Alfie Smith admits there aren’t many draw backs to finding fame as a Black Country poet.

“The only problem is I have a job writing in English now,” he says.

“When I’m filling in forms I have to stop myself because I find I easily go into Black Country speak.”

Ten years ago Alfie Smith – known by fans as simply Alfie – was thrown into the spotlight for his poetry.

“I enjoyed poetry at school but I left it behind when I started work at Jubilee Colliery when I was 15-years-old,” said Alfie, aged 66.

“But when Princess Diana died I wrote a poem and that is when things took off. I was on the front of the Express &Star and on the radio.

“I decided to do more poetry but I wanted to make people laugh rather than cry.

“Four years ago radio presenter Ed Doolan was hosting a show at West Bromwich Town Hall and asked me to read out some of my poems.

“I had never performed them before, but I did a poem which needed a lady’s voice and it had the audience in stitches.

“To do the woman’s voice I thought back to when I was younger and a lady in our street who used to screech “You aye from rahnd ere, get dahn ya own end”.

“I was really nervous but I did a few more concerts and people started asking when my next show was going to be – but at the time I was working as a handyman for Sandwell Council.”

Since then Alfie has performed at venues across the region from Birmingham Symphony Hall to Smethwick Library and has met stars such as Jimmy Cricket, Jasper Carrot, Eddie Large, Brian Conley, Don McLean and Bonny Langford.

He has even been painted by artist Shaun Morris and his picture is in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

But Alfie’s life wasn’t always spent on stage, rubbing shoulders with the stars.

“According to my parents, people were coming back from the war and finding their family completely wiped out and their house demolished,” says Alfie.

“When I was born my father had to find somewhere for us to live, he put his wife and his family first.

“He found an abandoned house and I believe we were squatters for a while, although I mainly grew up at Friar Park in Wednesfield.

“I was one of 10 children and having such a large family has meant I have plenty of material for my poems.

“Each evening after having a game of cards we would all have a sing-a- long.”

Alfie says he has now become addicted to making people laugh.

“I have made CDs of my poems, which have gone all over the world to ex-pats and soldiers who miss our Black Country dialect,” he says.

“I still get nervous before a show and I’m pacing like a caged tiger, but once the microphone is in my hand the fear disappears. The laughter is like a drug.

“It is people who make me laugh because they don’t know what they are saying.

“Things like ‘Ave yow seen inside ya ears?’. I always carry a pen and paper with me so I can get it down before I forget.”

On July 26 Alfie will be performing at Oakdale Social Club to raise money for local man Keith Baker who needs stem cell treatment.

“I’m now in the process of writing a book called Two Way BlackCountry Poetry where I have my poem on one page and the Standard English version on the page facing it,” he says.

“This is so people from outside the borough can understand how we talk. I’m hoping it will be out for Christmas.

“Now I have retired I will carry on with my poetry – it takes up quite a lot of time and sometimes I will be a couple of shows a weeks, other times it can be quiet.

“Everyone has their 15 minutes of fame but for me my watch stopped a long time ago – I’m still enjoying every second of it.”