Dr John Cooper Clarke & John Cooper Clarke in Manchester

Dr John Cooper Clarke is an English performance poet and recording artist, born in Salford in 1949. He emerged through the punk scene with fast, sharply comic spoken-word pieces, and is known for poems including “Evidently Chickentown,” “Beasley Street” and “I Wanna Be Yours,” the latter adapted by Arctic Monkeys for the album AM. In the late 1970s, he brought poetry onto punk concert bills and toured with the Sex Pistols, The Clash and Buzzcocks. He later moved into headline theatre tours, including The Luckiest Guy Alive tour, and has also performed at Glastonbury Festival.

John Cooper Clarke is an English poet and spoken-word performer, born in Salford in 1949. Known as a punk poet, he established his clipped, rapid-fire style through works including “Evidently Chickentown,” “Beasley Street” and “I Wanna Be Yours”; Arctic Monkeys later adapted the last of these for the album AM. In the late 1970s, John Cooper Clarke opened concerts for the Sex Pistols, The Clash and Joy Division. He later took solo readings and comic monologues into theatres, and in 2022 performed on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.