The Seeker of Good Songs
Well-Known Member
Carol Clerk
I add my voice to those shocked and saddened by the news that journalist Carol Clerk passed away on Saturday 13 March. Carol’s name will be familiar to anybody who read Melody Maker in the 80s and 90s where she edited the news section and was also frequently dispatched to interview all manner of rock’n’roll reprobates, be it Anti-Nowhere League (who I recall being photographed in the paper wearing Carol on their heads) or Hanoi Rocks (whose bad company almost got her a two-year stretch in an Israeli prison).
I knew Carol much later on during the years I wrote and worked for Uncut magazine. The legendary “Clerkie” was usually among the first to arrive whenever there was a drink-up, and often among the last to leave. With her dyed pink hair, leather jacket and walking stick she forever looked like she’d recently discharged herself from some sort of Punk Rock Hospital. Carol was everything you could ask of a drinking buddy: a great raconteur, an effortless comedian, a good listener and possessed of the superhuman stamina of the Irish. To a young rookie like myself she was endlessly inspiring and extremely kind, passing on priceless advice about publishers and book agents which I’ve never forgotten.
Being the sad fan I could always count on Carol to humour me by repeating the nobody-else-would-care yarn about the day Morrissey rang her up at the Maker with his own news story. But my most treasured memories involve hearing her many dealings with the criminal underworld as ghost author of several villain memoirs. I feel privileged to have spent just a few hours of my life listening to her scandalous gossip about Janie Jones, Mad Frankie Fraser, Cynthia Payne and The Krays, all of which I’d inevitably forgotten the next morning when sobriety resumed.
I knew Carol only briefly, but enough to recognise and admire her tremendous spirit, one which will be missed by all fortunate enough to walk in its path. A Facebook page has been set up in her memory here.
http://simongoddardwords.blogspot.com/2010/03/carol-clerk.html
I add my voice to those shocked and saddened by the news that journalist Carol Clerk passed away on Saturday 13 March. Carol’s name will be familiar to anybody who read Melody Maker in the 80s and 90s where she edited the news section and was also frequently dispatched to interview all manner of rock’n’roll reprobates, be it Anti-Nowhere League (who I recall being photographed in the paper wearing Carol on their heads) or Hanoi Rocks (whose bad company almost got her a two-year stretch in an Israeli prison).
I knew Carol much later on during the years I wrote and worked for Uncut magazine. The legendary “Clerkie” was usually among the first to arrive whenever there was a drink-up, and often among the last to leave. With her dyed pink hair, leather jacket and walking stick she forever looked like she’d recently discharged herself from some sort of Punk Rock Hospital. Carol was everything you could ask of a drinking buddy: a great raconteur, an effortless comedian, a good listener and possessed of the superhuman stamina of the Irish. To a young rookie like myself she was endlessly inspiring and extremely kind, passing on priceless advice about publishers and book agents which I’ve never forgotten.
Being the sad fan I could always count on Carol to humour me by repeating the nobody-else-would-care yarn about the day Morrissey rang her up at the Maker with his own news story. But my most treasured memories involve hearing her many dealings with the criminal underworld as ghost author of several villain memoirs. I feel privileged to have spent just a few hours of my life listening to her scandalous gossip about Janie Jones, Mad Frankie Fraser, Cynthia Payne and The Krays, all of which I’d inevitably forgotten the next morning when sobriety resumed.
I knew Carol only briefly, but enough to recognise and admire her tremendous spirit, one which will be missed by all fortunate enough to walk in its path. A Facebook page has been set up in her memory here.
http://simongoddardwords.blogspot.com/2010/03/carol-clerk.html
