"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away." ~ Henry David Thoreau
Welcome to the SmartArtsPlus channel of Photographer & Artist, Paul J. Hopkins'.
Here you can:
1 - View the 'Jam Tribe Evolution' shows a visual history of a Manchester Freestyle Community Drum Circle;
2 - See 'An Almost Complete Works of Steve Hopkins' - my eldest brother;
3 - View a small collection of 'John Cooper Clarke' poems & TV appearances, featuring 'I Wanna Be Yours' as included on the UK's GCSE English Literature syllabus;
4 - Sample some of my 'Favourite Choons';
&
5 - Tune in to 'Here Is The News' - a small collection of videos that tell the truth about the way it really is!
It was released 10 yrs too early, i think. The song would feel more at home with the late 80s/ early 90s indie scene. Pity that. Unique singer, all the same.
I was looking up info for the Celebrate Festival in Manley Park in Manchester recently (8th June 2024) and noticed there was to be a Jo Rose Stage, in memory of Jo. This was the first I'd heard of his death. We were good friends for a short while, but then, like ships that pass in the night, we lost touch. I am deeply saddened to hear of his passing and the circumstances by which the world lost a very talented young man and such a beautiful soul. R.I.P. Jo 😥 www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/tributes-pour-relentlessly-kind-talented-28473535
This is amazing. I remember it from the 70s/80s on a late night Granada show. May have been a Tony Wilson thing but I wouldn't put my mortgage on it. I recorded it and watched it over and over till I could virtually recite it. Of course no one I knew was remotely interested (in his version, not mine. It goes without saying they weren't interested in mine either). The quality of the lyrics is fookin relentless. It reminds me a bit of Subterranean Homesick Blues, but is completely unique in itself. And I'm saying so, and that's that.
It was a late night Granada show, called Celebration, which Tony Wilson was involved with but isn't the main interviewer on this particular show, which you can view here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tYK1-AJ4BSU.html
36 hours in the mystery chair 36 hours in the quizzical glare Of the naked lights and the visible hardware Another bloke is leaving in a wheelchair No joke, here comes the punchline Lights out... Steel shoes on the stone cold floor I hear the screws screaming in the corridor The bad news and the slammin' of the door The "what did i do's" and the "what am I here for's" Shades of doubt drop deeper than the slag mine Lights out... sack time Hard cheese and a chest complaint One man sneezes, another two faint Sufferin' jesus, this ain't my venue The man through the mesh says time to crash The creeping flesh, nervous rash The last man to make a dash Is on the menu Here's the boss with a mouthful of emeralds A maltese cross and a pocket full of chemicals Jack frost snappin' at the genitals Wash this cosh it's a visit from the general Rule out sub section nine Lights out... sack time The killer gorilla with the perspex hat Says I say so... and that's that Take out the dog bring back the cat Scrape out the cafeteria rats Stab the rabbit feed the swine lights out... sack time Time flies ... slides down the wall Part of me dies under my overalls I close my eyes and a woman calls From a nightmare The chronic breath of the dead collides With a rattle of the waste disposal slides No flowers for the man who died In the bombscare He's in the frigidaire Freezing in these paper jeans Standing stiff in a dead man's dream Tobacco barons and the closet queen Walk on the walls... wank in the beans Shave... shit... a shower and a shoe shine That's it... sack time Everybody looks like ernest borgnine That's it 36 hours on the battery farm A blindfold and a broken arm I got the cold shoulder sleepin' in the barn Whose barn... what barn... their barn The old soldier and his old-world charm Lift that weight, drag that woodbine Lights out mate sackarooni time Lights out... sack time
By the credits this looks like a lost David Lynch show. JJC appeared on the Sopranos end credits once, Chickentown, jarring and alienating in the context of the show.
I wanna be yours (Poetic Anthology) Let me be your vacuum cleaner Breathing in your dust Let me be your Ford Cortina I will never rust If you like your coffee hot Let me be your coffee pot You call the shots I wanna be yours Let me be your raincoat For those frequent rainy days Let me be your dreamboat When you wanna sail away Let me be your teddy bear Take me with you anywhere I don’t care I wanna be yours Let me be your electric meter I will not run out Let me be the electric heater You’d get pneumonia without Let me be your setting lotion Hold your hair with deep devotion Deep as the deep Atlantic Ocean I don’t wanna be hers I wanna be yours
47 years later February 2024, I'm going to see Dr John at the Lowry theatre Salford in March, I reckon JCC Never expected to still be on the planet when this was filmed.
I saw him in 2011 and managed to have a chat with him then saw him again last year. By the way Mike Garry the poet was his support artist who is also very good.
