Del sits down with FOTN artists on the FOTN radar and gets them to tell their origin story over a cup of tea and biscuits. This week Jimmy Andrex is in the hotseat and he brought Galaxy Digestives from B&M.

Congratulations on the release of “Who’s This About?” How does it feel?

A bit mixed, actually. : I’ve been doing it live and audiences have been chanting along enthusiastically. My poems don’t often have choruses, but this one does and I thought it’d be a good hook and might connect with people. However, it’s really struggling to get airplay. That’s showbiz.

What’s the story behind the song?

It’s an attempt to embody a toxic mindset that seems very prevalent these days. I based it initially on someone real but I wanted to let people work it out for themselves. I don’t like poems and lyrics that shout things at you.

You’re an artist from Wakefield, Yorkshire aka God’s country, how did it all begin for you?

My Yorkshire is Alan Bennett, Barry Cryer, David Hockney, David Peace, Jacob Kramer and Ian McMillan. Artists who looked outward and beyond rather than being stereotypical and parochial. That God’s Own County stuff drives me spare ha ha.

What set me off really was learning languages at school, doing exchange visits and realising that there was more to the world than my immediate surroundings and the mindset of people around me. Once that happens, you have to turn yourself in a different direction, wherever that may take you, and it’s not always geographical.

What did you listen to growing up?

As kids, we had Beatles singles and our parents wild novelty eclecticism: Frank Ifield yodelling, Pat Boone’s Speedy Gonzalez, daft but gleeful. On my sister’s advice, I got Sparks’ Kimono My House for Christmas when I was 11 and I’m still impressed by its lyrical brilliance today.

I was just too young to have got punk so I had a dreadful teenage period of terrible Yes albums we pretended to like followed by bad heavy metal before I heard Still by Joy Division and everything changed.

You’re a poet, was there anyone that had an impact on you poetry wise?

Poetry was always viewed as dodgy on our estate and we weren’t exposed to it much at school. The books that most affected me was The Family From One End Street series by Eve Garnett. They were about a (stylised) working-class family and I identified with the main character so much I cried when I got to the last chapter of the final book and wouldn’t read it. What’s more, she was a girl. Go figure. The power of words….

On the telly was Cyril Fletcher’s Odd Odes on That’s Life with Esther Rantzen. The first poetry book I ever bought and I’ve still got it. You could get away with poems if they were funny.

Later on, there was Ted Hughes and Attila the Stockbroker plus Stevie Smith after I saw a film about her on BBC2. It gave me a glimpse of the power and range of what real poetry could do to your head. It’s like once you’ve heard the Beatles, Adam Faith kind of loses its edge.

What’s your favourite poem?

Small Boy by Norman MacCaig.

You perform all over the UK, are there any spots you like to revisit?

I love the Dublin Castle in Camden and Dash the Henge in Camberwell. I’ve done a few at Hebden Bridge Trades, but the joy of performing is going somewhere people don’t know you and trying to win them over.

Tell us a funny story from the road.

Years ago, I did a poetry reading in the bar of the beautiful Georgian Theatre in Richmond, North Yorkshire. Afterwards, two blokes who looked like sitcom farmers came up and said…

“Eeee, Lad, you’re the best poet we’ve had here. (Pause). We’ve had some right shite.”

I wanted it on a t-shirt.

“Who’s This About?” Mentions chips a lot, are you a ketchup, mayo or brown sauce man?

Red sauce, though I found out recently I might be allergic to tomatoes so it’s off limits at the minute.

What are you listening to at the moment?

A Scott Walker best-of, David Bowie Tokyo 1978 (a high quality bootleg, it appears), Suede’s Coming Up and an album by Tashi Delay, a New Orleans artist I did a gig with: She’s a bit PJ Harvey, but does a brilliant cover of Underworld’s Born Slippy.

What are you looking forward to doing next?

I’m putting on some events in Wakefield that combine music, poetry and theatre again. There’s not much going on here at the minute, venues are scarce but nothing ventured…. I’m also working on another album in my shed.