John Cooper Clarke, On tour
He found a home on the punk scene, but John Cooper Clarke’s performance poetry pre-dated punk by several years. So it was perhaps inevitable that he’d outlast it, too. If the concept weren’t so overwhelmed by contemporary baggage, you might even call him a hipster, but in the old-school, Dylan-and-Kerouac sense of the word. Clarke is one of those uncanny figures (see also Mark E Smith) who transcends generation gaps without appearing to change. Somehow, his gift for language produces work that’s simultaneously hyper-specific and completely universal. Accordingly, his modern acolytes include figures as diverse as Plan B and Alex Turner. Expect the epic likes of Evidently Chickentown, plus anecdotes galore – from cohabiting with Nico to feeding his heroin habit by doing Sugar Puffs ads. Clarke’s still standing and still smiling after a wonderfully storied life.
PH
London And The Nation, London
A one-day conference considering the unusually vexed relationship between the United Kingdom and its capital city. London has always been a law unto itself: a great world city and commercial and creative hub that arguably has more in common with New York, Paris or Hong Kong than it does with the rest of the UK. The question – well, a question – is whether London’s undoubted importance has rather caused Britain’s politicians and press to forget that the rest of the country i) exists, and ii) has problems and aspirations that can’t be addressed through the prism of London. And if London is becoming more like a self-contained city state, what will that mean? Speakers include Bradford-based anthropologist Irna Qureshi, Oxford University’s Danny Dorling, the LSE’s Tony Travers, novelist and blogger Dave Hill, and the Guardian’s Zoe Williams.
British Library, NW1, Sat
AM
Latitude Festival, nr Blythburgh
Gone are the days when getting off – or further into – your head at a festival meant ingesting a palmful of psychedelics. Nowadays the opportunities for non-chemical mind-expansion are myriad; perhaps nowhere more so than at Latitude. This year’s lineup offers countless neuron-firing talks, from the political (journalists Owen Jones and Suzanne Moore and author Georgia Gould will explore what the future holds for the lefties of the world), to the psychological, with Ruby Wax and emotional-resilience expert Elaine Fox discussing what predisposes us towards “sunny” or “rainy” brains. Patrick Barkham will relate his encounters along Britain’s bizarre but beautiful coastline, while Dr Pam Spurr will reveal “sexual-confidence boosting tips” in her frank style. You might not be able to find your tent by the end of it but you will be smarter and, hopefully, sexier.
Henham Park, Thu to 19 Jul
CB
