John Cooper Clarke

[elderford]

Yes, he is still alive.

Went to see him last Saturday, I was expecting a pure nostalgia show (that said he did Beasley Street), but most of the set was new material from a forthcoming cd.

Including Haiku No 1, which tickled me, here it is in full:
TO-CON-VEY ONE'S MOOD
IN SEV-EN-TEEN SYLL-ABLE-S
IS VE-RY DIF-FIC

Still looking like this:


Well worth catching if you've a chance. If you are middleclass you may well be able to afford to see him as support with The Fall (01 April in Birmingham, 03 April in Liverpool).

[TTT]

He opened for the fall when me, concerned but powerless and ratscocks went to see them a couple of weeks ago.

He was alright, but he was unable to come up with a come back when someone in the audience shouted "you were a lot funnier 25 years ago john".

[boki]

*boing*

Just a quickie to say that you can get the 'Very Best Of' compilation for £4.99 in HMV's sale.  That's if HMV's sale is still on - I bought it on Sunday, like.  Very good stuff, and some of the backing music was well ahead of its time.

[23 Daves]

Bloody patchy live these days though, I have to say... some of his onstage waffle between the poems is reasonably amusing waffle, but certainly nothing more or less.  I saw him live last year and he spent more time doing shadow puppets on the wall than he actually did on some of his material.

They may not be as cool (and they certainly owe a debt to him) but Rachael Pantechnicon and John Hegley both do similar stuff far far better these days.

[GoochDogHigh5s]

I work  at a printers in Kings Cross and a few hours before he played the Academy, I saw him looking into my window looking at my old fashion letterpress machine.

I went out to chat to him, had a joke about Mark E Smith, but all he was interested in was the machine.

Top bloke though!!