John Cooper Clarke

http://www.johncooperclarke.com

John Cooper Clarke was born on the 25 January 1949 at Hope Hospital, Salford, Lancashire. His father George was an engineer, and his mother, Hilda, was an unpublished poet. He has one younger brother.

After teenage years as a Mod, John served time as an apprentice engineer, a lab technician at Salford University (then Salford Tech, where he was interviewed by Tony Wilson for Granada TV) and also a lead type compositor. After a brief unsuccessful marriage, and a stint living in Dorset, John returned to Manchester and started reading his poems in clubs.

By 1976 and the arrival of punk, he was initially the support act for many seminal punk bands such as the Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, The Fall, Joy Division, Elvis Costello and Siouxsie and the Banshees, to name but a few; His biting, satirical, political and very funny verse delivered in a rapid-fire performance style. Before long, John was headlining his own gigs and drawing huge crowds of fans. John had an striking visual appearance; tall and thin with a mess of black hair, black sunglasses, drainpipe trousers and cuban-heeled boots. He was dubbed "The Bard of Salford" and given the moniker "punk poet". During those heady days, John recorded four studio albums, and released two live LPs. He also had limited success with the release a few singles, but it was the live arena where John found the greatest success and acclaim.

As punk began to wane in the early 1980's, John's star seemed to fade a bit also. He found himself with a personal battle on his hands as he struggled with a serious heroin addiction, which he eventually kicked in the early 90's. During this time, he met his current partner, Evie, who is also mum to John's daughter, Stella, born in 1994.

Since the punk days, he has been recognised as one of England's most important poets and performers. Despite this, he shuns publicity and interviews, as he hates talking about himself. He has said, however, that he enjoys performing now more than he ever used to, having more confidence and stability in his life.

As a result of the current popularity of the 70's punk phenomenon, John has been seen and heard more in the media over the last few years than in the last few decades. Sky TV recently dedicated an entire night's programming to John, the Culture Show on BBC interviewed him for a special feature, and he made a brief cameo as his younger self in the Ian Curtis biopic, "Control".John now lives with his family in Colchester, and, unwilling to rest on the laurels of times past, continues to write new, vital poetry, and regularly perform live all over the country.

John has recently been trying his hand as a radio presenter with a series of programmes on BBC 6 Music.The shows have been massive hits with a younger audience and more are in the pipeline.

His influence over rising young stars has been further enhanced by Plan B, a longtime fan, casting him as a performer in his new film.John reads a specially commisioned poem in a seedy East London nightclub.The film should see the light of day in 2011, along with a soundtrack album.

JCC audiences have been getting younger as his appeal widens. Appearances at numerous festivals In 2010 including Latitude, Green Man and Irelands Electric Picnic, have helped showcase his talents to younger fans,No less than 3 of his poems are now in the GCSE syllabus, including the remarkable Twat. He is studied by many A level students and his poetry is prolific within UK and Irish University courses.In 2010, John played the Crossing The Border festivals in Holland and Belgium this autumn,as well as undertaking another UK big city tour of mainly rock clubs, getting back to his roots, culminating in a gig at the Scala in London's Kings Cross.