No, we don’t think this is fake news! It seems unlikely but the Bard of Salford, Dr John Cooper Clarke, is offering one lucky poet an opening slot at JCC’s London show at the Hammersmith Eventim Apollo next month.

His official FB page says: “No, this isn’t a gag. Any budding poets out there just need to pen a riposte to the Bard of Salford’s seminal work ‘I Wanna Be Yours’. He will then hand pick the winning ‘slick limerick, free verse or sonnet’.”

The competition submission details add: “We want entrants to submit their own interpretation of his tour title, ‘I Wanna Be Yours', in celebration of his long-awaited new autobiography of the same name. Whether it be a slick limerick, free verse or sonnet, all submissions must use that same title. Then the rest is up to them.”

Entries will have to be sent in by 30 March, prior to the show in London on 8 April. The winner will open the show, and be put up in a West End hotel for the night. too. You can find out how to submit your entries here