Photograph
John Cooper Clarke, Don Arden, Harvey Lisberg, Danny Betesh, Ian Starr
2023

picture from film by Rob Sellex

John Cooper Clarke recorded his memories of Alan Wise in December 2023, at Tom Donovan's studio, near JCC's home in Colchester.

Alan was JCC's manager for many years until they fell out over money. Once that was over, they resumed a lifelong friendship going back to the birth of Rabid Records.

In our film, John recalls the most lawless man he ever met ...

"How he stayed out of gaol I don't know. Parking tickets, tax demands, you name it, he wasn't interested.

"He had this rock and roll recklessness. As I found out when he was handling my money.

"But he could always make you laugh. He was good company on a long drive. And i'm sure he didn't have a vicious bone in his body.

"All the glamorous people that I met were mainly somehow through Wisey - Nico, Gil Scott-Heron, Alan Ginsberg, Jerry Lee, Chuck Berry ..."

JCC tells good stories about Alan's friends, Dougie James of Soul Train fame and driver/bodyguard Yankee Bill. And along with NIgel Bagley, he recalls the night The Only Ones were booked at the Russell Club just to impress Alan's girlfriend.

"Al had a great weakness for women. There was no trouble he would not go to if he thought he was on some kind of a promise."

* For further exploration, JCC also said of the early days with Alan: "I sort of knew people like Harvey Lisberg, Ian Starr, Danny Betesh, all these people that had worked with Don Arden in the early days of rock, and he was on first-name terms with all these people. I thought it must mean he was a red-hot businessman, but he wasn't."