Anne Clark (poet)
| Anne Clark | |
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Anne Clark pictured in 2015.
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Anne Charlotte Clark |
| Born | 14 May 1960 Croydon, London, England |
| Origin | London, England |
| Genres | New wave, dark wave, electronic, avant-garde |
| Occupation(s) | Poet, singer, songwriter, producer, entrepreneur |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Labels |
Red Flame (Ink) |
| Associated acts | Eyeless in Gaza, Angel Haze, Depeche Mode, Benny Benassi, John Foxx, Paul Weller, Patrik Fitzgerald, David Harrow, Virginia Astley, Pet Shop Boys |
| Website | www.anneclarkofficial.com |
| Notable instruments | |
| Synthesizer, Piano, Vocals | |
Red Flame (Ink)
Virgin/EMI (Virgin SP, Ten)
Sony BMG (Columbia Records)
SPV (Germany)
Anne Charlotte Clark (born 14 May 1960, Croydon, London, England) is an English poet songwriter and electronic musician. Her first album, The Sitting Room, was released in 1982, and she has released over a dozen albums since then.
Her poetry work with experimental musicians occupies a region bounded roughly by electronic, dance (techno applies on occasion) and possibly avant-garde genres, with varying hard as well as romantic and orchestral styles.
Clark is mainly a spoken word artist. Many of her lyrics deal critically with the imperfections of humanity, everyday life, and politics. Especially in her early works she has created a gloomy, melancholy kind of atmosphere bordering on weltschmerz. She has been considered as one of the pioneers in the spoken-word music genre, as well as being highly idolised over the board of synth-pop and new-wave music, especially across Europe.
Anne Clark was born the daughter of a Roman Catholic Irish mother, Cecilia and a mixed Scottish and Welsh Protestant father, Herbert. She has one brother, John and mentions in her spoken biography 'Notes Taken Traces Left' that her mother also had another son who died shortly after being born. From this biography there are also mentions of her two nephews. Clark recollects her childhood in her spoken biography as being "troubled but loving at the same time". At the age of 16, she left school. She took various jobs, one of which was as a nurse in a psychiatric hospital. Clark then got a job at the local record store (and label), Bonaparte Records. Punk rock was finding its way into London's music scene and perfectly matched Anne Clark's emotions.
Clark soon became involved with the Warehouse Theatre, an independently financed stage for bands, that was always low on cash. Although the theatre's owners initially objected to the strange, pierced punk scene characters and their leather outfits, Anne was able to successfully arrange the program. Anne Clark managed to fill the theatre with artists like Paul Weller, Linton Kwesi Johnson, French & Saunders, The Durutti Column, Ben Watt (who is now a member of Everything But The Girl), and many others. She experimented with music and lyrics herself and first appeared on stage in Richard Strange's Cabaret Futura with Depeche Mode. Clark worked with Paul Weller to help set up Riot Stories. He had put up an article about helping young writers that had no chances of being signed up to major records. Clark said that at first the relationship was troubled due to him not replying to her letters. She announced "After a pretty heated letter calling out his rudeness, I received one back in the same tone." Clark subsequently goes on to talk about how the relationship ended up being a strong one, which still exists today.
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Wikipedia