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Obviously, the essential book for this roleplay is Jeff Noon's 'Vurt'. The prequel, 'Nymphomation', and sequel, 'Pollen', are also worth a read for background information and great entertainment. All the quotes at the bottom of these pages are from 'Vurt', 'Pollen' or 'Nymphomation'... and aren't they sexy?
'Vurt' is the tale of Scribble, just another feather-freak in the futuristic, fucked up Manchester. He's on a quest, with his companions, the Stash Riders, to recover his sister and lover Desdemona, lost to the Vurt in the knowledge-feather English Voodoo.
'Pollen' is set a few years after Vurt, and details a malicious plot by Vurt-creatures to destroy Manchester. There's a lot of background to the 'Vurt' universe, and a deeper exploration of the Vurt itself, as well as a glimpse of what happened to the surviving characters in 'Vurt'.
'Nymphomation' is an almost present-day tale of a group of mathematical students in Manchester, seeking to crack the Domino Lottery using ritual mathematical sex magick pioneered in the 1960s by a group of schoolfriends who had a very unusual teacher.
Noon has written other books which are not directly Vurt-related. 'Automated Alice' is a superb novel, a trequel to Lewis Carrol's books, which sees Noon's imagination in full flight, soaring above linguistic tradition in a medley of half-words and nonsense. There are nods to the Vurt universe, but nothing too concrete.
'Pixel Juice' is a collection of short stories. I haven't read it yet. I'm waiting for it to come out in paperback.
William Gibson's 'Neuromancer' is the classic cyberpunk novel. Gibson's world is a lot more hi-tech than Noon's, more gritty and less romantic, but Neuromancer is definitely a good read to help kick-start the imagination. There are related books (notably 'Count Zero', 'Burning Chrome' and 'MonaLisa Overdrive') which are also worth reading.
Also, the two worlds are not incompatiable, assuming that the MegaCorps just aren't mentioned in 'Vurt', and that (as detailed in 'Pollen') Manchester is particularly susceptible to Vurt effects - to such effect that they aren't really noticed elsewhere, or are very black-market (perhaps a new commodity which has yet to filter to global markets?). This way, you can have your Chiba streetsam hunting down a rare feather in Bottletown!
Neal Stephenson's 'Snowcrash' is a Hollywood action flick of a book.
Getting the right phonic feel to 'Vurt' is difficult. When reading the book, I get the image of a lot of pounding, trancy techno, bodies heaving on a dancefloor high on Bliss and Fetish.
For the curry-drenched streets of Rusholme, the fusion of dance and traditional beats that is Talvin Singh seems to me to be ideal.
There are quite a few futuristic, dark flicks out there. Most of them are woefully poor. A very hard-edged (although now out-of-date) film is 'Strange Days', set in a millenial, high-tension Los Angeles. It tells the story of Lenny, a dealer in quantum memories, stored with the aid of a device called a SQUID. These playbacks are the closest I've seen in film to Vurt feathers, although they are a passive entertainment form, like the shared Pornovurts that Scribble, Beetle and Mandy visit trying to find Icarus Wing.
If you want the totally psychadelic, reality-warping end of the spectrum, 'Dark City' is a great flick. Parts of the recreating-reality theme remind me of 'Pollen'. And it's got Richard O'Brien in - what more could you ask for?