Between 1970 and 1990, Hopkins worked as a musician. He was primarily a session keyboard player and pianist. However, during his career he also worked as a composer, programmer, lounge lizard, record producer, teacher and recording engineer. His role began to be shown with his collaboration with
John Cooper Clarke, playing keyboards and co-producing his discs alongside producer
Martin Hannett. Both formed
The Invisible Girls in
Salford to be the Cooper Clarke's backing band in the rest of the years. However, the band also helped to relaunch the careers of former
Penetration singer
Pauline Murray, with whom they released one album and two singles between 1980 and 1981, and of
Nico, of
Velvet Underground fame. Hopkins also collaborated with
Jilted John, Ed Garrity (former
Ed Banger and the Nosebleeds frontman), and later with
Morrissey and
Distant Cousins. Following his music career, in 1991, he began a PhD in experimental atomic physics at the
Open University. This was followed by postdoctoral positions at Oxford and Sussex, as well as a teaching fellow post at the Manchester Photon Science Institute. In 2010 he joined the Atomic and Molecular Physics group at Durham University where he worked as a postdoctoral researcher until 2016. His father is Billy Hopkins, author of seven bestsellers, including
Our Kid and ''Kate's Story
. His sister is the author Cathy Hopkins, best known for her teenage books Mates, Dates series''. ==References==