Punk Poem "Pies" John Cooper Clark.

It was late 1978 when I first saw John Cooper Clark live.  I'd seen him on the poster as the third act, following Richard Hell and the Voidoids who had to be good with a name like that (try as I might, I can't remember).  Topping the bill was Elvis Costello and the Attractions who had recently released the Armed Forces album.  Olivers Army being the big hit of the day, I don't want to go to watch that crap team that play at Stamford Bridge being the last one.  No poster from Bradford, but was glad to see my memory is still functioning by finding this one obviously from around the same time.

Bradford is a place that appears to never have seen better days.  It was a dingy Northern mill town that evolved to an abandoned dirty Northern Mill town and was then left to rot.  I can't imagine the riots did anything to improve on it either and the last time I went was to the Film and Television museum which was in such a rough area we darn't stop for fear of the car getting robbed or stolen and it was only a clapped out Capri that we had hand painted black in the hope of the Police not seeing us coming at night until it was too late to stop us.  Smokey sang a song called "Going back to Bradford" and I often wondered why they would go there when they had all that money.

This air of decay was great for seeing punk bands play.  Plenty of photo opps for the bands and for us the chance to feel part of the new anachistic culture by drinking in boarded up pubs and walking past demolished buildings through dark disamal streets to get to The St Georges Hall Bradford. 

John Cooper Clarke was the revelation, no band, no instrument, what was he going to do?  Poems, thats what, punk poems with lots of swear words, but also cleverly crafted we found out in later years.  Yes, for now it was all about the swearing and appearnce.

Bit difficult to pogo to, but I always look back and think what a genius he was and how confident he must have been to get up in front of all those angry looking punk rockers.  Fair scared myself back then somedays with me appearance and it was a great relief to the folks when I tidied myself up and became a scruffy biker for the rest of my youth.

Since I have rediscovered this track, I have been teaching the wife and some of the staff about what the lyrics mean.  They, on the continual hunt for that rich falang boyfriend actually take this seriously and I am encouraging them to think this was.  They really honesly believe they will be more successful if they can knock out a bit of british nosh for potential boyfriends. 

What has this to do with pies?  Nothing, but I did get the word pies in three times, once in the title!,  which the bots should pick up at a later date.  Anarchy or what!