Roger McGough met his wife Hilary at a bus stop during a bus strike.

She says she struck up a conversation because as she had to walk through one of the more notorious parts of Liverpool she thought he might offer some protection.

The celebrated poet is perhaps better at throwing puns than punches.

He and his accompanying musicians Little Machine were the pre-festival opening act at this year’s FolkWeek.

“What I like about doing these concerts is having new work to try out and see how it goes,” he said.

He and his wife decided to ‘make a holiday’ of the visit.

“It’s amazing all the stuff going on here at the festival - workshops in dancing and grassroots things,” he said.

He has a collection - Joined up Writing - out next year including political poems and reflections on ageing (he’s now 80) but laced with plenty of humour as always.

The concert ended with a singalong of his old Scaffold hit Lily the Pink.