But we do learn about the competing influences of his leftwing parents and Catholic education, and that his machine-gun live delivery was (apparently) inspired equally by Futurist poetry and horseracing commentator Peter O'Sullevan. This is no conventional biography the title comes from Clarke's surreal chronicle of his alter-ego Lenny Siberia, which he performs near the end (with a neat dramatisation of Lenny's school-aged encounters with The Knights of the Sacred Orchid). The film climaxes with a grim tour through Manchester slums to accompany Clarke's magnum opus, Beasley Street, a despairing hymn to the urban devastation and human casualties of the Thatcher era.
Nick May's film wisely sets aside narration to give space to Clarke's sharp, take-no-prisoners words: in live performance, interviews and simple but striking impromptu 'videos' for tracks from his LPs with producer Martin Hannett. The near-legendary bard of Salford, aka John Cooper Clarke, aka the 'name behind the hairstyle', is the focus of this essential documentary.
