John Cooper Clarke has revealed how collaborating with Arctic Monkeys changed his life “to an incalculable degree”.
The performance poet, 76, who is nicknamed “the Bard of Salford”, was speaking at the 2025 Hay Festival of Literature and Arts, which has partnered with The Independentfor the second year running.
Clarke grew to prominence as a “punk poet” throughout the Seventies and toured with bands including the Sex Pistols, Joy Division and The Clash.
His work then went on to reach a new audience when his poem “Evidently Chickentown” featured in the closing scene of a 2007 episode of HBO drama The Sopranos, from the show’s final season.
Clarke also found a new generation of fans when Arctic Monkeys set his poem “I Wanna Be Yours” to music on their fifth album, AM.
Speaking to journalist Miranda Sawyer at an event on Wednesday (28 May) night, Clarke said that before being featured on The Sopranos and collaborating with the Sheffield band, his work “didn’t have a financial outcome” despite receiving acclaim.
“I love The Sopranos and when [the poem] first came on the TV, it was sort of the end of my wilderness years,” he said.
“The Arctic Monkeys, they’re the people who f***ing jacked up my life to an incalculable degree,” he added. “I love those guys.”
The writer joked that “no record was ever a hit because of the lyrics”, instead crediting the band for their musical adaptation.
“It’s got to be a blend,” he said. “You can’t compete with music. No successful pop song got there because of the lyrics alone. So I can’t thank those guys enough, really, to have regular payouts from a song.”
The 38th spring edition of the annual Hay Festival takes place in Hay-on-Wye, the “town of books” in Powys, Wales, from 22 May to 1 June.
Over the course of the festival, The Independent is hosting The News Review, a series of morning panels which sees our journalists discuss the latest headlines with figures from the arts, politics, science and comedy.
