My new book, an amalgam of memoir and anthology, is now available for pre-order (link below). There’s the experience of emigrating to the steel town where the desert meets the sea; the escape to Adelaide’s nourishing airs; the return to Britain to fathom why the family left; and the realisation there was no future in England’s dreaming. Then the plunge into publishing. Rock ‘n’ roll stories of course; Springsteen, Split
The clip for Quietly Confident’s one and only single. Republic of Australia (1983). Featuring lead vocalist Len Lindon; vocalists Larry Buttrose and Mark Conway; Russell Handley on the ( )ASIO keyboards; and backing vocals from Mandy and Melanie Salomon. Quietly Confident was the alternative cabaret act I managed in the period when I left Adelaide and moved to Sydney (1982-83). The track was recorded at Basilisk Studios in Hurstville, Sydney, Martin
“I lean towards the nineteenth century poets,” says John Cooper Clarke, who also happens to dress like them. “Percy Shelley, all them. I want an all-female audience, y’know.” What, Shelley used to read live? “Oh yeah, yeah, he used to do gigs. When he wasn’t ‘anging around graveyards, or trying to drown himself.” On stage, John Cooper Clarke is a mass of hair and suit and shades with a million
