He said his best might be behind him. By his own admission, Linton Kwesi Johnson is still reading the same old poems – he hasn’t published a collection since 2006.

However, it’s not every poet that can draw a full house to a reading on a Saturday night, and his repertoire - which famously gave voice to the experience of African-Caribbean youth who faced institutional racism in the 1970s and 80s - was probably familiar to the larger proportion of this predominantly white audience.

Listening to a polemic with poems like Inglan Is A Bitch was never going to be comfortable – both the reggae timbre and Johnson’s Jamaican patois served to reinforce the raw experience of racism he made it his business to show up.

However his rendition was a bit tired - less urgent now, and probably less relevant than remembered; he seemed to have anticipated this reception, and provided light relief by reading favourite poems by other African-Caribbean writers.

When questioned, Johnson refuted attempts to connect the recent riots with Brixton’s in 1981 which spawned his famous Di Great Insohreckshan. He may be correct, but surely nothing will move him like those days.

He’s no angry young man now, but whether he writes another poem or not, his reputation for "Mekin Histri" is unequivocal.

Glasgow-based Jamaican Kei Miller’s poems were captivating, and a superb example of poetry’s potential as a medium for the wondrous – like the law on mermaids Miller discovered whilst researching. No doubt he gained a new following.