John Cooper Clarke in Manchester

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.