John Cooper Clarke aged 71 today

Not seen this before, but really enjoyed it!

Great choices (all) from John and I could listen to him wax lyrical all night long.

Think I might just have a JCC day tomorrow...great stuff.

@Tourist the What's in my Bag? uploads to YouTube from Amoeba Records I think you'd find entertaining, Tourist.

Here's the Amoeba channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9DkCKm4_VDztRRyge4mCJQ

Haven’t watched the Ozzy interview yet, but I’ve watched quite a few. I really like any of the ones with Paul Cook, especially. Watched the conversation with Midge Ure the other day and that’s a great one. Turns out Midge bought a piece of gear from Malcolm McLaren that Steve Jones had nicked originally and Jonesy remembered the piece of gear. I believe it was an amp head. ‘The bloody cheek.’ Barely mentioned though was the person Ure and Jones have in common, namely Glen Matlock. I agree about Steve’s guitar playing. 👍 Here's the bit of poem from Sir Henry Newbolt that JCC recited in the Jonesy’s Jukebox conversation , called ‘Vitai Lampada ("They Pass On The Torch of Life")’ : The sand of the desert is sodden red, -- Red with the wreck of a square that broke; -- The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead, And the regiment blind with dust and smoke. The river of death has brimmed his banks, And England's far, and Honour a name, But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks: 'Play up! play up! and play the game!' I’ve heard him read that bit before. And here's the poem of JCC's that JCC recited, called “Home Honey I'm High”: Frontal lobes just had a trim or did you meet the Moonies Wrong on both counts, Jim Tee many martoonies

@Alec 'Home Honey I'm High', just brilliant..very clever...Think I've probably said some very similar things, on several occasions...in the past, you understand.😉

It's really quite amazing, that connecting thread....and talking about Malcolm, that's another really great Jonesy's Jukebox chat..Malcolm McClaren goes on to tell the story of starting his first shops on the King's Road in London, the randomness of it all, chance encounters and the eventual birth of 'Sex', the shop with Vivienne Westwood and how the Pistols came about from the genesis of that subculture...It's a great story, but to hear Malcolm tell that story is what makes the interview so great...regardless of what anyone may think of McLaren and the way he 'operated', he certainly could tell a great story..the sound of his voice, his use of words and language, is always captivating.

Here's the link (audio only):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hkedYx9_TM

..And!, while we're talking about connecting threads, off at a tangent, here's a link Alec, to a nice piece of documentary film footage I think you will appreciate, Marty Feldman 'Six Degrees Of Separation'...It's a great watch, albeit rather tinged with sadness, ironically reflecting the sad story of his own comedy hero, Buster Keaton....Funnily enough, he even looked like him...anyway, it's definitely worth a watch when you've got a spare hour.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=marty+feldman+six+degrees+of+separation

There's a drawing by John Lennon that because of the way he drew the eyes always reminds me of Marty Feldman and vice-versa and the prose actually remind me of something John Cooper Clarke would appreciate and it's called, of all things,

I'll have to listen to this again. What was that about Screaming Lord Such helping Malcolm put up a sign?

Nice that this started out with the fading coda of Lightning Strikes the Klaus Nomi version, the promo vid of which is one of my favourites.

I thought John was shopping for blue suede shoes at SEX when Malcolm first set eyes on him. Glad Malcolm's set the record straight for me. Lydon was in fact looking for 'a pair of actual brothel creepers in white suede.'

Love Malcolm's Vivienne voice imitation as well!

The London S.S. asked John Foxx to be their singer. I remember reading that a few times.

Nice that Malcolm says things like obstreperous and officious.

Read once Genesis P-Orridge crediting himself for giving the name "BOY" (BOY-London) in honour of Sleazy (Peter Christopherson). I'd had it my mind that SEX and BOY-London were connected fashion enterprises.

... and from the official statement from TG on the death of Sleazy:

Sleazy’s visual art career included work as a member of the influential British design agency Hipgnosis, creating iconic record sleeve artwork in the 1970s for Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and, later, Factory Records. He took the first promo photographs of the Sex Pistols, created a highly controversial window display for Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s clothing shop, SEX, and went on to design the logo of the hugely popular fashion company, BOY.

Just finished watching Six Degrees of Marty Feldman. It brings back memories. I was drawn to MF when I was a child. My parents knew all about Spike Mulligan, but I did not. I experienced the Spike offshoots, like the Monty Python people, The Two Ronnies, Marty Feldman, Peter Sellers ...

He was ever-present on US television and in movies at least during my pre-teenaged years.

Seems to me that Mel Brooks, Dom DeLuise, Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, that crowd, was the right kind of crowd to land in once he "went Hollywood." Sad it didn't quite work out. I was fascinated by him. I've never been able to watch Yellowbeard, though, all the way through. It's difficult to watch it, seems quite bleached out, visually, and difficult to follow because of that. Loved Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie and In God We Tru$t. Never seemed like British people in entertainment were ready for the US and vice-versa and I'm not sure why that is. It's all different now, though, of course.

Don't think I saw The Last Remake of Beau Geste but I remember the title and the look of it so I must've done.

Interesting that he and Buster had a similar experience with Hollywood and were laid to rest near one another.

He was lucky to have Lauretta in his corner.

Be curious to see all the pre-Hollywood stuff available as well.

There is a perfect quote from Barry Levinson in this documentary about how Hollywood makes people less and less special. You do feel it when you're there. He says, "The more that Marty moved into the kinda LA culture and Hollywood in a sense, you know, you become less special than in fact you are. and I think Marty needed, you know, to be protected of a system that only wants things a certain way, and what made him special was that he wasn't that and you can't turn him into something that he's not." I think that's happened a few people in Hollywood, but, from what I can see, Marty did pretty much what he wanted over here. He's not really a tragic figure in that sense at all.

Marty had a happy time no matter where he was or what he was doing. What a ball of energy he was. Overactive thyroid indeed, overactive EVERYTHING.

Speaking of which, I don't think I knew the reason his eyes were the way they were before watching this or I might've forgotten.

There's a drawing by John Lennon that accompanies one of his poems in the book In His Own Write that because of the way he drew the eyes of this creature I'm always reminded of Marty Feldman and vice-versa.

The prose actually remind me of something John Cooper Clarke would appreciate and it's called, of all things, Alec Speaking.

Alec Speaking

He is putting it lithely when he says, Quobble in the Grass, Strab he down his soddieflays Amo amat amass; Amonk amink a minibus, Amarmylaidie Moon,

Amikky mendip multiplus Amighty midgey spoon. And so I traddled onward Careing not a care Onward, Onward, Onward, Onward, my friends to  victory and glory for the thirtyninth.

Source: https://tinyurl.com/urdtcuh

I was at the Leeds Grand concert and remember JCC going down really well, as opposed to a week or so earlier at Bradford St Georges Hall, where he suffered a torrent of abuse and had coins thrown at him :( In fact I remember Charlie remonstrating with the audience when the band opened, basically saying they didn't deserve to see BeBop play...but thank god they did :)