Attila the Stockbroker

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Punk poet, latterly dub poet, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Attila the Stockbroker exploded into public consciousness in 1982-3 via two John Peel sessions and a Melody Maker front cover and is now celebrating 44 years earning a living doing what he loves. So far: nearly 4000 gigs in 24 countries, some 20 CD/s LPs, eight books of poems, his autobiography ‘Arguments Yard’ (Cherry Red Books, 2015) and his collected works ‘Heart on my Sleeve’ (Cherry Red Books, 2021) His latest album, endorsed by his old friend, the now sadly departed Ben Zephaniah, is a dub poetry collection ’40 Years In Rhyme’ with rhythms from Kingsley Salmon and What’s Left Dub, and his previous one, 2018’s ‘Restoration Tragedy’ recorded with his band Barnstormer 1649, combines early music and punk – a lifelong ambition – with tales of the English Revolution of 1649.

And Finnish fan-owned phoenix club Tampere United, whose fans were inspired by Brighton fans’ successful battle to save their club and Attila’s role in it, have just published Attila’s new book ‘A Lifetime of Football Writing (Poems, Songs & Stories’)

Attila’s current solo performance comprises fiery, satirical, political and personal spoken word, dub poetry, acoustic songs and early music punk on ancient instruments. He really doesn’t sound like anything else. He’s very prolific and his material is very, very up to date. Last year he did a 14 day run at the Edinburgh PBH Free Fringe called ’14 Days, 14 Completely Different Shows’.

That's 14 hours of completely original material, no poem or song performed more than once in the whole run. He reckons he has at least double that to choose from!