16th
This is bloody chickentown.
If you’ve seen Control, recall the scene where a lanky man in a suit with sunglasses is reciting a poem where “Fucking” is every other word. That man was John Cooper Clarke. For the sake of those who have not seen Control, here is the poem Evidently Chickentown, which is also in an epsode of The Sopranos It is by far his best. Another one of his poems was placed inside The Arctic Monkeys’ album Fluorescent Adolescent. He is also seen reading Evidently Chickentown in the beginning and end of Joy Division’s video for Transmission.
John is referred to as a “punk poet”, he has supported many “punk” acts such as The Fall, Joy Divisin, and Elvis Costello, among others. The backing for his poems are by a band called The Invisible Girls, who consisted of Martin Hannet (producer of many post-punk albums, including Unknown Pleasures), Pete Shelley (from The Buzzcocks), Stephen Hopkins (Who has worked with Morrissey and Nico), Bill Nelson (Be Bop Deluxe), and Paul Burgess (10cc.) Personally, I think the band often did a bad job of making the music. It just doesn’t give off the vibe that Clarke should.Regardless, it’s listenable.
3/5
Pod (invisiblestairs)
