Yes, it was be there or be square as, clad in the slum chic of the hipster, he issued the slang anthems of the zip age in the desperate esperanto of the bop. John Cooper Clarke: the name behind the hairstyle, the words walk in the grooves hacking through the hi-fi paradise of true luxury Punk. Poet. Pioneer. The Bard of Salford s seminal collection is as scabrous, wry & vivid now as it was when first published over 25 years ago. The godfather of British performance poetry Daily Telegraph