PUNK poet John Cooper Clarke has announced he will be performing in West Cumbria in the new year.

The respected social and cultural commentator, dubbed the 'original people’s poet', appears at the Rosehill Theatre, in Whitehaven, on Sunday February 11, 2018.

Cooper Clarke shot to prominence in the 1970s, and since then his career has spanned cultures, audiences, art forms and continents.

Today he is as relevant and vibrant as ever, and his influence just as visible on today’s pop culture. Aside from his trademark looks, continuing to resonate with fashionistas young and old, and having his poetry included on national curriculum syllabus, his effect on modern music is huge.

His influence can be heard within the keen social observations of the Arctic Monkeys and Plan B. These collaborations mean that John has been involved in two global number one albums in recent years - with The Arctic Monkeys putting one of John's best-loved poems, I Wanna Be Yours, to music on their critically-acclaimed A:M Album

He has toured with bands such as The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Buzzcocks and Joy Division and his celebrated anthology, Ten Years in an Open-Necked Shirt, featuring poems such as Evidently Chickentown, Health Fanatic and Beasley Street, continues to draw new followers to the delights of the spoken word.

A recent triple CD and DVD, Anthologia, captures his live work at its best, displaying the wicked humour, originality and his mastery of the spoken word that he has become renowned for in a career spanning five decades.

He regularly tours throughout Europe and Australasia, still averaging more than 100 shows a year worldwide. No bigger accolade and platitude of his work is that he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in July 2013 by the University Of Salford.

Name checked by people as diverse as Jarvis Cocker and Steve Coogan, his influence is felt across modern culture. The punk revival has seen a whole new generation clamouring over John's work and saw his star rocket once again.

Continuing to write new work from his Essex home, he has a plethora of new poems and monologues which he performs solo, alongside his best-known works.

His latest show, touring across the UK and Europe, is a mix of classic verse, extraordinary new material, hilarious ponderings on modern life, good honest gags, riffs and chat.

John Cooper Clarke comes to Rosehill Theatre on February 11, 2018. Tickets are available from the venue's box office now.