"The godfather of British performance poetry" Daily Telegraph "Smart, rude and angry" -- Simon Hattenstone Guardian "There are a legion of new young poets who rightly pay homage to Cooper Clarke" -- Julian Hall Independent "A poet who writes about darkness and decay but makes people laugh, a human cartoon, a gentleman punk, a man who has stayed exactly the same for thirty years but never grown stale. John Cooper Clarke is an original" -- Claire Smith Scotsman