I Wanna Be Yours: John Cooper Clarke

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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. I used to think trees were dirty, because when I was a kid in Salford you'd climb them and come off filthy, it was like you'd been up a chimney... and even if you got a stretch of park you just had to scrape the grass and there were, like, cinders underneath... it was horrible... [5] Clarke has lived for more than 25 years in Colchester, Essex, with his second wife, Evie, who is French. They have one daughter, Stella. [15] [31] Discography [ edit ] Albums [ edit ] saw Clarke present a documentary on Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater in the BBC's second series of The Secret Life of Books. [25] He has appeared as a guest on the comedy panel show Would I Lie To You? on 14 August 2015 [26] and again on 7 January 2022. [27]

Unusually, I was more interested in reading this biography for the company the man kept, rather than the man himself.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. 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 ...).

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. Every drug addict is virtually the same person. There’s not really much point in dwelling on it. I needed money more than ever, so I had to work. The glamour was flaking off with every new job. I really felt like I was selling my sorry ass.”

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. 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. 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) 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.

Poets, Punks, Beatniks and Counter Culture Heroes (2010), Ozit – includes rare JCC film footage from the 1980s a b c d e f g h i Strong, Martin C. (2003). The Great Indie Discography. Canongate. pp.33–34. ISBN 1-84195-335-0. The poem "21 Gun Salute Suit", for example--the sound of the line "A rather dissolute but not yet destitute suit" and the way those words work together, combined with the repetition of the "oot" sound throughout is fantastic. My cat was not as impressed with my renditions--I will admit that my attempts at Clarke's accent were a massive failure--but I found speaking the words out loud really enhanced my experience.

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Arctics go for poetry". Ananova. Archived from the original on 30 June 2007 . Retrieved 20 August 2007. 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. BBC Two – Celebrity Antiques Road Trip, Series 9, Episode 7". BBC. 19 November 2019 . Retrieved 22 June 2021. a b c Hattenstone, Simon (29 May 2012). "John Cooper Clarke: 'It's diabolical how poor I am' ". The Guardian . Retrieved 9 October 2015.