Dr John Cooper Clarke And Hugh Cornwell Announce Album and Tour.

 

Sony Music is proud to announce the coming together of two influential gents within their own fields of the arts. Acclaimed poet Dr John Cooper Clarke and esteemed singer/songwriter (and founding member of The Stranglers) Hugh Cornwell have teamed up to release their first album, ‘This Time It’s Personal’, released Friday 14th October 2016.

It’s a match made in the rock ‘n’ roll heaven of their respective youth and, just as their eyebrow-raising new album says, This Time It’s Personal. Featuring classic tracks that they both grew up listening to, the album is the surprising duo’s first collaboration.

The fact that these two giants of punk and new wave are together on record for the first time is remarkable enough. But the album, which features ten hand-picked songs reflecting the pair’s shared love of classic American and British pop they grew up with, has a knockout punchline. With not a spoken word in sight by Dr Clarke, nor a distinctive growling Cornwell vocal, This Time It’s Personal (produced by Hugh at his own studio) announces John’s debut, at the age of 67, as a lead vocalist, with Hugh playing all guitars. The results are delightful. “No one knew he could sing!” laughs Cornwell. “When you tell people they go ‘You’re kidding me.’”

With tracks by the likes of Lieber & Stoller, Jimmy Webb, Ricky Nelson, Richie Valens and Conway Twitty, ‘This Time It’s Personal’ sees the duo paying their respects to the music that had played such a part in their musical coming of age.

Dr John Cooper Clarke

 

This Time It’s Personal Tracklisting

  1. It’s Only Make Believe
  2. Way Down Yonder In New Orleans
  3. Spanish Harlem
  4. Johnny Remember Me
  5. MacArthur Park
  6. She’s A Woman
  7. Donna
  8. Jezebel
  9. Love Potion Number 9
  10. Sweeter Than You

You can read our review of Dr John Cooper Clarke with Squeeze at GLive in Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom with photos by Kieran White at KW Media here: http://bit.ly/1ZTkGeo

To support the release, Dr Clarke and Cornwell have announced a UK tour for November and December 2016. Performing across some of the UK’s major cities, expect to hear classic material from ‘This Time It’s Personal’.

The seven-date tour will visit the following venues:

Saturday 26th November 2016 – Junction, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Tuesday 29th November 2016 – O2 Forum Kentish Town, London, United Kingdom

Wednesday 30th November 2016 – O2 Academy, Bristol, United Kingdom

Thursday 1st December 2016 –  O2 Institute, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Saturday 3rd December 2016 – Manchester O2 Ritz, Manchester, United Kingdom

Thursday 8th December 2016 –  Leadmill, Sheffield, United Kingdom

Friday 9th December 2016 – O2 ABC, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

Tickets go on sale now and are available at http://bit.ly/1dM2Fqb

Glenn Sargeant

The new album of Dr John Cooper Clarke and Hugh Cornwell ‘This Time It’s Personal’ is released on Friday 14th October 2016 on Sony Music. You can buy the album via the following links:

iTunes link – http://smarturl.it/JCCHC_it

Amazon http://smarturl.it/JCCHC_Amz

D2c http://smarturl.it/JCCHC_d2c

(Photo Credit: Dean Chalkley. Many thanks to David Cox at LD Communications for help with this announcement)