LIVERPOOL, the Picasso caf, some time in the 60s. Bob Dylan is worrying about his career over a cappuccino with the poet Roger McGough.

Fortunately 'Rog' is on hand to deliver some sage advice: "Forget the folksy stuff and go electric. Get yourself a band."

At least, that's how the encounter went according to McGough's poem Bob Dylan and The Blue Angel.

Dylan is joined by the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney in McGough's collection Everyday Eclipses. And the stories are all true. Sort of.

"I met Bob Dylan in that place to have a chat and I met Jimi Hendrix for a coffee and a smoke," said the poet.

"I wanted to do something else with these stories and make a fun tribute to these people."

McGough toured Everyday Eclipses last year, popping into Worcester's Swan Theatre on his travels.

Now, with the tour coming to a close, the poet is appearing in Colwall Village Hall to record his first live CD.

"It's a nice small venue and, hopefully, with a friendly audience. I've recorded one CD before but that was in a studio and it was just a reading of the poems. I'm terrified. I'm a poet not a professional actor,'' he said.

"When I was starting off at 17, I was listening to records of Under Milkwood and Richard Burton reading Dylan Thomas. It was after that that I got into the books."

McGough is a perfect recording candidate because it's hard not to read his poems without hearing the words in his soft, lilting Scouse accent, currently being used on the Prudential adverts on TV.

McGough's style is a phenomenally-polished intricate rhythm and rhyming scheme, so it came as quite a surprise when he said:"I find it harder writing the way you do.

"Ask me to write an article and I find it really hard. For some reason I just write in verse."

The poet also has a natural knack for writing for children.

"I was talking to an adult poet who said he just can't write for children. But whenever I've been writing something serious it's nice then just to play with words and do something silly. The older I get the easier it becomes."

Back in the 50s, McGough kept his first poetic outings secret, and it wasn't until he left Liverpool to go to university in Hull that really began developing his skill.

"If I hadn't left Liverpool then, I probably wouldn't have ended up doing this," he said.

"Going away like that is an opportunity to re-invent yourself and be influenced by the people you are with."

Returning to Liverpool, he began working with other poets, giving live readings and writing sketches for a comedy TV show called Gazette.

This, in turn, led to McGough becoming part of Scaffold with Paul McCartney's brother, Mike. The group was signed by Beatles manager Brian Epstein and topped the charts in 1968 with Lily the Pink.

Now his influences vary from the eclipse in 1999 to mums in leather trousers. His muse is the magic in everyday life or, as McGough puts it, "a universe in a grain of sand".

n Roger McGough, Colwall Village Hall, Saturday, April 5, 7.30pm. Tickets £11 on 01684 540366.