suggestions, please e-mail me here and let me know.

Update 1: A couple of suggestions have been made and we hope to have more news on this soon.

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England is Mine:

Tom writes in with news of a new book that mentions JCC...

“You probably know about this already, but the above book (by Michael Bracewell) is just out in paperback and it contains quite a lengthy appreciation of Mr Cooper Clarke, and ' Beasley St ' in particular.

It's subtitled 'Pop life in Albion from Wilde to Goldie', and it's an attempt to trace the thread of 'Englishness'in pop through such as Morrissey, Betjemen, the Fall, and assorted other suspects in a similar vein. It verges on the pretentious at times, but it's actually an interesting read and it's great to see mention of JCC anywhere these days, let alone hearing him compared to TS Eliot.”

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Dave's Birthday:

Way back in the early history of time, when 'PSYCLE SLUTS' first came out on a single, there was this guy named Dave. And it was around this time, on the occasion of Dave's birthday, that JCC signed his copy of the record for him.

Now, after nearly 30 years of languishing in Dave's record collection at someplace in Manchester, it has made it's debut web appearance and is available for all to see... If that's not completely trivial I don't know what is.

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VH1:

A couple of people have reported seeing JCC on VH1 in what appears to be a studio environment. Whether this means a new record is finally on the way remains to be confirmed.

The segment of the show is called 'Talk Music' and my guess is that it will be repeated a number of times. This animated gif is made of several video grabs that Drew sent in, and according to Simon, it's a three-minute slot featuring sections of... "I Married a Monster from Outer Space", "I Wrote The Songs", "Hedgehog", "Tom Jones" and "Hire Car", all performed in much the same style as he does them live.

Any additional updates (like a cassette recording of the segment) would always be appreciated.

ps... If the animated image above isn't running, click the 'Load Image' button in your browser.

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COMPLETELY TRIVIAL:

JCC was on a recent Channel 4 programme - Feb 15th to be exact - which was about the 100 best albums of all time. A JCC album was not in it, but they had little inserts from people talking about various artists picked.

JCC's 30 second or so bit was about Frank Sinatra who had an album in the top 100. Nothing really special but it was good to see him; a bit of a shock in fact.

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ART EXHIBIT / UK ARENA:

Thanks to Bruce, we now know that the sleeve for Snap Crackle 'N' Bop is currently featured in the excellent “Destroy” Punk Rock Art & Graphics Exhibition showing at the Royal Festival Hall - free exhibit in the foyer. (Currently means Feb '98)

Completely unrelated is this news from Drew:

“There is a cable only channel in the England called 'UK Arena' which a few weeks ago had a 'Punk Week'. They had one programme which seemed to originally be from Granada TV in 1992 and consisted of lots of clips of late 70's punk bands performing in and around the Manchester region. Sure enough in the middle was JCC doing 'Evidently Chickentown' in August 1978.

It was good to see him on here, although it was a similar performance to others I have seen and so not really unique or anything.”

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POETRY LIBRARY:

Our thanks go to Iain in the UK for checking out the 'Poetry Library' for any reference to JCC stuff. As a result of this search, we have now added a new compilation video to the Discography section...

“I made it to the Poetry Library at the Festival Hall in London this evening.

Their catalogue had only 4 items by John Cooper Clarke:

1. Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt and Other poems
   Illustrated by Steve Maguire
   1983 Arena/Arrow Books
   This was listed as missing on the catalogue so I couldn't have a look, but from the record it looked like the non telephone version.
2. Directory
   London Omnibus Press 1979
   This was in as a 'Reference Only' copy, and is identical to mine.
3. The 10 years video
   Arts Council/Channel 4 1982
   They have a reference only copy of this.
4. Word of Mouth
   A compilation video
   Program 9 / Arts Council of Britain 1990
   Again this is a reference only item, and is presented by John Hegely, and features 3 other poets as well as John Cooper Clarke.

If you want to include details of the library, so people can go and have a look for themselves:

Poetry Library
5th Floor
Royal Festival Hall
South Bank
London
Telephone 0171-921-0943/0664
Open 11am-8pm


Admission is free, and there are facilities on site to view videos and listen to audio tapes etc

Borrowing is available on production of proof of UK address.”

Good news indeed! Thanks again Iain.

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EARLY HANNET:

Lawrence sent some me e-mail with info about the early days of Martin Hannet. It came up because I'd heard on a radio interview that Martin Hannet also worked with 10 CC at sometime in the past. (I have no idea what this connection was - or if there even was one), but I thought the following worth sharing...

“...Paul Burgess of 10 CC was in a band with Martin before he was asked to join 10CC. If you notice he is on the JCC CBS albums. He and Martin were very good friends. Martin was a bass player - I remember a gig he did with Lisa Stansfield when she was very young and unknown. I think the first album and single that Martin produced was for a Nigerian band who lived for a time in Manchester.

They wanted to make a record to take back to Nigeria. That's how Martin learned all about 'custom pressing' - making your own records - because back in 1976 nobody knew how to go about making their own disks. With that knowledge the Buzzcocks asked him to make the 'Spiral Scratch' EP with them.

Best regards, Lawrence.”

And I suppose the rest is history (as they say)

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JCC ON TV:

I've heard from a couple of people that JCC recently appeared on Britain's Channel 5 TV network. I gather it was some kind of Chat / Interview show.

Unfortunately, I've not been able to find out what he discussed, but reports are the questions asked weren't very good.

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OWN HAND:

Thanks to Simon sending in a photocopy from the POW Anthology - see publications - I'm able to includes this scan of Tom Jones and Haiku written out in what appears to be JCC's own hand I have to say he writes neater than me.

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JCC ON TV?:

Well not quite, but he was the subject of one of the questions on Britain's long running TV Quiz show 'University Challenge' last month (November 97). We have Jim in Scotland to thank for the explanation of it...

It went something like this... Question: Who are these poets?. Pictures of Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin came up and were indentified, then a pic JCC to which the team said “It's that bloke who is a millionaire” meaning presumably Murry Lachlan Young. Paxman (the quizmaster), said “It'll be news to him, it's John Cooper Clarke”

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CHECK OUT APE MAGAZINE:

I'm sharing this e-mail for anyone interested in checking out...

Ape Magazine plan on doing a review of JCC in their January issue. Anyone wanting to order a copy should heed this message:
APE, PO Box 16329, London E8 2QD.
The cover price is £1.00, plus 75p in stamps to cover UK postage, and £1.50 for ex-UK.

Or just visit their website apemag.demon.co.uk.

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HATE MAIL??:

I'm not sure what to make of this, but it could possibly be our first hate mail... The following message is reprinted exactly as it was received... If anyone can throw some light on it, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

Subject: Evidently Chicken Town
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 12:16:15 -0800
Reply-to: "Dave"
From: "Dave"
To: steve@cyberspike.com
MIME-Version: 1.0

I have a Web site called chicken town ( http://www.angelfire.com/va/chickentown) and I feel that your song is a discrace to the city. The public is riseing and is upset. I'd Just like to let you know that.

------------------------------------------------------
| Keeping your email PRIVATE is our business.
| http://www.goplay.com/email/1000002 - it's FREE!

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1998:

There was talk of a some 1998 gigs booked (31st Jan ...John Cooper Clarke + Dog Food in Huddesfield, and 7th Feb... JCC + Dog Food in Birmingham), but it seems they have been cancelled before I had a chance to post them.

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DISCORDIAN PROMOTIONS:

Discordian Promotions the UK have shown what exceptionally good taste they have by booking JCC for gigs over there. It now seems they also have a new web site which I might as well link to HERE coz I don't have a Links Section. Check out there web site here.

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STRANGE BUT TRUE:

Ari and his wife recently had a baby boy. While they discussed a name for him, he was given the temporary name of Beasley. He was called Beasley for 36 hours, after which time he officially became Ruben James.

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NEWS FROM DOWN UNDER:

It appears a local DJ somewhere in Australia was under the impression JCC was no longer with us. I think the following e-mail we received would appear to have straightened things out.

Hi, Arnold was crapping on yesterday that John Cooper Clarke had not been heard of and was probably dead. Well supposition is a bad replacement for lack of research. Wrong on both counts. Try this URL for JCC info on gigs, real audio, etcetera: http://www.cyberspike.com/clarke

Get with it Arnold. Or even better, stop programming JJJ.

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I MARRIED A CULT FIGURE FROM SALFORD:

Here's a curious piece of mail that came in the other week... (well now actually several weeks back).

“Hey Slev... did you ever hear of a single by Cathy La Creme called 'I Married A Cult Figure From Salford.' I think it was released in 1980 on the Ovation label. I'm not sure if it is really is his wife, but it could be. It was a bitchy parody of his 'I married A Monster...' Do you know anything about it?”

Strangely enough, I have heard of it, but I don't know anymore than you about it. If anyone else knows something, please e-mail here.

Following on from that, we have these updates...

UPDATE1: In reference to the above... I own a copy of this rare item! It's actually on Rock Steady Records, catalogue number MICK 009 and is backed with 'Tea Machine dub by the Cro-Tones (also featuring Ms. La Creme.) The writing credit is MIkro/Smudgeboy and the impersonator of JCC is not too bad. It also contains the immortal line “Like a sack of old pototoes, the night has a thousand eyes.” Nicked from JCC or cleverly written in the idiom. I wonder? I liked your website and will visit again in future.

Martin Deboo

UPDATE 2: The above was also confirmed in some snail mail from R. P. Christian who wrote saying pretty much the same thing, but adding that it had a wraparound picture sleeve and was (P) 1980 The Mafia Connection Last String.

Update 3: This third update is really bizarre. Following on from the above, I heard from someone that Cathy la Creme is non other than Pauline Murray, and the guy who produced it - and did the JCC impressions - was Martin Hannet under yet another assumed name.

Maybe around the time she did her l.p. with the Invisible Girls - who knows???

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COOKING WITH MARTIN NEWELL:

Here's a little trivia concerning Martin Newell that was e-mailed in.

“A few years ago I saw a cookery programme called 'Eat Your Greens' with Sophie Grigson. One week her guest was Martin Newell, AKA gardener/poet and longstanding buddy of JCC.

Newell was cultivating Jerusalem Artichokes and old Sophie was whisking them off to the kitchen to use in some wacky recipe. I used to have a poem by Martin Newell, but I lost it. He's pretty good. Apparently he used to gig with JCC.”

UPDATE 1: There is a triple Captain Sensible called the Captain's Box out which I would recommend. The Captain is a long time collaborator with Martin Newell. Can't find my invoice right now but if you do a search on alta vista you should find the place in LA. Hurry it's limited to 1000, & comes with a cut out doll set.

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HARD TO FIND?:

Some of you are having a hard time locating JCC stuff in a shop near you, and I sympathise. But with the aid of the net, anything is possible now as Manabu from Japan so ably demonstrates.

“...Of course, I couldn't find JCC's records at the shops in my neighbourhood in Japan. I tried and tried to search and search on so many online shops. Finally I got.................
Innocents EP at VINAL EDGE RECORDS.

Post-war Glamour Girl and Gimmix at VINYL TAP RECORDS.

Splat / Twat at VINYL VENDORS.

You may be able to get other JCC's in stock at VINYL VENDORS at present.”

Thanks for these links Manabu. I admire your dedication.

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(“Photo image above from 'Ten Years In An Open Necked Shirt' courtesy of the Arts Council of England.”)