Speechification

At the end of the Seventies John Cooper Clarke lived in a little house opposite the front gates of my Secondary school in not-very-glamorous-but-not- very-gritty-either Stevenage, which is a new town at the wrong end of Hertfordshire. His presence there (I didn’t imagine it did I? Is there any evidence that he did live there?) was so unlikely and such a mad, peacock-haired challenge to the dreary suburban surroundings that boys I knew used to gather outside his house and throw chip papers and coke cans at him when he came out.

He passed by, implacable and apparently unmoved. Later he’d show up as support at practically every gig I ever attended. In fact I seem to remember thinking he must be resident at The Hammersmith Palais (or was it The Lyceum?). So here’s a lovely half hour about the man from the other reason I cut my hair weird and bought an Oxfam overcoat: Paul Morley (MP3).

Here’s the programme’s web page and here’s its press release, which has some more information.

bsag (”but she’s a girl”) mentioned this on Twitter this evening: a documentary about Kraftwerk (MP3).

Russell shared the ‘Who Likes Techno’ documentary recently, and since then I’ve been wanting to hear a lot more about the history of Kraftwerk. (plus I’ve always liked Marc ‘Lard’ Riley), so this documentary is perfect. And who couldn’t use more avant-garde-electro history in their life?


Photo from Stuck in Customs on Flickr. It’s a photo of a German power station (or, ‘Kraftwerk’, as the locals call them).