Radio-On-Berlin : John Cooper Clarke

'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

Radio-On-Berlin.com