John Cooper Clarke shot to fame during the Punk Rock era of the late 1970s. Born in Salford sometime around 1950, he left school at 15 and passed through a succession of dead-end jobs, including dishwasher and mortuary assistant, whilst honing his skills as a performance poet.
He released his debut 7" EP on Rabid Records in late 1977 then signed to CBS in early 1978 and was soon established amongst his Punk peers as an entertainer par excellence. In 1980 he released one of his pivotal recordings, the harrowing 6-minute plus " Beasley Street ":
"The boys are on the wagon,
the girls are on the shelf.
Their common problem is that
they're not someone else."
- " Beasley Street "
Now he's back on the writing and performing inside track, appearing on Bespoken Word, touring with the Fall, and writing excellent new material - a true Renaissance Man.
From humble beginnings as a Hip-Hop DJ, Mister Gee honed his spoken word skills as the host of the renowned performance poetry club Brix-tongue and is now one of the stars of the UK poetry scene. He has performed at the New York Nuyorican Poets Café and the Black Lily night in Philadelphia (home to Jill Scott and the Roots), as well as at the Edinburgh Festival. He runs workshops in schools and his album Poetry in the Key of Gee was released to critical acclaim.
Mister Gee is a co-winner of a Sony Gold Award for Radio as the resident poet on the Russell Brand Show on BBC Radio 2, and is the resident poet of the hit West-End musical Into The Hoods.
From humble beginnings as a Hip-Hop DJ, Mister Gee honed his spoken word skills as the host of the renowned performance poetry club Brix-tongue and is now one of the stars of the UK poetry scene. He has performed at the New York Nuyorican Poets Café and the Black Lily night in Philadelphia (home to Jill Scott and the Roots), as well as at the Edinburgh Festival. He runs workshops in schools and his album Poetry in the Key of Gee was released to critical acclaim.