First Published in Negative Reaction Issue 5 (Punk FanZine), £1 from Trev Howarth, 20 Front Street, T/Lea, Stanely, Co Durham, DH9 9LY. (From quite a while back)

Cayn...Poetry In Motion

I love my music to be delivered at full throttle but I'm also partial to the more basic approach too. For me, acoustic & spoken word performance can be extreamely powerful. As a kid I quite liked poetry and so when I discovered the likes of Attila the Stockbroker, Simon Armitage & Joolz, I was well impressed. Although varying greatly in style, they all have the ability to put accross their message in a strong and poignant way. In fact, I was so taken with them, that I actually had a go myself in the 80s. I got some guitar backing & did some local performances that went down quite well. So, when I found out that a young, pollitically aware poet from Yorkshire was planning to start performing, I was interested to find out more.

Cayn has been writing songs and poems for years and like me, was influenced by Simon Armitage. Later he got into Oi! & discovered Nick Toczek, Garry Johnson & of course Attila, who he says is a complete genius. He was struck by the energy and brutal honesty of these poets and he then decided that he wanted to follow in their footsteps. Musically he is influenced by SLF, Oppressed, Clash, Conflict, Subs and Cock Sparrer. The Upstarts are amongst his favourites & he considers Mensi to be one of the most talented songwriters ever. He likes bands that captured the mood of the time and whose songs are still relevant today. As he rightly says, there's no point in writing anything if the message is forgotten about by next week!

Cayn did his first gig last September supporting his greatest influence, Attila in Hebden Bridge. The night didn;t quite go to plan with Cayn getting drunk & forgetting half his poem! Following some sound advice from Attila, he has gona on to perform at open mic nights in Leeds & Manchester. He has been generally well recieved, except for one occasion where the audience were not particulary receptive to working class pollitical poetry! He feels he has gained valuble

experiencefrom the gigs and is building up a good catalogue of poems to suit varying audiences. He had alread had a poem published in a poetry anthology called 'Whispered Words', which can be found at www.dogmapublications.co.uk
Cayn holds very strong anti fascist views and is sickened by any form of bigotry, homophobia, sexism or racism. He adds that there are more important people to hate, politicians and Liverpool supporters being the top of his list! He still enjoys being in a band (Musky Biers), but finds it easier to work on his own, as he can be better organised and air his own views, which sometimes differ from other ban members. He says he also likes having the spotlight to himself now and again!

Cayn recently turned promoter, when he organised a benefit gig in Wakefield, as a tribute to a close friend who tragically died last year. He faced the worry of whether anyone would turn up or if he'd make enough money to pay the bands. However, with the Abrasive Wheels headlining, is was a great success with nearly £300 raised for the Samaritans. He's got a taste for it now and is currently booking gigs for other bands.

As for the future, Cayn plans more gigs, hopefully building up a following and putting out a book. Here's wishing him the best of luck!

Cheers Dawn

That's a terrific article, Cayn. You've done loads of amazing things.
I'm really sorry to read about the death of your friend -- fantastic that you had the guts, nous, and determination to organise a benefit for the Samaritans. All power to you and your poetry, Mighty Cayn White!

Yeah it was wrote about six months after I started, not had much media coverage since!
The Samaritans gigs are something I'm doing every year now, along with the Love Poetry/Hate Racism gigs