WIN! Tickets to see John Cooper Clarke in Sheffield

ICONIC punk poet John Cooper Clarke is heading to Sheffield this Sunday for an intimate gig.

Manchester’s sharp-dressed, sharp-delivering punk poet promises a mix of hilarious anecdotes of life in a northern town interspersed with machine-gun fast delivery of some of his best poems.

Head along to see why Clarke is loved by everyone from top comedians to the Sex Pistols and Joy Division.

John grew up in Salford, Lancashire, spending his teenage years as a Mod, and working as an apprentice engineer, a tailors assistant, a lab technician at Salford Tech, and a lead type compositor.

After a stint living in Dorset, John returned to Manchester and started properly on the path for which he would become most famous - his poetry.

His biting, satirical, political and very funny verse delivered in his rapid-fire performance style resonated with the punk movement that had begun to pick up speed in the late 1970s.

After touring with most of punk’s seminal and ground breaking bands including the Sex Pistols, The Clash, Buzzcocks, The Fall, and Elvis Costello, to name but a few, he began to draw large crowds in his own right.

In 1978 John signed a major a album deal with CBS Records. His records with the Invisible Girls and produced by Martin Hannett have become acknowledged as masterpieces.

The unique fusions of his poems and The Invisible Girls’ highly original music, created influential records still name checked by people as diverse as Bill Bailey, Jarvis Cocker and Steve Coogan.

He also released a massive collection of his poetry and words ‘Ten years In An Open Necked Shirt’, which became one of the bestselling poetry books of the 1980s.

This has finally been reprinted and is now available again.

A figurehead for the movement and all that it encompassed, he became the ‘Punk Poet’ or ‘The Bard of Salford’, finding himself as one of the leading voices of punk and youth culture of the late 1970s.

Live, he was performing to thousands across the UK, as crowds gathered with open eyes and ears gazing up at his distinctive, and now iconic visual appearance.

The revival of the 70s punk phenomenon over the last few years has seen a whole new generation clamouring over John’s work and watched his star rocket once again.

Continuing to write new work from his Colchester home, He has a plethora of new poems and monologues which he performs solo, alongside his best known works such as Beasley Street and Evidently Chickentown.

His shows are always packed and his audience always leave ecstatic.

Cooper Clarke performs at Sheffield City Hall ballroom on Sunday 24th January at 7.30pm.

Tickets are priced £17.50 and are available from www.sheffieldcityhall.co.uk, on 0114 2789 789 or in person at the City Hall box office.

• To be in with a chance of winning a pair of tickets to the show, simply answer the following question:

Q) In which northern town did John Cooper grow up?

Email your answer, along with a daytime contact phone number to [email protected]

Entries must arrive by 12 noon on Friday 25th January.

Normal Worksop Guardian competition rules apply.