Cooper’s clasp, John Cooper Clarke

Somewhere in the world there is always someone discovering John Cooper Clarke, a voice says within the first five minutes of this portrait of the pioneering punk poet. You can’t help think that the voice may well be over-egging the pudding. And then I discovered John Cooper Clarke.

Alright, it wasn’t like I went up to the skinny mod-suited wordsmith and stuck a flag in him declaring him discovered, or that I went down to a punk dive in the ‘70s and thought, “there’s something in this chap”. Lots of people have discovered John Cooper Clarke, and I was even familiar with his name before I saw this programme, but I’d never seen or heard any of his work, I hadn’t any idea of where he came from or what he’d come to represent. Or as political comic Mark Thomas says; “John’s better than a national treasure. He’s part of the national furniture.”

That’s not to say I’m simply being drawn along with the sea of admiration. Admittedly there are no mudslingers – apart from occasionally Clarke himself – but ye gads, the first person to pay this man for performing his poetry was a Mr Bernard Manning and now his writing is on the GCSE English syllabus. Having travelled through supporting Elvis Costello on tour, living with Nico and John Cale of The Velvet Underground, and taken so much dope he truly doesn’t remember having met one of his all time favourites, Tom Waits, until a photo is produced of the two with Billy Connolly in the background. This man has lived, and written about living.

“This portrait is of Clarke’s canon of work in situ”

In fact, the star of this programme is not so much John Cooper Clarke and his heady lifetime (which is still continuing by the way) but his writing. With classics like ‘Evidently Chickentown’ and ‘Things Are Gonna Get Worse’, as well as talking heads ranging from Stewart Lee to Craig Charles on to Henry Normal and Kate Nash waxing lyrical about his influence, this portrait is of Clarke’s canon of work in situ.

I want to go out and buy his books now. Actually I want to buy his records – especially the orange one on vinyl shaped like a triangle. Clarke is celebrating the origins of poetry; spoken aloud. His distinctive rhyming forceful style sits well within punk, as well as the anger of the ‘80s against Thatcher, and the confusion of various states of affairs – whether they be personal or national. This does view a touch like an epitaph in waiting, but it’s comprehensively done and, to be honest, should really be seen as only the story so far.
Evidently… John Cooper Clarke, BBC4, Wednesday 30 May 2012