I SPEAK YOUR EVERY WORD

IN THE ABSENCE OF HAVING ANY NEW MATERIAL AVAILABLE FROM ANY OF THE SUNDAY CORRESPONDENTS, I'VE DUG INTO THE TVV ARCHIVES TO REPRODUCE (BUT SLIGHTLY ADAPT) THIS PIECE FROM JANUARY 2007, WRITTEN WHEN THE BLOG WAS IN ITS INFANCY.......

The post-punk era in the late 70s and early 80s wasn't all about jumping about down the front.

The man pictured above is John Cooper Clarke. He is a poet.

You listened to what JCC had to say. He was often a support act for many acts - let's face it, all he needed was the bus/train fare and a microphone - and he had a fantastic stage presence that commanded attention.

Maybe it was the big hair; maybe it was the unmistakable Salford/Manchester accent; maybe it was because he had something meaningful to say, often in a very humorous way; maybe it was a combination of all of the above.

I saw him a few times in the 80s - most often at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the days when it was truly an underground sort of event rather than a vehicle for comics to come to town and make a fortune over a three-week period.

The mp3 offering might sound like a bit of a misogynist rant. But listen carefully and you'll hear that it is a brilliantly worded attack on bigots who can't bear to see mixed-race marriages.

mp3 : John Cooper Clarke - I Married A Monster From Outer Space

And here's something visual:-



Beasley Street is a track I consider his best piece of work. Written in 1980, and it's a sad reflection on society and its inability to deal with inequalities that there is almost certainly a Beasley Street not too far from where you live - especially if you live in a major city.

JCC is still on the go today. The original posting was inspired by an interview with him in the then current edition of Mojo magazine - an interview conducted by Alex Turner of The Arctic Monkeys.

Happy Listening.