Skip to main content

BUZZ: JOHN COOPER CLARKE | POETRY REVIEW



BY SUSIE WILD ⋅ FEBRUARY 14, 2011 ⋅ POST A COMMENT
FILED UNDER  , , , , , 
The Globe, 125 Albany Road, Cardiff
Sat 12 Feb 2011
words: SUSIE WILD
★★★★
Punk poet dandy John Cooper Clarke rocks onto the Globe stage in his trademark big hair and skinny drainpipes combo, dark shades obscuring half of his face. The room is packed. The crowd braying for the expected long set of laughs, biting wit, shambolic tales and ales. JCC certainly does not disappoint his rescheduled show audience, nor avid fan, me.
The legend that is JCC made his name as the support act for many seminal punk bands such as the Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, The Fall, Joy Division, Elvis Costello and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Today three of his poems are even in the GCSE syllabus. Now in his sixties, the Lowry-meets-Burton performer is showing no signs of flagging.
A month ahead of his forthcoming spring tour he rolls through a superbly lengthy set of all the favourites including ‘Hire Car’ and many, many gags in his renowned Salford twang:
Hire-car, hire-car
Why would anybody buy a car?
Bang it, prang it, say ta ta
It’s a hire car baby
We laugh and laugh and then have to say ta ta far too early, running to catch the last train to Swansea before the set is over. Gutted. (insert usual gripes about Saturday train scheduling here or quote some JCC lines: I wish ‘The fucking train is fucking late.’ Your choice!) But we don’t cry too much for JCC is back in Wales in April appearing at The Laugharne Weekend, as am I. Come along and see us both there.

 Share/Bookmark

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GIG ALERT: Voicebox Wrexham

Celebrate 11 years... (11 YEARS!) of Voicebox with an absolute class creative cabaret of Wrexham's Arts Scene with the infamous Voicebox Open Mic with your host Natasha Borton! This month we have a very special takeover with Parthian Books. Parthian is an independent publisher based in Cardigan, Wales. Since its foundation in 1993, Parthian has published some of the best-known works of contemporary Welsh literature. Parthian's motto is “A Carnival of Voices in Independent  Publishing”. Monday 11th November at Rough Hands Tap, Wrexham Entry is £5 (£3 concessions) Doors: 7pm Open Mic 7:30 - 8:30 Susie Wild - 8:45 - 9:15 Patrick Jones - 9:15 - 9:45 Penblwydd Hapus Voicebox Headliners: Susie Wild is author of the poetry collections Windfalls and Better Houses, the short story collection The Art of Contraception listed for the Edge Hill Prize, and the novella Arrivals. Her work has featured in many publications including Poetry Wales, Ink Sweat & Tears and The Atlanta Review and...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE STAGE REVIEW | CINDERELLA @THE RIVERFRONT

Cinderella Published  Monday 5 December 2011  at  12:39  by  Susie Wild Even in the year of a Royal Wedding, not every modern girl wants to grow up to be a princess. In Newport, however, Will and Kate fever appears to have taken hold and many women and girls in the audience are dressed up as exactly that, settling down to believe in fairytale dreams. Hiss & Boo’s production keeps the ancient story traditionally soft, sappy and relatively unchanged, and a more contemporary world is instead only hinted at with the Ugly Sisters’ Primark bags and occasional, catty LOLs. The cast of Cinderella at the Riverfront, Newport The romantic leads Nichola Lagan (Cinderella) and Rob Wilshaw (Prince Charming) are suitably saccharine and prove strong on vocals, but the song choices are often weak. Still, it is a saving grace that the show hasn’t suffered too much under the influence of X Factor. Instead, it leans towards the stuff of real magic with a flying horse, firework...
Post a Comment
Read more

BBC Arts Blog: Women's writing celebrated at the xx minifest

Women's writing celebrated at the xx minifest Friday 26 October 2012, 12:04 Laura Chamberlain Share Facebook Twitter COMMENTS Tagged with: arts and culture ,  writing ,  poetry Writing by and for women will be celebrated this weekend as the xx minifest of women’s writing 2012 takes place in Cardiff. This inaugural festival will take residence at Chapter Arts Centre this Saturday, 27 October. It aims to publicise the range and diversity of writing by women from Wales in the English language, and encourages both men and women to attend and take part. This one day minifest will act as a "taster session", as a more extensive literary programme is already being planned for 2013. I put a few questions about the festival to Susie Wild, one of the co-organisers of the xx minifest. Wild is a writer, an editor at Parthian Books and she also organises the  Cardiff Literary Salon , and will be holding a special edition of the literary gatheri...
Post a Comment
Read more