John Hegley's career highlight also marked the beginning of his career. After the charming poet and master of word-play had set up the band The Popticians in the early Eighties, they were discovered by John Peel and invited onto his famous radio sessions.

"That was the big leap John Peel giving us that plug," says Hegley. "Before that I was busking and before that I was a bus conductor. When John Peel said one of the songs was excellent Living in a Mobile Home that was a miraculous moment."

While he sings and plays the mandolin, an instrument his grandmother also played, Hegley is best known for his cute and quirky poetry.

He is often heard on BBC Radio 4 and hosted wordy programme The Heard, but Hegley is most comfortable performing his poetry in front of a live audience, where anything could happen.

Drawing mostly on his past, Hegley ties together themes and words with poetic dexterity.

Like in his work Judith: "So you're not a myth / You're the apple of my eye / and the orange of my glasses, / you're the succulence and pith. / Judith, / be my kin, give us a kith."

When asked why it is important to write poetry, Hegley says: "It's a good way for us to explore language. Most of the time we use fast-food words. It's good to have a hearty meal sometimes. I think that's a good idea."

Of course, there are obvious links with Roger McGough and Spike Milligan, but Hegley has also taken his skills to the loosely defined world of performance poetry and also rap, even if he does not like to be associated with that word.

"I think people need to find their own voice," he says as he remembers workshop sessions in schools. "That Streets chap Mike Skinner, I'm not an expert but he seems to be quite individual to me, in the way he does it."

Hegley has, in his writing and performances, the ideal mix of humour and poignancy, which is his benchmark for good poetry.

He talks about how his father, who was French, beat him; how he was teased at school for wearing glasses; and how he lived in a bungalow in Luton, with wit as well as sadness.

From the poem Pop and Me: "My dad had come along to watch me / the day I came last in the cub scout sack race; / the day my glasses fell off on to the running track / and somebody behind me / deliberately hopped on top of them / and damaged them really badly. / I was that / struggling runt at the back / laughed at by everyone, /everyone, except my dad. / And not because he had / a beating in mind / but because he felt for me. / And when he came to find me / and I was melting with tears / he said You're the one / they'll remember in the years to come, son, / you were very funny.' / And he took me to the shop and ordered me some pop / and we halved the humiliation / when he didn't have the money."

Of course, his dead-pan delivery plays a large part in the humour too.

He has perspective on Luton, now calling it quirky' and a sitcom', but he has to step back from his current life in Islington, with Jackie and his five-year-old daughter Isabella, before it enters into his writing.

Hegley became a performance poet while he was working in a centre for children who were not going to school.

"I could always play the guitar. I saw an advert saying: Musician wanted for a children's theatre company.' I was a musician, I worked with children, the theatre bit I had to learn."

Hegley played the guitar in the folk club at Bradford University, where he studied European Literature and the History of Ideas and Sociology.

He had his first poem published at the age of ten in the Luton Central Library Magazine. He said the published poem, about witches, was his biggest success. "No fee, but it's not all about money, is it?"

We have already mentioned Hegley's musical and performance talents, but there is more. He also illustrates his books. This is why his performances are so all-embracing. He can act, sing, recite and clown, and his approach is refreshingly original. To him the boundaries between different art forms are blurred. He describes his poetry like the painting of one of his favourite painters, the cubist Georges Braque it makes sense if you look at it a bit more closely.

u Tickets for Hegley's artsdepot show are £15 (£10 concessions). Call on 020 8369 5454.

He will also perform with The Popticians at Downstairs at the King's Head, Crouch Hill, Crouch End, on April 27.

John Hegley
artsdepot
Nether Street, North Finchley
Saturday, 8pm

Call the club for details on 020 8340 1028.