United Kingdom
A London-based writer with Liverpudlian roots, I'm a recent graduate of City University's Magazine Journalism MA, staff writer at Europe's leading independent culture website The Quietus, a freelance journalist with bylines for The BBC, NME, Metro, DIY among many others, and a copywriter for hire.
I specialise in (although am by no means limited to) art, culture, politics and opinion. Commission me!
This week, the brilliant Bill Callahan releases his long-awaited new album 'Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest'. He speaks to Patrick Clarke about the love, loss, birth and death that informed his new record
NME meets the misfits behind a defiant DIY scene that's shaking things up on Merseyside
The rapper has hit the headlines almost as much for his mental health as his music this year, but what's really going on?
Aussie punks Amyl and the Sniffers leave a trail of sweaty carnage wherever they go. We meet the band in Hamburg and try to keep up...
Photo by Duncan Stafford The narrative surrounding Fat White Family has usually concerned frontman Lias Saoudi and guitarist Saul Adamczewski. They have been considered the central creative partnership of the group, a flawed, frayed and fractious partnership, but central nonetheless.
Pink Industry live at Eric's On July 19 1984 The Mighty Wah! were the opening act on Top Of The Pops. They performed 'Come Back', then at number 28 amid a five-week stint in the Top 40, with bristling energy, a look of frenzy in their eyes and the kind of swagger imbued not just by a band, but by an entire city at its creative peak.
I get the impression Bradford Cox is a little bit sick of being interviewed about the new Deerhunter record. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia and he's a night owl, so that makes it easier to organise a load of European phone interviews, but tQ is apparently quite far down the queue.
When Janelle Monáe released ' Dirty Computer ' this April, she staked her claim to be the year's most vital pop star. With its accompanying tour, she has strengthened that position. The first of her two dates at London's Roundhouse is both joyous and vital.
Twenty years on from the arrests of 100 Egyptian metal fans, across a series of interviews across the Middle East Patrick Clarke speaks to metal musicians about their defiance to keep the genre thriving, despite risks of imprisonment, torture, and in some cases, execution.
For a historic town of less than 200,000 people, Trondheim has a musical calendar that puts cities twenty times its size to shame. Pstereo sits alongside the SXSW-esque Trondheim Calling in February, Trondheim Jazz Festival and the grassroots one-dayer Bakkefestivalen in May, Trondheim Rocks in June (which this year featured Iron Maiden), while the century-old cultural institution UKA (Norway's biggest festival) takes over the whole of October every second year.
Photo by the author It's one of those days where everything's going right, apart from a rail replacement bus from Falmouth. It gets me to Truro just in time for my connection to Plymouth, and the strange man who keeps staring at me and waggling a bottle of wine with a grin gets off before I change onto the final train to London.
"I'm just from a different can of worms. I can't relate to people who just write vanilla stuff." This week sees Natalie Mering release her fourth album as Weyes Blood - the colossally ambitious, varied and forward thinking record 'Titanic Rising', driven by a diverse range of inspirations from Enya to The Kinks, from surrealism to 90s movies.
Following the slew of allegations made against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, millions of women have been taking to social media to share their own stories of sexual harassment and abuse under the hashtag #MeToo. But sexual abuse is not just a women’s issue and, in response, men have begun sharing pledges to take responsibility under the hashtag #HowIWillChange. Here, freelance journalist Patrick Clarke explains the lessons men can learn from the movement – and how he plans to change...
Ahead of a night dedicated to the label as part of Berlin's Find The File festival, Alan Bishop, one of the founders of Sublime Frequencies, picks ten points of entry into the crucial label's extraordinary back catalogue of sounds from across the globe
Recent reports that streaming is now the 'biggest money-maker' for the music biz have prompted hyperbolic claims that Spotify and co have 'saved the music industry'. In reality, this could not be further from the truth.
Photo by Andrea Gunar That the team behind Carnaval De Bahidorá got their hands on Las Estacas is something of a miracle. It is not just a beautiful site, in the way that Green Man or Festival No.6 are set in beautiful sites, it is a staggeringly pretty place.
With a show at London's Under The Bridge on 5 April, Michael Rother of Neu!, Harmonia, and a newly-boxsetted solo career takes Patrick Clarke through his life in 13 records, from Little Richard to Fuck Buttons, even though he doesn't really listen to music any more
"I'm three and a half pints away from pneumonia," says Adrian Flanagan as I meet him off the train in Sheffield. He's come down with the flu, but hides it well behind his fisherman's hat, dark glasses and coat.
The Manics' five million selling fifth album is still derided by some hardcore fans to this day, which is a shame, says Patrick Clarke, as it remains their most coherent and effective political statement to date
Roses prove to be perennial favourites with greatest hits
In a set that both creates a wonderful new world and re-ignites material from a decades-long career, Björk continues to push forwards and upwards
Le 23 Août dernier, les mythiques The KLF revenaient après un silence de 23 ans avec un happening horsnome. S'aggisait-il d'un come-back foireux? D'un rite païen? Ou de la plus géniale entourloupe de l'histoire de la pop? Notre reporter y était...
The Manic Street Preachers thought they might never make another album again, then along came Resistance Is Futile. Patrick Clarke meets Nicky Wire to discuss a record that's either the start of a great new era or the end of it all
Django Django were on ruthless form during the creation of new album Marble Skies, cutting tracks that were good enough to be hits all for the sake of flow. The result, they tell Patrick Clarke, is their finest record to date.
All photos by Rowan Allen The O2 Arena is the venue for the last of Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds' five UK dates. Such has the reception been to his sets across the rest of the country by the time it comes round - breathless, clamouring effusions of praise, "the best show I've ever seen him do" etc.
Buzzcocks' Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle plus manager Richard Boon speak to Patrick Clarke about the unintentional genius of their landmark debut
When Confidence Man arrived last year, surfing a tidal wave of glistening bangers, it was as if they were a band conjured in some kind of perfect-pop laboratory. They are fronted by Sugar Bones, a muscular hunk in hotpants, and Janet Planet, a woman in a custom baby-doll dress, who perform manic synchronised dances on stage, and backed by two mysterious musicians in black veils (Clarence McGuffrie and Reggie Goodchild).
It's taken over 15 years of constant work for Harrison to release an album that's truly and solely his own, however and IN // PARALLEL is be his debut LP as simply 'Dhani Harrison'.
At Liverpool Music Week 2017, Patrick Clarke looks at the past, present and potentially grim future of a city whose music scene is caught in the flux of gentrification.
There have been many farewells from the more interesting stalwarts of the last decade of the UK indie scene of late, many of whom have played a farewell tour like Wild Beasts'. Take The Maccabees, for example, who ended their run with three consecutive dates at Alexandra Palace.
Radiohead's headline spot was a set of ups and downs, or so our man-on-the-ground Patrick Clarke believed. But the outside world did not agree - so when is a disappointment actually a triumph?
From Herbie Hancock's darkest depths to Brian Eno's anxiety-relieving light, Sean Lennon guides Patrick Clarke through thirteen records that changed his life
As Ray Davies prepares for the launch of the next phase of his colossal Americana project, Patrick Clarke speaks to the Kinks frontman on America, Britain, and why he's never voted.
The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu have begun their chaotic return. Our man on the ground Patrick Clarke reports back from day one of Liverpool: Welcome To The Dark Ages
The Government's recent review of business rates will almost certainly put grassroots and independent venues across the country out of business. Patrick Clarke speaks to venue owners to explore the very serious repercussions.
While Gigwise is sat waiting for Nathaniel Rateliff to arrive to our interview, taking place in a modest Ibis hotel room in south London, the atmosphere is slightly stilted.
In The Guillotine Hey Colossus have hit a new peak just when it felt like there was no higher for them to climb. Patrick Clarke explores a ferocious call to arms and a militant articulation of turbulent times.
The artist, activist and Crass founder Penny Rimbaud speaks to Patrick Clarke on his powerful new album, setting the war poetry of Wilfred Owen to intense interpretative jazz
As The Moonlandingz prepare for the launch of their debut album, Patrick Clarke tracks down Valhalladale's finest to the depths of the Yorkshire moors to talk fact, fiction, and the end of the world
Former Stool Pigeon cartoonist Krent Able has become revered and reviled in equal measure. Kite Base, the new project from Kendra Frost and Savages' Ayşe Hassan, took the brave step of commisioning him...
The Cocteau Twins singer discussed the band's 1988 classic Blue Bell Knoll live in conversation at the Royal Albert Hall
With an exclusive premiere of their new single 'Suffer', Patrick Clarke meets with rising Liverpool three-piece SPQR to talk rehearsing in a vet's, cutting up dead bodies for a living, and channeling the macabre on stage
In the wake of a blistering debut LP and a trio of incendiary live shows, Patrick Clarke speaks to Newcastle's Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs
AUDIO
James Endeacott and Raf Rundell used to share digs in the lofts of the Hammer House of Horror on Wardour Street. Their landlord was Bob The Builder. Partially blamed for the collapse of Northern Rock the pair were turned onto the cold streets in 2009.