The “bargain basement Baudelaire” is setting out on a UK tour in April and tells Mark Ellen here about the earliest shows he saw and played, memories which happily include …
… the subtle art of crowd control.
… seeing Bob Hope when he was 9 and the strange impression of the adult world that suggested.
… the dress code that barred him from a Hendrix gig.
… auditioning for Bernard Manning at the Embassy Club and what he learnt from him.
… “I was Little Richard’s gear carrier (aged 11)”.
… why he based his look on Ronnie Wood.
… the perfect song for the hopeless bass player.
… the deathless advice his Dad gave him.
… why punk rock audiences were a breeze.
… the desperate fashion-chasing changes of tack of the Mafia, the band he formed in the ’60s. Who became the Vendettas. Who became the Lovely Flowers.
… “the last time I saw a mouth like that it had a hook in it” and other comedy circuit one-liners.
… the life-changing inclusion of \"Evidently Chickentown\" in the Sopranos’ credits.
… and the greatest gig he ever saw “which may well have been cooked up in the playground of my imagination”.
John’s tour dates here ….
https://johncooperclarke.com/gigs/
And this is his highly recommended memoir, I Wanna Be Yours …
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wanna-Yours-John-Cooper-Clarke/dp/1509896104
Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377
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