Explore books by John Cooper Clarke with our selection at Waterstones.com. Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25. John’s much-anticipated memoir describes an extraordinary life and the highs and lows of a career that starts in Salford, covers five decades, as many continents,.
John Cooper Clarke – punk poet, bard of Salford – has had a chequered life, from growing up in post-war austerity Britain, through hardcore drug abuse, to being a kind of national treasure. His autobiography has rather too many name check lists – places, venues, people, etc – and some of the humour feels a bit forced at times. Picador is to publish poet Dr John Cooper Clarke’s autobiography revealing his “extraordinary life” and his first poetry collection for 37 years after snapping up the titles at auction. John Cooper Clarke’s memoir I Wanna Be Yours is published by Picador (Hardback, £20). Available at retailers such as Waterstones; MirrorCeleb. Follow @ mirrorceleb.
Artist Biography by Jason Ankeny
Punk poet John Cooper Clarke was born January 25, 1949 in Manchester, England; he first began performing his verse backed by a local folk group called the Ferrets, but in 1977 signed to the Rabid Records label to release the Martin Hannett-produced single 'Psycle Sluts.' With his rapid-fire verbal delivery and stinging social commentary, Clarke quickly emerged as the poet laureate of the punk movement, and he read his work as an opening act for groups including the Sex Pistols and the Buzzcocks; an LP, Disguise in Love, followed on Epic in 1978. After supporting Elvis Costello & the Attractions on their legendary Armed Forces tour, Clarke scored a Top 40 hit with the single 'Gimmix.' A live disc, Walking Back to Happiness, appeared in 1979, and a year later he released a second studio effort, Snap, Crackle & Bop. While hugely popular as a stage performer, his records sold poorly, and 1982's Zip Style Method was his final release for Epic. While still maintaining a high visibility as a live act, Clarke appeared less and less frequently in the years to follow, spending the better part of the '80s battling an addiction to heroin. (He also spent several years romantically involved with former Velvet Underground chanteuse Nico, no stranger to drug problems herself.) By the following decade, Clarke had cleaned up his act, returning to the stage and contributing regularly to poetry journals. From 2000 onward, Clarke remained relevant through various collaborations and pop culture appearances, including a guest spot on BBC Two's Never Mind the Buzzcocks and a brief stint as a radio DJ for BBC Radio Six. He didn't release another full-length record until 2016, when he collaborated with ex-Stranglers member Hugh Cornwell for an album of covers titled This Time It's Personal.
This is a memoir as wry, funny, moving and vivid as only John Cooper Clarke could deliver. Inimitable and iconic, his book will be a joy for both lifelong fans and for a whole new generation.
John Cooper Clarke is a phenomenon: Poet Laureate of Punk, rock star, fashion icon, TV and radio presenter, social and cultural commentator, reluctant national treasure. At 5 feet 11 inches (116lb, 32in chest, 27in waist), in trademark suit jacket, skin-tight drainpipes and dark glasses, with jet-black back-combed hair and mouth full of gold teeth, he is instantly recognizable. As a writer his voice is equally unmistakable and his inimitable dry Salford drawl shines through the prose.
Dr John Cooper Clarke
I Wanna Be Yours covers an extraordinary life, filled with remarkable personalities: from Nico to Chuck Berry, from all the great punks to Bernard Manning, and on to more recent fans and collaborators Alex Turner and Plan B - who have championed his work. Interspersed with stories of his rock and roll and performing career, John also reveals his boggling encyclopaedic knowledge of twentieth-century popular culture, his private passions and guilty pleasures: from Baudelaire, Pam Ayres and Rimbaud to football to Coronation Street, comprising horse racing and gambling, politics and jokes - and much more.
John Cooper Clarke Life
Hardback. 320 pages