‘I saw the legendary John Cooper Clarke perform his amphetamine punk poetry 30 years ago in an intimate club in Loughborough in the UK – it was an unforgettable performance and in 2019 when JCC came to Berlin for the first time, Radio On were extremely proud and lucky to interview him’ – Adrian Shephard.
Haiku readings, poetry and magic,
“a gift that sharpened into a skill,”
indolence talk, professional poet, Charles Baudelaire, Pam Ayres…
“We’d never run out of conversation, Pam and I”
TV adverts , massive flat fee and being treated like a king, how to become a star in a commercial, sugar puffs, “pure energy in a box”
deflowerment, machine gun poetry and the erogenous effect, punk days, Howard Devoto and how JCC became a poet among punks, the glorious two punk years, “no flares and no beards,” Linder Sterling, Howard Devoto’s girlfriend,
“just from the look of it, I wanted to get involved,”
stationary questions, time travel questions, 1965, cassette question, Elvis,
“I’ve got a ghetto blaster in every room,”
“my poetry gets rammed down the reluctant throats of school children,”
Ends interview with the story of a dream starring Dion Dimucci, answering fanmail and reading a classic poem.
Recorded : 02.7.2019
Edit : Adrian Shephard
Review : Rinus Van Alebeek
