John Cooper Clarke
John Cooper Clarke (born 25 January 1949), also known as JCC and "The Bard of Salford", is an English performance poet and comedian who was often referred to as a "punk poet" in the late 1970s. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he released several albums and performed on stage with punk and post-punk bands and has continued to write and perform since. The title of his first poetry anthology, Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt, published in 1982, was also used for a documentary film about him in the same year.
Clarke has been an influence on many later artists, including Arctic Monkeys. In 2013, he was presented with an honorary doctorate by the University of Salford. As of 2025, he has released three anthologies of poetry and a memoir, as well as many albums and singles, and continues to perform regularly.
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