Possible Clues:

• A living layer up there
• Creature with plate on back
• A mother from Ulster needs half a century to get to be so lively
• Thin plate around creature
• Rock'n'Roll ------ (Lou Reed album)
• Turn the living layer
• Circus performer, maybe, got plate spinning
• Mole or mule
• I''m Alan (anag) - a wild, crazy person
• A mother from Ulster gets lively before getting to fifty (6)