John Cooper Clake @ Dancehouse Theatre, Manchester

• 20th Jan 2009

John Cooper Clarke
Friday 13th and Saturday 14th February 2009
Dancehouse Theatre
10 Oxford Road,
Manchester,
M1 5QA

Tickets £15 adv.

Doors 9pm

The “Bard of Salford” will be back on stage at the Dancehouse Theatre, Manchester on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th February.

Johnny Clarke, “the name behind the hairstyle”, initially achieved recognition in the late 1970's. He cemented his image as a punk poet by opening for acts such as The Sex Pistols, Joy Division, Buzzcocks and New Order.

In a vain attempt at bourgeois credibility, Manchester's sharp-dressed, sharp-delivering punk poet Lenny, changed his name to John Cooper Clarke and embarked on a polysyllabic excursion though Thrillsville. Clad in the slum chic of the hipster, he issued the slang anthems of the zip age in the desperate esperanto of bop.

More recently he performed a duet with Jon McClure of Reverend and The Makers, which was later released as a b-side on the hit single “Heavyweight Champion of The World.” JCC's poem “Out of Control Fairground” was printed on the inside of the CD single release of the Arctic Monkeys “Fluorescent Adolescent”. Alex Turner has often cited Cooper Clarke's work as lyrically inspiring and some of his favourite.

When you see John Cooper Clarke live expect a mix of hilarious anecdotes of life in a Northern town interspersed with machine-gun fast delivery of some of his best poems. 'If you think poetry is dull and boring, or posh and erudite – you haven't seen JCC!'

“Looking like a gonk stick insect in Raybans, Manchester University librarian Clarke jumped the Punk bandwagon, took it over and made it fly. Looking and sounding like a fright wigged Ginsberg on speed and an out of control crash-diet, Mr Clarke is still the roll model for any young performance poet not suffering from premature brain death.” – NME

“His razor-sharp wit and machine gun delivery of outrageous punk poems have remained intact. Even when jokes fall flat they are soon forgotten as he launches into another hilarious rhyming rant about anything and everything.” – Daily Express