Artist · Tour Dates & Tickets
John Cooper Clarke
John Cooper Clarke, born 25 January 1949 in Salford, Lancashire, is an English performance poet and comedian known as "the Bard of Salford." He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as a "punk poet," performing rapid-fire, satirical verse alongside punk and post-punk bands.
Upcoming dates
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Hungary
- Aug 19 – Aug 23BudapestView details
United Kingdom
- Oct 7Southend On SeaPalace Theatre, SouthendView details
- Oct 7 – Oct 8Southend On SeaPalace TheatreView details
- Oct 10BournemouthLighthouseView details
- Oct 11BristolBristol BeaconView details
- Oct 14BrightonTheatre Royal - BrightonView details
- Oct 15LondonThe London PalladiumView details
- Oct 17SheffieldSheffield City Hall Oval HallView details
- Oct 23Stoke On TrentVictoria HallView details
- Oct 23 – Oct 24Stoke On TrentVictoria HallView details
- Oct 24BirminghamTown Hall BirminghamView details
- Oct 28LiverpoolLiverpool Philharmonic HallView details
- Oct 30LeedsCity Varieties Music HallView details
- Oct 31LeedsCity Varieties Music HallView details
- Nov 4Newcastle Upon TynePlayhouse, Whitley BayView details
- Nov 6YorkGrand Opera House, YorkView details
- Nov 18BlackpoolBlackpool Opera HouseView details
- Nov 21ManchesterO2 Apollo ManchesterView details
- Nov 25LeicesterDe Montfort HallView details
- Nov 27EdinburghThe Queen's HallView details
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About John Cooper Clarke
After leaving school at 15 and working as a mechanic, window cleaner, and compositor, Clarke was encouraged by Buzzcocks singer Howard Devoto to begin performing on the punk circuit, and his 1977 EP Innocents established him within the scene. He shared stages with the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Buzzcocks, Joy Division, New Order, and Duran Duran, and reached the UK Top 40 in 1979 with "Gimmix! (Play Loud)." His albums include Disguise in Love (1978), Snap, Crackle & Bop (1980), and Zip Style Method (1982); his best-known poems include "Evidently Chickentown" and "Beasley Street." His poem "I Wanna Be Yours" was adapted by Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner as the closing track of the band's 2013 album AM.
Clarke's career declined during the 1980s amid heroin addiction, before a resurgence in the 1990s and 2000s restored him to wider prominence as a live performer, broadcaster, and published author of poetry collections including Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt (1983) and The Luckiest Guy Alive (2018), as well as the 2020 memoir I Wanna Be Yours.
He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Salford in 2013, was named Q magazine's first poet laureate that year, and was made an Honorary Freeman of the City of Salford in 2023. He has continued to perform and publish into his seventies, releasing the poetry collection What in 2024 and receiving the main prize at the Northern Music Awards in 2025.