John Cooper Clarke, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, April 9 (From The Argus)

John Cooper Clarke, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, April 9

9:19am Wednesday 13th April 2011 in Stage Reviews By Paul Smith

A great night began with Hastings-born punk poet Salena Godden offering her quirky take on life, recalling a trip under the pier “where the magic mushrooms make the sea all blood and ink”.

The last time Johnny Clarke was on the south coast it was with Frank Sidebottom, aka Chris Sievey, who sadly is no more. How The Bard of Salford has survived is a mystery to him as much as to his fans but he remains on top form.

With his trademark Edward Scissorhands hairdo, soft nasal twang and the skinniest of black jeans, in legs that refused to stay still, he soon had his adoring fans in fits of tears.

While claiming to have put on weight, he treated them to a new poem, Pies, then rifled through one of his big blue books, keeping up a constant banter of anecdotes, gags and extremely astute wordplay as he looked for the right page.

Clarke has a wide-ranging back catalogue and picked out gems on the decline into old age in Things Are Going To Get Worse, the bubble-gum pop of Attack of the 50ft Woman and painfully funny truths laid bare in Christmas at Someone Else’s House.

Highlightswere razor-sharp Evidently Chickentown and a sped-up version of Beasley Street’s inner city sleaze, followed by updated Beasley Boulevard, now a place of “noodle bars and poodle parlours”. There is a pub, “but the regulars are barred” and the street is just as bleak.

He may have stumbled and fumbled a couple of times but for a man rapidly becoming a national treasure it mattered not one jot as the crowd left the elegant Pavilion for the somewhat less-than-mean streets outside.