MAKING
POETRY
HISTORY

DISESTABLISHED 1980
(And not regulated by the Financial Services Authority - but then no-one is, it seems)

CAPITALISM? I TOLD YOU SO!!!

MAKING
POETRY
HISTORY
RIP John Peel
As you did for so many, thanks for helping me to earn a living doing what I love...
Photo by Surreal Bob
Photo by Robina Baine
Photo by Surreal Bob
Photo by Robina Baine
Updated: 23 December 2008

Latest news from Attila - including new poem 'Attila the Stockbroker cleans up the City!'
Forthcoming gigs - Solo and with his 'baroque and roll' band Barnstormer
Want to book Attila for a gig?
(NB: All enquiries are answered. If you haven't heard back within a couple of days, please resend your message!)
RIP Adrian Mitchell 1932-2008, a true hero of poetry!
Attila's First New Poetry Book for 10 Years - out now!
Photos and posters to download
Online CD/book sales
All Attila’s material is now available on iTunes
You can hear six of Attila's songs and read his autobiographical blog on MySpace
Glastonwick 2008 at a new venue: Church Farm,Coombes! 4-6 July 2008
Attila's first two albums on Cherry Red now available for download purchase
Playing bass with Contingent in Brussels again after 27 years!
Poems
Attila's 25th Anniversary Radio 4 programme 'Giving It Lip' now available to download here (MP3 24MB)
Videos
Custom Car?!
Manic Street Preachers supporting Attila in Swansea - official!
Attila at Levellers' Day in Burford
Attila's top 10 best gigs ever!
Poet in Residence at Brighton and Hove Albion FC, 2nd Division Champions 2001-2, Third Division Champions 2000-1!
Attila's View of the Iraq Crisis
£2,140 raised at Joe Strummer Remembrance Sunday on 9 November 2003 in Brighton
Football Poems (some taken from 'Goldstone Ghosts', Attila's collection of football poems)
Ancient History of Attila The Stockbroker
Online CD and Book sales available via Townsend Records and by cheque via Attila's PO Box


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Photos of Barnstormer - from the FC St Pauli End of Season Party, 4 May 2002
Barnstormer meet Karl Marx in Chemnitz

Extensive Interview - written by Attila in German for 'Plastic Bomb' fanzine - put online by the Festival Musik und Politik in Berlin
New Attila Website - in Danish, following very successful tour there!

NEWS
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visitors since 4 August 2001
100,000 visitors in 4 years - keep 'em coming!


Sharp-tongued, high energy, social surrealist rebel poet and songwriter. His themes are topical, his words hard-hitting, his politics unashamedly radical, but Attila will make you roar with laughter as well as seethe with anger...


Inspired by the spirit and 'Do It Yourself' ethos of punk rock, and above all by The Clash and their overtly radical, political stance, he started as a punk bass player in 1977 and took the name Attila the Stockbroker in 1980, blagging spots for his poems and songs in between bands at punk gigs. He quickly got a couple of John Peel radio sessions, a deal with London independent record label Cherry Red Records and before very long was on the front cover of Melody Maker...and he hasn't looked back since! He celebrated the 25th anniversary of his first gig with a sold out show at the Komedia Theatre in Brighton on September 8th 2005.

Attila has spent the last 28 years performing his work across the world at literary and music festivals, rock venues, arts centres, pubs, universities, schools, folk clubs and punk squats in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the US, Euskadi, France, Scandinavia, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Hungary - and more improbably in Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and a hotel basement in Stalinist Albania. 23 countries in all!

He's created his own global network, organises most of his own gigs and is very proud to have earned a living as a poet since 1982. He also sets up shows for other poets/songwriters/bands: he co-founded the long running Glastonwick Beer, Music, Poetry and More Beer Festival in 1996 and promotes various one-off events in his local pub, the Duke of Wellington in Shoreham. He's released about 17 music/poetry albums in 5 countries and 5 books of poems: 'Cautionary Tales for Dead Commuters' (Unwin Paperbacks, 1985), 'Scornflakes' (Bloodaxe, 1992), 'The Rat-tailed Maggot and Other Poems' (1998) 'Goldstone Ghosts' (September 2001) and 'My Poetic Licence' (2008) .

He's written for many national and local publications including The Guardian, Time Out, NME, Sounds Magazine, The Independent...done loads of radio and TV work...but writing the words and music for his own performances and those of his band is what inspires him most.

Attila loves humour (wit, wickedness, satire, subversion) and hates 'comedy' (bland jokes about Seventies TV, adverts for undrinkable beer, endless moronic game shows, corporate gravy train spotting).

In 1994 Attila formed his first-ever band, BARNSTORMER, combining his two great musical loves - medieval music and punk! - and giving him the chance to use his classical violin training and play loads of his favourite medieval instruments (crumhorn anyone?). The band released their debut album, 'The Siege of Shoreham' in 1996, and gig regularly all over the place alongside Attilas's solo shows.

The second Barnstormer album, 'Just One Life', was released in October 2000 and the latest, 'Zero Tolerance' in March 2004.

'Live in Belfast', a solo CD of poems and songs, was released in March 2003, and 'Live in Norway' in 2007. For a full list of Attila's releases go to the Discography section and for ones currently available to Merchandise.

Attila also...

COMMANDANTE JOE

I guess in quite a lot of ways I grew up just like you
A bolshy kid who didn't think the way they told him to
You kicked over the statues, a roots rock rebel star
Who knew that punk was more than just the sound of a guitar
And I'll always remember that night at the Rainbow
When you wrote a soundtrack for my life, Commandante Joe.

So many bands back then were like too many bands today
A bunch of blokes who made a noise with bugger all to say
The Clash were always out in front, you put the rest to shame
Your words were calls to action, your music was a flame
You were our common Dante, and you raised an inferno
And you wrote a soundtrack for my life, Commandante Joe.

Reggae in the Palais
Midnight till six!
Rockin' Reds in Brockwell Park!
Sten guns in Knightsbridge!
Up and down the Westway
In and out the lights!
Clash City Rockers!
Know Your Rights!

I guess in quite a lot of ways I grew up just like you
A bolshy kid who didn't think the way they told him to
Like you I always knew that words and music held the key
As you did for so many, you showed the way to me
Although I never met you I'm so sad to see you go
'Cos you wrote a soundtrack for my life, Commandante Joe.

ATTILA THE STOCKBROKER
1/1/2003

Lyrics to a song, performed by Barnstormer, in memory of Joe Strummer 1952-2002

£2,140 raised at Joe Strummer Remembrance Sunday on 9 November 2003 in Brighton



News Update - December 2008

All the best for the rest of the year. Here are my final gigs for 2008, plus a new poem following the publication of THAT list...

THERE'S A MAN DOWN OUR ROAD WHO'S A NAZI!

There's a man down our road who's a Nazi!
He's there on the list, that's for sure
His hobbies are bowls and line dancing
And he lives at 204!
Well, I must say that he looks quite normal
And his wife makes a nice cup of tea.....
There's a man down our road who's a Nazi!
I'm glad he's not next door to me!

He's bald, but, no, he's not a skinhead
He wears Hush Puppies, not those big boots
His dog's a shitsu, not a pitbull
And he doesn't goose step, he - commutes!
It's a Rotary Club badge, I'm certain
That little one on his lapel
There's a man down our road who's a Nazi!
Goes to show that you never can tell .......

I bet that his wife is embarrassed
And she wishes that nobody knew
Now they're caling her 'Eva' - that's horrid!
Been expelled from the W.I. too......
Do they really? What, NOTHING but Wagner?
AND so loud that the neighbours complain?
There's a man down our road who's a Nazi!
And there's talk of a local campaign!

Yes, I know you work at the newsagents.
What has that got to do with this tale?
You're right! It's the proof. Yes, we've got him.
Life subscription to the Daily Mail......
Who, of course, said 'Hooray for the Blackshirts!'
Now it all makes complete sense to me.
There's a man down our road who's a Nazi!
He's as Nazi as Nazi can be!

ATTILA THE STOCKBROKER

If you like it, feel free to disseminate on the net at will...



News Update - November 2008

Hi everyone - here are my gig dates till the end of the year, including a 'Bellocose' show (first one for years, very much looking forward to it, see below) and six dates with my band(s) in Germany/Belgium. Family situation means not too many gigs abroad these days, looking forward to those too.

Advance notice: in May 2009 the fantastic US singer-songwriter David Rovics is returning to these shores and we are touring together again: anyone interested in putting us on, please get in touch, we're travelling all over the place...

Cheers, Attila



News Update - October 2008

Well, capitalism has officially collapsed, due to sheer naked greed - told you so! The 'Left' says nothing. As usual. And Gordon Brown promises to 'clean up the City' by appointing a former hedge fund manager as an advisor. Great. Give the job to me, Gordon. I worked in the Stock Exchange once. I have insider knowledge!

Gig details, including our forthcoming local celebration of the life and work of the great Jacques Brel are here. But first........

ATTILA THE STOCKBROKER CLEANS UP THE CITY

I was a clerk there: I've seen the greed
How wealth and power eat hope and need
Now they're eating each other but they're still screaming
'No interference' - I start dreaming
'Self regulation?' OK, I say
'I'm a stockbroker - let's do it my way'
And that's the beginning of this little ditty:
Attila the Stockbroker cleans up the City!

Each gets a red nose so everybody knows
Just who they are and where all our money goes
No more speculate, no more accumulate -
This is a lifestyle we're going to eradicate
Dealers on the floor meet squads of the poor saying
'Here's the twist, Oliver - we want more
Work for us or we take the whole kitty'
Attila the Stockbroker cleans up the City!

'Hello Mr. Hedge Fund, have a cup of tea.
Financial Services Authority? Me.
You're a parasite on the population
Convicted of criminal speculation
Time to atone for a life so greedy -
Twenty years working for the poor and needy.
Want to appeal? Try the Central Committee
Attila the Stockbroker cleans up the City!

Morning Mr Banker, you're in for a shock.
We're taking much more than just Northern Rock!
All the banks nationalised - Stock Exchange too.
Utilities, railways, grabbed from the few.
Mr Billionaire? You just lost your money.
(Hey there, Chelsea fan, isn't that funny!)
The future's brown. The future's shitty.
So Attila the Stockbroker cleans up the City!

Capitalism is a John Cleese parrot.
Let's give it stick and not a single carrot!
Bollocks to the dealer, the broker, the lender -
Social justice back on the agenda
Radical stylin' going on here
Smoked Mammon sarnies and really good beer
For the poor no fear, for the rich no pity
When Attila the Stockbroker cleans up the City!



For previous "News" items see here



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Appeal:

 

If you or anyone you know has a page which could carry a link to this one (poetry/music/football are the obvious links, but almost any would be appreciated!) then please link it, and email Attila to tell him. Thanks!
Barnstormer :
Help needed for European shows !
Attila is also keen to do more shows in mainland Europe with his band Barnstormer:
'We play a lot in Germany but are interested in getting to other countries, especially France, Spain, the Basque Country, Italy, Austria, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Slovenia, Hungary and Poland. If you are a promoter or tour organiser in any of these countries we'd love to hear from you!'


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