John Cooper Clarke is set to receive the 2025 Northern Music Award, celebrating his five-decade career in poetry and music. He blended the two artforms during the height of British punk, and has seen his work covered by the likes of the Arctic Monkeys. The ceremony will take place at the Liverpool Olympia on 27 March, with Cooper Clarke also set to perform.
Sponsored by the music therapy charity Nordoff and Robbins, the Northern Music Awards celebrate artists and music whose work has been shaped by the North of England, and this year will be the second ceremony since the awards inception in 2024. The Northern Music Award, of which Cooper Clarke will be this year’s recipient, honours household names with long and highly-respected careers who are still active in music. Last year’s winner was another Salfordian, Tim Burgess, who has followed up his success with the Charlatans with the innovative ‘Tim’s Listening Party’.
Earning him the unofficial title, ‘The Bard of Salford’, Cooper Clarke was a pivotal figure in the punk scene of the late 70s, opening up for the acts such as the Sex Pistols, Joy Division and New Order, and Elvis Costello with his act that fell somewhere between performance poetry and rapid-fire a capella numbers.
After signing with Epic Records in 1978, he released a trio of classic albums crammed with observational humour and sharp wit. The triad of albums was made up of ‘Disguise in Love’ (1978), ‘Snap, Crackle & Bop’ (1980), and ‘Zip Style Method’ (1982). Backing him on the records were The Invisible Girls, a band made up of Manchester musicians such as Martin Hannett, who was also the producer behind many of Factory Records’ biggest albums, and Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks. The latter two albums also made it into the UK Charts, placing at 26 and 97, respectively.
In a 2023 interview with The Guardian, Cooper Clarke revealed his initial misgivings about putting his words to music. “That wasn’t my idea, I gotta be honest, but I couldn’t think of an argument against it. ‘Who plays spoken word records more than once?’ And I kind of believed that at the time.” He worked with musician Plan B on the 2013 record, ‘Ill Manors’, and has a track named after him on the debut album of Todmorden-based group, Working Men’s Club.
One of his most enduring legacies is ‘I Wanna Be Yours’, a poem from his 1982 collection, ‘Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt’, also recorded as part of ‘Zip Style Method’ from the same year. After being included on the GCSE English syllabus, the poem inspired, and would be covered by the Arctic Monkeys. Included on their 2013 album ‘AM’, the track has become the bands most streamed song, amassing almost 3 billion streams on Spotify. The sleeper hit has also become a popular wedding song, with Cooper Clarke saying “it is to weddings what ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ is to humanist funerals.”
Cooper Clarke has remained a regular fixture on the UK live circuit, as well as multiple appearances around the world. His unique blend of poetry and comedy has made him a familiar face on British panel shows such as 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and Would I Lie To You?. In 2023, he was made a freeman of the City of Salford, with the recognition coming a decade after his honorary doctorate from the University of Salford.
2025’s Northern Music Award will recognise a figure who has slowly established himself as a national treasure. Cooper Clarke’s ability to acutely analyse any subject and remove any of the elitism associated with poetry and the spoken word made it accessible to anybody, and through various contemporary artists, is still influencing the music world today. Tickets for the Northern Music Awards are on sale on Ticketmaster, listed for between £40 and £60. Along with Cooper Clarke, The Zutons, Lightning Seeds and Chiedu Oraka will all be performing.
