It's 26 years since Linton Kwesi Johnson became the world's first and foremost dub poet with the single Dread Beat An' Blood. For this rare appearance, the beat remains at home, as Linton is touring with nothing but the words and indignation with which his career began. It has been said that Linton, approaching 50, has mellowed. In under an hour, he disproves that view.

With his dapper suit, trilby and red tie he could pass for a schoolteacher, but he stands skewed, like a gunslinger, as he delivers his words. The place is packed, but you can hear a pin drop as he launches into the diatribes of his youth. Sonny's Lettah, the tale of a Brixton youth imprisoned for defending his brother from policemen, remains as harrowing as the day it was written. Reggae Fi Dada is his moving tribute to his father, who died in Jamaica after losing both legs and "never getting his just dessert".

His older poems, encompassing the Sus laws, the New Cross "massakah" and innumerable racist outrages, have not dated and underline how little has changed. Between poems, he explains his early motivation: "We were the rebel generayshan. What they [his elders in the black community] tolerated, we refused to tolerate."

Even without Dennis Bovell's basslines, there is so much rhythm, or riddim, in LKJ's voice that heads still sway. As he moves on to more recent works, it becomes clear that he has developed a new perspective. He ponders the fate of the black rebel ("Dazed, demolished") but is positive, rather than defeatist. BG ("mi champion, mi main man") holds up the late Bernie Grant as an example of what can be achieved.

• Linton Kwesi Johnson is at the Cornerhouse, Middlesbrough (01642 253053), tomorrow.