Punk Poet Recites His Way To CBS Contract:
A Poet at a punk gig is a most unlikely occurrence on the face of it but one of the more endearing acts to have come out of the new wave is that of John Cooper Clarke. In the last six months, this skinny, untidy looking young guy has become a familiar figure on rock club stages. And the days when he would get booed off, bottled or even have threats made on his life, seem to be over. Cooper Clarke gets a reaction now and it's usually an encore.
He's just been signed to CBS for a one-year contract with yearly options up to five years at a sum of £15,000, a king's ransom to a man who has no band, no equipment to lug about and often travels to and from gigs in the resident band's van.
Cooper's poetry treads a neurotic line between cynical observation of the world about him and sheer, music-hall gut humour. The reason he gets away with playing rock clubs is because his view of things is exactly the view of the kid of the audience.
Originally signed to Manchester's Rabid Records for whom he had an EP Suspended Sentence out last November, Cooper Clarke has this year seen two of his songs, 'I Married A Monster From Outer Space,' and 'You Never See A Nipple In The Daily Express' featured on the Virgin 10-inch Electric Circus Album and now his first single 'Post War Glamour Girl' released this week on CBS.
He doesn't consider himself part of the the grand poetry tradition as such and says that he possesses more records than poetry books.
“I started reading my poetry in jazz clubs, ladies hairdressers and psychiatric wards. What I was doing in the new wave context wasn't a mile from what I was doing anyway.”
From performing as support to bands like The Buzzcocks (who first invited him to perform to rock audiences) Cooper Clarke is now a name in his own right and will be touring this autumn with a fairly big act (details to be advised). His first album is out next month.
Copyright acknowledgment is hereby graciously given to Artists & Repertoire magazine for this totally unauthorized violation of their proprietary copyright. We hope they don't mind too much.
Thanks to rabid JCC fan Matt in NY for keeping it all these years and sending it to me.
David Redshaw