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Previous "News"
(The current news is here)



News Update - 4 November 2016

Hi everybody - mad, wild times. Won't go on about that here - it is really kicking off on my social media pages for obvious reasons right now, so if you're interested, have a look at:
http://www.facebook.com/attilathestockbroker
http://www.twitter.com/atilatstokbroka
https://www.facebook.com/attila.stockbroker

Just finished the material for my new poetry book, which will be called 'Personal Politics' and will be published in the spring of 2017. Here are my gigs till the end of the year...




News Update - 1 September 2016

Happy September everyone.....gigs starting again in earnest (they never stopped really) on Sunday alongside Jeremy Corbyn MP and loads of fellow radical performers at the Burston School Strike Rally in Suffolk. Then the next day in Cardiff we start the 'Keep Corbyn' tour of England and Wales taking place throughout September as part of Jeremy's re-election campaign - and I have loads of other gigs as well....and more to come!

We're returning to Southern Germany and Switzerland with Barnstormer in October (one more gig needed) and one of my all time favourite bands, The Men They Couldn't Hang, are playing my local in Shoreham on my birthday, 21st October. If you're a long way off and you want to come please email me and I'll add you to the list, it's a tenner in the Welly boot on the night, the Welly is, erm, quite small, first come first served, going to be a cracker!
Cheers Attila




News update - 10 July 2016

In these truly momentous political times I am of course doing even more gigs than usual - the latest batch of gigs includes Rebellion Festival and an appearance at the Edinburgh International Book Festival presenting my autobiography tied in with six shows at the Edinburgh Fringe - first time I've done the Fringe for 20 years. (The shows are for PBH's Free Fringe, which means they are, yes, free - bucket collection afterwards!) Plus loads more, with loads more being planned.
Any suggestions, please get in touch!
Cheers Attila




News Update - 20 January 2016

Hi everyone. Over 40 gigs are booked for the second half of my 'Arguments Yard' autobiography tour with loads more coming.
As requested ­ North East, South West, Isle of Wight and starting off in Belfast.. Looking forward to finally making it back to Scotland, and to some more band gigs in Germany now that guitarist Dan is feeling better. Here's another book review from the selection - they've all been great, I'm happy to say:
http://louderthanwar.com/attila-stockbroker-arguments-yard-book-review/
'Arguments Yard' is available from me on the merchandise page for £19 including p&p UK (more overseas) or £25 with my new spoken word CD 'Live at the Greys'. And of course at all the gigs, along with more CDs, books and T-shirts.... Hope to see you somewhere
Cheers Attila




News Update - 9 January 2016

My massive autobiography tour starts again in Belfast on 24 January, aiming to reach some of the parts which the first 39 gigs didn't! As ever, all gig and festival suggestions welcome - I want to do as many gigs as possible in 2016. The book, my new spoken word CD 'Live at the Greys' and all my previous releases will be available at all gigs, of course. It's huge fun reading from the book - I'm a storyteller as well as a poet and songwriter now ­ and reviews and feedback continue to be excellent. Here are a couple more, there are loads online: http://louderthanwar.com/attila-stockbroker-arguments-yard-book-review/ and http://www.repeatfanzine.co.uk/Reviews/arguments%20yard%20attila.htm




News Update - 22 October 2015

My autobiography 'Arguments Yard' is without doubt getting the best reception of anything I have ever done.

All the reviews and comments I have received have been fantastic, copies are selling like hot cakes on my current tour and it seems to be doing well in the shops and online too: it's in various bestsellers lists at Waterstones and Amazon (though I don't really want to boast about that given the way they treat their staff) Here's the best review so far ­ there have been loads of others you can hunt for online... I've also had a part in an excellent BBC documentary on the history of performance poetry: it's on the BBC listen again service.  




Attila's News - October 2013

Hi everyone ...

Loads of gigs planned till the end of the year including 9 dates in Germany with my band Barnstormer in November, and a stack already booked for 2014. Loads and loads of new material too including my anti Royal Mail privatisation rant 'Tell Sid' (ring any bells?) my first piece to a reggae backing track. I am planning a new poetry book next year and will be finishing my autobiography - about time since I started it about 7 years ago!
All the best, Attila


Attila's News - March 2013

Hi everyone...
Main news is that weekend tickets (with or without camping) for GLASTONWICK 2013 - our 18th annual Beer, Music, Poetry & More Beer Festival at Coombes Farm near Shoreham here in West Sussex - are now on sale and organisation is progressing apace. All details of line up, local ticket outlets etc are on the Glastonwick 2013 website and you can buy tickets directly online here. Individual day tickets go on sale on April 8th. I know that many of you on this list are regular attenders ­ see you soon :)

I have been writing loads of new poems recently and am going to get some up on my main website ­ but for the moment you can check out my new UKIP poem 'UK GIN DEPENDENCE PARTY' in the Poems section

My great friend and brilliant radical singer-songwriter DAVID ROVICS from the US is on tour in the UK from May 20-June 23 and is looking for more gigs...if you're interested in putting something on for him, check out the dates at http://www.davidrovics.com and get in touch on the website. As for me, up north this weekend (everywhere's north for me really apart from Plymouth!) then Norway, which is even further north....
Cheers, Attila


Attila's News - January 2013

Happy New Year to one and all! In January I have a few solo gigs before setting off in February with punk legend, old friend and early inspiration PATRIK FITZGERALD for a run of dates in the UK, Holland and Belgium. Really looking forward to this. Straight after our return it's the fourth Ropetackle Beer Festival on 22-23 February and there's lots more planned including a tour of Denmark with David Rovics in May and, of course, Glastonwick 2013, which this year is May 31 and June 1st and 2nd. More details soon.

Before that, on Saturday 12 January, Contingent, the Brussels band I played bass in 34 years ago (!) and again from 2007 after we reformed, do our last ever gig. It's part of a big festival in memory of guitarist Eric Lemaitre, who sadly lost his battle with cancer this time last year, and it's happening at Magasin 4, the wonderful Brussels venue he founded and ran right until his death. Eric's guitar will be on tape: we couldn't possibly replace him. It'll be difficult but a fitting tribute. A lovely man, a good friend and a supremely talented musician. Ciao Eric!



Attila's News - November 2012

Hi everyone.... Off to Germany/Holland with my band Barnstormer tomorrow for 11 shows and eight more solo gigs before the end of the year when I get back, including a special show at the Ropetackle in Shoreham celebrating the work of the great Jacques Brel with a few fellow afficionados! My poem for the late Prince Roy of Sealand, the International Brigade veteran who founded his own country of the coast of Essex (this is a true story...) was on Radio 4's 'The Last Word' last week and you can hear it here - at about 25 minutes in. And I've had a regular column in the Morning Star for a while now ­ the latest one's here

All the best, Attila


Attila's News - September/October 2012

Wednesday October 31 is the first date of an 11 date tour with my band Barnstormer in Germany and Holland, and there are quite a few UK solo gigs planned on my return, with plenty in the pipeline for next year. I'm now doing a regular 'On The Road' column in the Morning Star every other Tuesday as well....... And my new, very topical Sun readers' anthem "Prince Harry's Knob" is well worth a listen if you haven't heard it before: it's the first track on the 'widget' on this site, or you can find it at http://www.reverbnation.com/attilathestockbroker

All the best, Attila


Attila's News - June 2012

Hi everyone - Firstly, thanks to all who helped at, played at and came to Glastonwick 2012 last weekend - our 17th - and yes, once again the best one ever! 3 days on a farm with a load of lovely people, some great performers and 80 + real ales - and we drank the lot!

Loads of photos are turning up on my Facebook page for anyone who's interested...

Secondly, and very importantly, my good friend, lifelong inspiration and star of many Glastonwicks and my 30th anniversary gig, TV Smith (Adverts, Explorers, Cheap, loads of brilliant solo albums since) has just had an excellent documentary about his life broadcast on BBC4. And yes, I have a few words about the great man in there. It's available for the next couple of days to see again. And will bring back a lot of memories for some of you!

And lastly for now, my 'Separated at Birth' tour with my mate Rory Ellis from Australia continues for the rest of the month, starting tomorrow... Gigs so far have been great fun, come if you can!

Cheers, Attila


Attila's News - May 2012

ALBANIA! GREAT gig/exhibition in Tirana, Albania last Saturday - celebrating the clandestine 'gig' I did with my friend Steve Drewett from the Newtown Neurotics there in 1989, which I can now 100% confirm was the very first punk gig in Albania!

We got loads of national press/TV and there are lots of bits on my facebook page. The exhibition featured copies of my old 1980s ranting poetry fanzine 'Tirana Thrash', and my reminiscences of listening to Radio Tirana and becoming strangely interested in the 'Glorious People's Republic' in the 1970s, the songs and poems I wrote about Albania/Enver Hoxha/his pet flounder Tristan/Radio Tirana/the tractor factories/Partizani Tirana FC in the 1980s and photos and the home made football shirt from our trip in 1989 organised by 'When Saturday Comes' football fanzine. The gig I did with a SUPERB Albanian pick up band who did the songs (not all of which were about Albania) proud after one rehearsal - and playing 'Holiday in Albania' in Tirana has got to be one of my all time highlights in 32 years as Attila. Thanks so much to Sonja, Kerstin and Adela for organising it all and to Ilir, Angjelin and Philippe for playing, it was a fantastic weekend! And I got to see 20 minutes of Albanian football, Dinamo Tirana v Vllaznia Shkoder. Shame Partizani were away....

GLASTONWICK/ROPETACKLE GIGS....... Tickets for Glastonwick 2012 (1-3 June) are selling really well: there are just 50 left for Saturday 2nd and Friday 1st will definitely sell out before the festival starts. So if you're coming, get your tickets now: online from our friends at the Ropetackle Centre in Shoreham or in person from the Evening Star in Brighton, the Duke of Wellington in Shoreham or the Ropetackle.

And talking of the Ropetackle, I'm putting on 2 gigs this weekend: this Saturday (12) it's the return of the mighty Men They Couldn't Hang, supported by Rory Ellis (see below!) and Wob.

And on Sunday (13) we have a very topical 'Anti Capitalist Roadshow' with legends Leon Rosselson and Robb Johnson, up and coming radical singer songwriter Grace Petrie, socialist magician Ian Saville (he makes capitalism disappear - I wish!) and Jim Woodland. I'm compering.



Attila's News - February 2012

Hi everyone - lots of news on this month's mailout. I've just released 2 new CDs, got loads of gigs coming up in the UK, Germany, Canada (hopefully!) and, erm, Albania...and next weekend it's the Ropetackle Beer Festival in Shoreham....

* "There's no such thing as society, so steal and cheat and loot/Just one thing to remember - make sure you wear a suit!' (chorus of 'Looters') 'Bankers & Looters', my new mini-album with my band Barnstormer, the first new band release since 'Zero Tolerance' in 2004, is now available. It's without doubt the angriest and most topical album I've ever recorded, which I guess is saying something after 20 albums and 31 years - but hardly surprising given the state of things right now. And I have also recorded 'The Long Goodbye' and 'Never Too Late', the poems I wrote for my mother and stepfather, on a separate CD with accompanying booklet, £2.50 from each sale going to the Alzheimer's Society. These and loads more stuff (including 'Disestablished 1980', the CD released by Mad Butcher Records in Germany to celebrate my 30th anniversary) are available via Paypal and cheque from my new merch page at and via Townsend Records from the link on that page. You can listen to the new songs from 'Bankers & Looters' on Reverbnation.

* Next weekend (3-4 Feb) is the third annual Ropetackle Beer Festival where we will be celebrating the recent successful fundraising campaign to keep our local (Shoreham) volunteer run arts centre alive. 27 beers, cider, perry, food, ex Adverts legend TV Smith and local skasters The Meow Meows on the Friday night and Glastonwick hits The Sex Pirates and local singer Laura Ward and her band on the Saturday. All proceeds to the Ropetackle Centre. Tickets are selling fast but some are still available here.

*Loads of gigs coming up. In February I am gigging in Yorkshire and here in Shoreham with my old friend and inspiration PATRIK FITZGERALD, the original acoustic punk poet.
In March I'm on tour in Germany again with my band Barnstormer. We are looking for two gigs in Western Germany (or, indeed, France) on March 15 and 16 on the way down to Schopfheim. If you can help please get in touch now.. In May/June I will be teaming up with another old mate, gravel voiced alt-country Aussie RORY ELLIS, for loads of gigs round the UK. Suggestions/offers welcome for pub/club gigs and of course festivals. AND, as ever, 1-3 June is GLASTONWICK 2012. Full weekend tickets will go on sale on March 5, with individual day tickets on April 16. Line up this year is nearly complete: more news soon.

And my good friend DAVID ROVICS from the US is back on tour in the UK in March and looking for more gigs. If you'd like to put him on please contact drovics@gmail.com
All the very best, Attila



Attila's News - January 2012

My new mini-album with Barnstormer, 'Bankers & Looters' - some of the most hard hitting and topical stuff I've ever written - is now available from the Merch page along with a new CD/book set of 'The Long Goodbye/Never Too Late', my poems for my mother and stepfather, and 'Disestablished 1980' a compilation of my best songs ever, released by Mad Butcher Records in Germany to celebrate my 30th anniversary. And all the back catalogue too of course! And to make things easier, I'm now on Paypal. I deal with that and the cheque orders myself, and there's online sales via Townsend Records as well, whom I've been using for over 10 years.......

In February I'm doing some solo shows in Yorkshire with punk poet legend Patrik Fitzgerald, and then he is the special guest at the album launch for 'Bankers & Looters' at the Ropetackle Centre in Shoreham: I'll be playing the whole album, and loads more stuff, with my band Barnstormer. In March Barnstormer will be doing a big German tour to promote the new album, and in April I am very much hoping to be going back to Canada. In May I have a long awaited gig in Tirana (Albania) and will then be touring through May/June with my good friend Rory Ellis, gravel voiced Aussie singer-songwriter (and ex bouncer/boxer!) Suggestions/offers for this tour (and for festivals and other gigs in general) are very welcome. And of course the first weekend of June is GLASTONWICK 2012 - so lots going on as ever!

Sadly, two good friends/collaborators of mine died recently, and will be much missed. On January 13 I went up to Sheffield for the funeral of Shaun Meadows, aka Dino The Frog, one of the original ranting poets: and on January 17 I was in Brussels for the funeral of Eric Lemaitre, guitarist in the Brussels band Contingent whom I played with in 1979 and from 2007 to date, and the inspiration behind the wonderful alternative Brussels venue Magasin 4. We were on tour together only last October... Both Shaun and Eric had wakes which were life affirming, celebratory and alcohol-sodden, as they would have wished! RIP.
Cheers, Attila



Attila's News - November 2011

'Bankers and Looters', my new (and extremely topical!) 7-track mini album with my band Barnstormer and the first Barnstormer release since 2004, is now ready and going into production soon - CDs should be here by January. But you can listen here - it's the first 7 tracks....


ComScore
And if you'd like to download the new material in advance of the CD being ready you can do so via the 'store' on the lower right hand side of the page here.
As for gigs, there are some interesting ones coming up, and next year, after a trip back to Germany, it looks as though I'll be making a long awaited return to Canada - and I've got a gig in Tirana (Albania!) in May. Also in May I'll be touring with my mate Rory Ellis, Aussie alt-country bluesman with a wonderful voice. Before that I'm doing some shows in February with a very old friend and inspiration, Patrik Fitzgerald, the original acoustic punk poet, now back living in London after many years in New Zealand and firing on all cylinders....

Cheers Attila



News Update - September 2011

Hi everyone, Lots to say about what's going on in the world right now, lots of gigs to say it at - starting this afternoon (Sunday) at the Duke of Wellington in Shoreham - and 3 new and very relevant songs up at http://www.reverbnation.com/attilathestockbroker. Touring Germany with my band at the end of this month and really looking forward to that! All the best..... Cheers A



News Update - August 2011

Hi everyone - of course, I have lots to say about the recent riots and the 'financial crisis' : it's in two songs, they are called 'Looters' and 'Bye Bye Banker' and demos (!) of them are at http://www.reverbnation.com/attilathestockbroker. There's also another brand new song and a huge archive of older stuff there, see below... and more coming soon! And I've done an interview for the Radio 6 Music Breakfast Show which should be going out in early September.

I've loads of gigs coming up in the UK and Germany as well: the German dates are with my band Barnstormer, and we are looking for one more gig on Sunday Oct 9 around the Ruhr or Southern Holland to finish up the tour. My great friend David Rovics is over again for a few UK shows with me in September. I'm doing my first Channel Islands gig for years in Guernsey on Dec 10, and it'd be nice to play Jersey too, and maybe Sark? Ideas welcome for gigs everywhere. At times like these I want to shout even louder! Cheers.....

News Update - late June 2011

It was lovely to return to Australia and New Zealand after a long absence and I'm definitely planning another visit soon, above all a proper tour of NZ where I only managed 4 days this time and did some of the best gigs of the whole tour: Auckland was, indeed, my favourite gig of all... Our 16th Glastonwick was definitely the best ever, the absolute highlight being the reformation of Carter USM on the Saturday night! Cheers to all who played, all who helped organise and all who came.... After my 24th (I think) Glastonbury Festival next week I shall be busily booking gigs for the Autumn, tying in as many as possible (as always) with the away fixtures of my beloved Brighton and Hove Albion FC ­ and I am planning a tour of Germany, Austria and Switzerland with my band Barnstormer at the end of September, so if you are interested in organising a gig either here or over there, please get in touch....
Cheers Attila



News Update - June 2011

Hi everyone...
Firstly a huge thankyou to everyone ­ bands/performers, volunteers and audience, and especially to my co-organiser, beer guru Alex Hall ­ who made Glastonwick 2011 without any doubt the best one yet. Highlight has to be the reformation of Carter USM in our honour on the Saturday night but the whole thing was just ace, and a pleasure to organise! We'll be back next year....

On the gig front, I have three in some lovely bits of the West Midlands this week, then my 24th (I think) Glastonbury Festival next week and by then the football fixtures will be out and as always I will start planning loads of gigs to coincide with the mighty promoted Seagulls' away games ­ if you're interested in setting one up please get in touch. I am planning a 10 date tour of Germany/Austria/Switzerland with my band Barnstormer late September/early October ­ again, if you'd like to organise a gig, please let me know now.

And if anyone would like to share my poems and songs with your friends, or just post them in places you think they might go down well, there is a 'song widget' at the bottom right hand side on my Reverbnation page which you can copy a code from to send anywhere you like, and new ears are always appreciated :)



News Update - April 2011

Hi everyone.
Firstly, a big thanks to all who helped with my Australian/New Zealand tour, especially Keeno, Di and Tim. Great fun, lots of new contacts, will definitely be back!

Lots of gigs coming up, including a rare 3 with my band Barnstormer next week, 2 of them up North with the wonderful Blyth Power... and it's full steam ahead for Glastonwick 2011 where the Saturday session is already sold out. However, plenty left at the moment for the Friday (Men They Couldn't Hang, Newtown Neurotics and more) and the Sunday, where you can see Otway, Robin Ince and lots more for a FIVER, which is simply ridiculous. Will sell out, so if you're coming, get tickets now. All details here.

Going for a long walk in the country on Friday, then to a pub with no TV :)



News Update - February 2011

MARCH ­ APRIL AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND: my first tour for 11 years If you live there, or know people who do, please spread the word! For info/media enquiries about the Aussie dates please contact Di Tatlock and in New Zealand from Tim Edwards. I'm doing many of the gigs with a great Aussie punk band called The Go Set, whom some of you will remember from Glastonwick ­ cheers to Keeno, the singer, for sorting the tour out and to Di Tatlock (see above) for sorting unbelievable amounts of immigration/work permit red tape! And if you look at the fourth date you'll see I'm playing in a pub that's named after me. How considerate :)



News Update - January 2011

Hi everyone and a very Happy New Year from myself and Robina. I'm finally doing my 4th Aussie tour in March/April, something that wasn't possible during the long years of my mother's illness, and I'm really looking forward to it and to showing Robina the delights of Aussie. As a non smoker I will be particularly pleased about the lack of a need for any ASHTRAYS over there at the moment. Many thanks to Keeno from the Go Set (whom some of you will have seen at Glastonwick) for setting the tour up. Should be some gigs in NZ too - it's EIGHTEEN years since I sold out the Gluepot in Auckland....hope a few of the old punks remember me :)

Lots of UK gigs too with more in the pipeline. 2nd Ropetackle Beer Fest in Shoreham in Feb, and Glastonwick is coming along nicely. As always, if anyone has any suggestions for gigs let me know!



News Update - November 2010

Thanks to everyone who has come to a show on the tour so far - it has been lovely seeing so many old (and new!) faces! There are a few more dates left, including some late additions, and my 30th Anniversary CD 'Disestablished 1980' and two tour T shirts are available at all the gigs....all dates are here.



News Update - March 2010

Hi everyone!

Couple of gigs this weekend (a very interesting one in New Brighton on Sat!) and after a bit of a hiatus 'cos of the situation with my mum and late stepdad I start gigging again in earnest at the end of April when David Rovics comes over from the US for our tour. It is almost complete now, and takes in most of England - dates below. And I'm beginning to plan my 30th Anniversary Tour which will take place in September and October: suggestions welcome! Yes. Thirty years. My first gig as Attila was on Sept 8, 1980 at Bush Fair Playbarn, Harlow, supporting The Condemned - 2 'm's - The De-Fex and The Unborn Dead. There have been about 2700 more since then and I'm enjoying it even more than when I first started! It's a wonderful privilege to earn your living doing something you love and hopefully spreading some ideas around....talking of that...

If you want to see me RANT about what the moneymen are doing to the beautiful game of football then have a look here. And if you want more regular gig updates, rants, poems, interesting links, strange discussions involving Half Man Half Biscuit lyrics and lots more then please join my flourishing Facebook page

Cheers Attila



News Update - February 2010

Hi everyone

Firstly: I was so inspired by the response to my poems for my mum and late stepfather (they are on my website and Facebook page) that I decided to do a pamphlet with them both in, for a worthy cause, and it's now printed. If you'd like one, they are £5 a copy inc P&P with £2.50 from each sale going to the Alzheimer's Society. Cash or cheques (to John Baine) to PO Box 668, Portslade, East Sussex, BN42 4BG.

Getting the gigs going again now: Ropetackle Beer Fest (aka 'Glastonwinter') coming up in a couple of weeks, see below, and soon it'll be time for David Rovics to make his regular visit to these shores for our May tour, which this year will be dedicated to the memory of our friend and comrade in music Alistair Hulett, the wonderful Glaswegian/Aussie radical songwriter with whom we both gigged many times and who died of cancer tragically young last week. Many condolences to his partner Fatima and his family.

Here's the line up for Glastonwick (4-6 June). I'm looking to do more festivals this year, so if you run one, please get in touch...

All the best, Attila



News Update - January 2010

A Happy New Year to one and all. And this year sees my 30th Anniversary as Attila - celebratory tour in Sept/Oct! Not many gigs for the time being though for reasons documented below: some local/South East ones and our inaugural beer/music fest at our new Ropetackle Arts Centre in Shoreham at the end of February. All acts are more or less confirmed for Glastonwick 2010, 4-6 June (best line up EVER!) I am now booking gigs for my UK tour with David Rovics between 29 April and 23 May: if you are interested in having us, please get in touch ASAP.

For us, the start of 2010 is one which puts everything into perspective: my stepdad died last Wednesday aged 89 (there's a poem I wrote for him on my Facebook page - a real morality tale!) the funeral is next Monday, and we face a lot of difficult decisions concerning my Mum, who has (mid period, not severe) Alzheimer's. I am determined if at all possible to avoid the disgusting profiteers of the 'care home' system, and as always am thinking autonomously...



News Update - December 2009

Hi everyone....

Firstly, one last reminder: if you haven't already, please change the email address you have for me to attila@attilathestockbroker.com The solutionsinc address will soon be demised, cease to be, shuffle off this mortal coil, etc etc...

Thanks for all the wonderful messages of support at a difficult time. The Long Goodbye, the poem of my mum's (and my) life which I have just written to help her remember (and it works!) is now on my facebook page Have a look if you like. Laughter and tears! If you think it can help anyone, please pass it on. Alzheimers touches so many people these days, sadly...

Advance notice for 2010 ­ from mid April to early May I shall be touring once again with the brilliant David Rovics from the US - anyone who would like to put us on please get in touch ASAP at attila@attilathestockbroker.com

Just four gigs for December and the first is nearly sold out, so if you want to come to our Seething Wells memorial gig on Fri 4 please book now: all proceeds to cancer research, and the last hurrah for a unique presence! Our afternoon Barnstormer gig at the Welly on Sun 6 Dec features The Fusion and the first local appearance by Gecko from Bristol, who is just ACE. Think King Blues meets Randy Newman meets John Hegley. And Will (for it is he) is also Christopher out of The Archers, which is weird, but true. My wife likes The Archers. I just still hate Bill Archer, who nearly killed my football club. Oh, and Jeffrey too of course. But not as much as Bill....

Message from my mate Swill from The Men They Couldn't Hang. His local solo gig is NOT now 4 Dec at the Eclipse in Hove. It's one day earlier, 3rd Dec, at the Ropetackle Beer Festival on 26-27 Feb in Shoreham, headlined by the mighty Blyth Power.

Glastonwick 2010 is 4-6 June and Peter & the Test Tube Babies are playing, so there won't be any beer left. Full line up in Feb. ..I'm off to see New Model Army tonight. Can't wait! Enjoy the festive season and all the very best - Attila

News Update - August 2009

Hi everybody - lots and lots of gigs coming up in the next few months and a few extra bits as well...starting this Saturday at 12 noon in North London when I am taking part in a CRICKET MATCH (!!) in Walthamstow and a gig afterwards at the Dalston Social Centre, 2 Belgrade Road, N16 to raise money to help radical Iranian leftists opposed to the theocratic regime. If you want to come to the cricket have a look at my Facebook page.

There will be a bar, barbecue, music, stalls etc and it's in a very good cause. Oh, and I am RUBBISH at cricket. Come and laugh at me. The gig will feature the debut performance of my 'Swine Flu Rap' with Porky the squeaky rubber pig (just bought from Amazon) on backing oinks! If you want to see the lyrics there're on my Facebook page too. And there are some new songs/poems up on my myspace page.

Following the tragic death from cancer of my old ranting poetry companero Steven 'Seething' Wells I'm involved in two events celebrating his life. On Sunday 13 September there will be an evening of poetry and punk rock featuring many of his old Bradford mates (Little Brother, Richard Rouska, Joolz and more, and I'll be performing some of Swells' poems) at the New Beehive in that fair city where he spent so many years: we'll be having a collection for cancer research. And on Fri 4 December the Newtown Neurotics, David Quantick (old journalistic conspirator of Swells), myself and others will be at the Albany Theatre in Deptford. Come and mourn/celebrate the life of a wonderful bloke who was a true one off and with whom I did many, many gigs in the early days. I still can't really believe he's gone...RIP Swells. There is a tribute and some pictures on this page.

As I say I have LOADS of gigs coming up. For the first time in years I am changing things round - doing a series of gigs round Southern England with my band Barnstormer (whom I mostly only play with in mainland Europe) and in October I'm doing my first solo poetry/acoustic tour of Germany for years (where I mostly only play with Barnstormer) A gig on 16 Oct still needed - if you can help, get in touch.

I'm also putting on two more gigs in the autumn at the wonderful Ropetackle Centre in Shoreham Sat 5 Sept: Phil Jeays and Rory Ellis Fri 6 Nov: The Men They Couldn't Hang and my band Barnstormer.
Cheers, Attila!



News Update - April 2009

Hi everyone!

Firstly: if you're coming to Glastonwick, it's time to book those tickets ASAP 'cos all indications are it's going to sell out! No worries if you get your orders in to the PO box or buy your tickets from the outlets in the next couple of weeks though. All details, line up etc on the website: http://www.cask-ale.co.uk/beerfestival.html

Secondly: for those who use it I am now active on Facebook. Also experimentally on Twitter though it seems a bit naff and as always myspace and last.fm. UK Tour with the great David Rovics starts next week and we are getting around.... Then festivals. The gigs are here ­ hope to see you somewhere!

Cheers Attila



News Update - February 2009

Hi everybody - As it says on my websites: Capitalism? Told you so!. My thoughts are neatly contained in my poem 'Attila the Stockbroker cleans up the City' which is prominently displayed on both sites. And there is more to come, I can tell you that!

As for the gigs......another local Belloc show coming up: Norway in March: lots of gigs in Wales: touring with the fantastic David Rovics again in May: Glastonwick 2009 (5-7 June). Details up here now! Festivals booking now (more offers welcome, especially from festivals I've never played before) and in October I'm planning a solo poetry/acoustic tour of Germany/Austria/Switzerland for the first time in years - anyone interested in putting on a show, please get in touch.

Cheers, Attila



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!



News Update - September 2008

Hi everyone....
After a mudfest summer - if you can call it that - with a festival most weekends, I'm having a fairly relaxed autumn
gig wise (by my standards) and resuming writing my memoirs! Among the forthcoming shows we have another free all dayer at the Duke in Shoreham coming up at the end of this month, and it'll be great to return to the Square in Harlow, scene of some of my earliest gigs. And happy 30th birthday to Cherry Red Records, who helped me so much when I first started!

Short band tour of Belgium and Germany in December ­ anyone who'd like to put us on, please get in touch. New book/CD is doing well - all details at http://www.attilathestockbroker.com/poeticlicence.html



News Update - August 2008

Hi everyone

Firstly, cheers to everyone who came to our Glastonwick Festival, by universal acclaim the best one ever! Saturday sold out, Fri & Sun were very well attended and the beer ran out (but we had some back ups of course!) Just to let you know - next year we revert to the first weekend in June, 5-7.

And no sooner does one beer festival end than it's time for another one! This coming weekend (Sat/Sun 2-3 Aug) I'm running our second annual Belgian Beer Festival at the wonderful Duke of Wellington in Shoreham. 9 bands/singer-songwriters over 2 days including my band Barnstormer and Contingent - all details here.

Talking of festivals I'm doing more this year than ever before and am at three more in August. My new book of poems 'My Poetic Licence' is out and selling well and you can read all about it/buy it here.

Have a great summer everyone!
Cheers Attila

News Update - 14 May 2008

‘My Poetic Licence’, my first book of (non football) poems for 10 years, and its associated compilation CD ‘Spirit of the Age’ are now on sale, slightly ahead of the scheduled publication date. You can read all about them here. They won’t be in the shops but are easily available through my various sites or from my PO Box....

And, of course, I have stacks of gigs to celebrate, with a book launch tour in June, followed by loads of festivals – Strummercamp, Strawberry Fair, Thuin in Belgium, Glastonbury (my 22nd) Glastonwick (our 13th – we run it!) Latitude, Wasted, Beautiful Days, Shambala and the Grassroots Festival plus one or two more – and many other shows besides. I’m also planning another short mainland European trip for my band Barnstormer later in the year so if you are interested in putting us on, please let me know....

Cheers Attila

News Update - Spring 2008

For you Facebook users, I'm now on Ilike: http://www.ilike.com/artist/Attila+The+Stockbroker

And I'm also on last.fm: http://www.last.fm/music/Attila+the+Stockbroker/

As you can see I'm doing my best with the new technology (it's not easy for me!) and spreading the stuff far and wide....and yet another website coming up because the line-up and other details for Glastonwick 2008 are confirmed and at http://www.myspace.com/glastonwick

The upcoming gigs are here ­ as ever there are more in the pipeline ­ frogs are spawning, snakes are mating, spring's here!

Cheers A


News Update - January 2008

Hi everyone ­ here are forthcoming gigs booked so far : despite difficult family circumstances I'm still very much out and about and available... UK shows go on as normal, mainland European tours still happen but the tour periods are shorter, that's all.

One gig in GERMANY between Koln and Stuttgart is desperately needed on THURSDAY 6 March for myself and Barnstormer supported by Contingent from Brussels with me on bass!

(Our short tour in December was tremendous fun and we'll be doing lots of shows together!)

Very sad news for everyone who loves Glastonbury. Arabella Churchill, co-founder of the Festival, organiser of the Theatre/Circus Fields and a good friend, sadly passed away just before Christmas. I have written a
tribute to her. Heartfelt condolences to Haggis and all her family and friends from myself and Robina. RIP Arabella. Glastonbury will never be the same again...

Here are the gigs. All solo poetry/music unless stated.

Cheers, Attila



News Update - December 2007

Hi everyone

A few extra UK
gigs to tell you about in December as well as the ones in mainland Europe with my band Barnstormer and Contingent. It'll be good to get back out there again, and thanks to my wife Robina, who'll be looking after my folks....cheers to all those who have sent best wishes! One absolutely astonishing gig has some up. On Sunday 2nd Dec I'll be doing a benefit show for sacked Manchester NHS 'whistleblower' union rep Karen Reissman. More info here: http://www.myspace.com/reinstatekaren

Nothing strange about that, you may think, I do benefits all the time and she most definitely deserves all our support for speaking out about the destruction of the NHS.
But this one will be at Bernard Manning's old club, The Embassy, in Manchester, taken over for the day by a bunch of Lefties - hooray! And it looks as though my support act will be Bar Bowen, a Crystal Palace fan. Now you can't get weirder than that!

And the next night I'm playing on a boat in Canning Dock, Liverpool.... Then off over the water, and my last gig of 2007 will be Philosophy Football's Clash-themed Xmas party in London. If you are coming to that, please book in advance (see gigs)

And a peaceful and happy Xmas/solstice to all.

Cheers Attila



News Update - November/December 2007

Hi everyone

Currently having my longest gig-less period for about 25 years (all of a month!) having had to cancel my long-looked-forward-to US tour due to the illness of my mum and stepdad and the fact that my wife and I are now part time carers. Know I did the right thing, though, and have been writing lots of new poems, all of which are on my Myspace blog. It's only long tours which are affected - I'm currently booking gigs for 2008 in the UK and short stints in Europe. If you're a promoter, haven't had me on for a while, and would like to, please get in touch!

The enforced rest has helped me get on with more or less finishing my fifth poetry collection, which will be called 'My Poetic Licence' and be published in 2008...

The rest of the gigs for the year can be found here. The main bunch are in December, when I'm doing some European dates with my band Barnstormer ­ and playing bass in the now reformed (and perhaps even more incendiary 28 years later!) Contingent from Brussels, with whom I played way back in 1979. Contingent have just finished recording our first album...funny to do my first proper recording as a bass player aged 50, having started to play bass when I was 11!



News Update - October 2007

My tour of the US has sadly had to be cancelled for family reasons....

Hello everyone who has kindly organised a date for David Rovics and myself in the next few weeks, and everyone who is coming to the shows (which are still happening!)

It is with a very, very heavy heart that I'm writing to say I won't be able to come to the US this time, for family reasons. I am really sorry. But David wants me to reassure you that he will most certainly be doing the gigs (and performing at least one of my poems!)

If you want to post this anywhere it can help please do so.

My mum (84) has mid-stage Alzheimer's and lives with my stepdad (87) who, though very frail, has up until now been providing for her basic needs. My wife, or I, or both of us, have been visiting/caring every day as well for some time now, my wife coping on her own when I've been away gigging. He is severely incontinent and has to go into hospital next Monday for an operation ­ two days before I was due to leave for the US. Mum can't be left on her own overnight, she can't provide for herself, when I am not around she is more confused than ever and and when my stepfather is not in the house it gets more difficult still. My wife and I are the only carers and I simply cannot leave her to cope with all of this on her own. It was always intended that my wife would come to the US with me, with friends/neighbours helping out back home: some time ago it became clear that this wouldn't be possible, but we thought she'd be able to cope while I was away: the rapid deterioration in my stepdad's condition now means she simply can't. And to be honest, if I did come I would now feel so worried and so, yes, guilty, that I wouldn't enjoy it. I love my wife very much, I love my mum very much too, and want to support them both, and my stepdad, who is in a terrible state. Out of sheer loyalty and human decency I can't do anything else.

It is an enormous disappointment to me and Robina, it couldn't have happened at a worse time, but that's life.

When I told them I had decided not to come all three breathed huge sighs of relief, and to be honest I feel the same sense of relief myself, alongside the terrible disappointment.

This is the first time in over 2700 gigs and 27 years I have had to cancel gigs. I hope to have many more opportunities to come to the US in the future and I hope you understand and will still have me when I do make it back!

Short European tours like the one with Barnstormer and Contingent in December and all my UK gigs will not be affected (although I'll be doing very few of those now until 2008, I've done 90 already this year and always planned a bit of a break!)

The one positive thing in all this is that in between caring for them both, I'll have time to get on with my autobiography, which ground to a halt 'cos of all the gigs I've been doing. So you can expect more excerpts on my Blog!

Cheers, Attila!



News Update - August 2007

Hi everyone...

Just to say that my new solo poetry/music CD - recorded last year in Trondheim and imaginatively entitled 'Live in Norway' - is out now. I reckon it's the best live recording I've done since my debut album 'Ranting At The Nation' back in 1983, and much thanks to Torgeir Lund for putting it all together and organising last week's highly enjoyable tour of Norway and Sweden (and to Erik for driving!) You can hear the live version of 'Comandante Joe' from it on my myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/attilastockbroker

It is a pretty good overview of 27 years of material, ranging from 'Russians In The DHSS' which I wrote in 1980 and was the first track of mine ever played by the late, great John Peel, to 'Maggots 1 Maggie 0' a very new and rather notorious little number which many of you will have sung along to at gigs recently (!!)

Track listing:
My Poetic Licence/Russians In The DHSS/New World Order Rap!/Spam/Every Time I Eat Vegetables/Punk Night at the Duck's Nuts/Supermodel/Comandante Joe/Blood For Oil/Tyler Smiles/Maggots 1 Maggie 0/Death of a Salesman/Abramovich's Donkey Sanctuary/Libyan Students From Hell!/Spirit Of The Age/Awayday/Andy is a Corporatist.

If you'd like a copy they're £11 inc p&p from PO Box 668, Portslade, East Sussex BN42 4BG, UK. Lots of other stuff available as well - check the merchandise section for details.

In October myself, David Rovics and Tracey Curtis are touring the UK together again (see below) We need 2 gigs in London/South East England on Friday 5 and Sat 6. Any ideas, please get in touch.

Cheers, Attila



News Update - July 2007

Firstly, thanks to all who came to, played at and helped with our 12th Glastonwick Beer/Music Festival: definitely the best one ever and, we're happy to say, happening again next year, same place, first weekend in July! (4-6)

Next up is a special weekend at the end of this month. Friday 27 sees the legendary Newtown Neurotics, TV Smith and myself playing at the Prince Albert by Brighton Station - a big gig at a littlish venue. If you want tickets reserved email me, they're being reserved quite fast, there will be some on the door but it will be packed.......Sat 28/Sun 29 is our 2 day Belgian Beer Festival at the Duke of Wellington in Shoreham featuring the first ever UK gigs from Contingent from Brussels. The story of our reformation after 28 years has already been told, come and hear the music (a bit like the Stooges arguing with the Dead Kennedys and Motorhead, only with even more energy and in French!)

Then a couple of UK festivals followed by Norway and Sweden where I have a live album being released in August.

In October myself, David Rovics and Tracey Curtis are doing an 11 date UK tour. Then David and I tour the USA for 3 weeks, and I'll be back in Germany (and hopefully Belgium, alongside Contingent) with my band Barnstormer in December. There are dates open for all these tours so if you'd like to organise something please get in touch. Let's hope it STOPS RAINING and have a good Summer!

Cheers Attila

News Update - June 2007

This year's Glastonwick at our brand new venue, Church Farm, Coombes, was sold out on the Friday and Saturday nights and was, without doubt, the best one ever! Huge thanks to Alex Hall, Matt Wickham, the Dark Star Brewery and all the volunteers who made it such a wonderful success. If you took pictures at Glastonwick please let us know for the archives! More on this soon ... but I'm off to Glastonbury tomorrow!
Cheers, Attila


News Update - June 2007

Hi everyone!

Our Glastonwick Beer, Music, Poetry and More Beer Festival at our new venue Coombes Farm on June 15-17 has certainly caught people's imagination. Tickets are selling really fast, and remember we only have a 400 capacity - so if you are coming, please get your tickets in advance NOW! All details of outlets and postal sales are on the website http://www.cask-ale.co.uk/beerfestival.html

Quite a few gigs coming up, and plenty more in the pipeline including another UK tour with my US comrade David Rovics from 4-14 October (want to organise a gig? Get in touch now) the return leg in the US through Oct - Nov, and another German tour with my band Barnstormer in December (again, would-be organisers welcome)

Nostalgia fans may appreciate the latest selection on my Myspace Poetry site, all from the 1980s......Libyan Students From Hell, Russians in the DHSS, Every Time I Eat Vegetables and Awayday! All at http://www.myspace.com/attilathestockbrokerpoetry And current anti-war anthem 'Guy Fawkes' Table' is up at my main music site http://www.myspace.com/attilastockbroker
Very busy gigging/organising Glastonwick so that's all for now!
Cheers, Attila


News Update - 11 April 2007

Hi everyone

Loads of gigs coming up as usual, and for lovers of our unique combination of fantastic beer and great music the news is that the line-up for this year's Glastonwick at our new venue, Church Farm, Coombes, West Sussex, is complete.... we're back to being a 3 day festival, with camping, held in a lovely setting! Tickets are now on sale by post, and they will be in the local outlets this Friday. All details of the (mostly new) line up, ticket arrangements etc can be had here and, for the first time, you can get a taste of 4 of this year's bands/performers (site will change regularly) at http://www.myspace.com/glastonwick. This year is our 12th, and it should be the best one ever!

As for me, I'm back on the road again soon: London next Sunday, a rare local warm up gig with my band Barnstormer in Shoreham next Thursday, and then a weekend across the Channel with Barnstormer and Contingent, the incendiary punk band I played bass with in Brussels in 1979 just before I started as Attila, now reformed and firing on all cylinders! It was really good fun to meet up with the others after 27 years (!!!) and play the bass again, and I'm hoping to bring them over for a couple of UK gigs in July. Then more gigs with Barnstormer in Germany, plenty more UK solo shows including Strummercamp, a wonderful new event held just outside Manchester - check it out. The inaugural one was last year and it was ACE. And the week after Glastonwick I'm very much hoping to be at GlastonBURY, but haven't had news yet...
Cheers everyone!
Attila


News Update - January 2007

Happy New Year everyone!

I'm pleased to say that I'm starting 2007 with three gigs this week in the part of our shared island I don't get to nearly enough - SCOTLAND - in the company of my co-conspirator David Rovics from the US, as part of our winter tour. Really looking forward to these, and thanks to Fred and everyone else who has made it possible. Then after more gigs together all over England in the next month, David goes over to Ireland in February and I carry on as ever: first up is an improbable 'Chalk and Cheese' collaboration at the Komedia in Brighton with celebrated classical guitarist, friend and neighbour, Richard Durrant - I think we will surprise a few people. He will be using a Chaos Pedal. I will be getting out my crumhorn! (Among many other instruments.) And my wife Robina will join us on piano. There will be more of these later...

My band Barnstormer get back on the road in April and May; two very rare gigs in France and Belgium, another tour of Germany and, hopefully, a few UK gigs with punk legend Bob Grover from the Piranhas' wonderful new band Dates. (Want to put us on? Get in touch!) And it looks as though Contingent, the band I played bass in in Brussels in 1979, will be getting back together to play a few songs at the gig Barnstormer will be playing at Magasin 4 in Brussels with Contingent guitarist Eric's current band ppz30, which will be fun, especially since I haven't seen any of the others for 26 years!

Incidentally, in addition to my flourishing original MySpace music site I now have a MySpace Poetry site at http://www.myspace.com/attilathestockbrokerpoetry - where you can hear 4 of my poems old and new (currently my 1984 'Radio Rap' dissecting Simon Bates, Steve Wright et al, 'Jingo Bells' having a go at xenophobia, the anti-Bush 'New World Order Rap' and a new rap called 'Spirit of the Age'.) And I'm putting on regular gigs at the Duke of Wellington in Shoreham, now owned by the wonderful Dark Star Brewing Company and run by my mate Roy. More details at http://www.myspace.com/dukeofwellingtonshoreham

IMPORTANT NEWS ABOUT GLASTONWICK 2007

Due to much increased administrative red tape following the recent private buy out of Shoreham Airport, I had to take the decision to move our Glastonwick Beer, Music, Poetry and More Beer Festival. Glastonwick is all about fun, and the new restrictions would have taken all the fun out of it for me (don't ask!) I must stress the Airport were happy to continue and it was my decision - thanks to Tom and everyone for their help and support over the last three years. Things have moved very fast since then and I am happy to announce that, following a meeting yesterday, we have confirmed a new venue for our twelfth festival, Glastonwick 2007 - in my opinion the best location we've ever had.

The new venue will be Coombes Farm, about 2 miles north of Shoreham Airport, and the festival will take place between 15-17 June. http://www.coombes.co.uk

We will be totally self contained with camping (!!!!) car parking space as well as the usual buses, a 400 capacity converted barn for the beer and music, a separate 'scoopers' room' and plenty of space outside to chill out - for the first time ever there should be afternoon kids' entertainment as well! A beautiful setting, and a real summer festival feel. The DARK STAR BREWING COMPANY will be taking over the beer side, beers will be lovingly searched and cared for as ever by Beer Monster Alex Hall, and overseeing the operation will be Matt Wickham, landlord of the Evening Star in Brighton. All pretty logical really!

There will be regular updates on progress, and tickets will as ever be on sale from mid April. Really good news!

Cheers, Attila



News Update - December 2006

So another year's worth of gigs comes to an end and already there are loads in the pipeline for 2007: see below. My longtime co-conspirator David Rovics from Massachusetts is back again in January for a winter tour together, I'm doing a ŒChalk & Cheese' Brighton show with the famous classical guitarist Richard Durrant in February, hopefully our first show of many together - that will be interesting(!) and Barnstormer will be touring Germany again in May.

Two new developments. Firstly, MAGGOTS 1, MAGGIE 0! my happy party singalong song celebrating Thatcher's imminent demise, is now up on my Myspace site and available to download free from there - http://www.myspace.com/attilastockbroker
Great for Xmas singalongs! And, if you have the misfortune, great for winding up thick/gullible/just plain nasty relatives who LIKE(D) THE UNSPEAKABLE ***************!!

Secondly, I'm proud to announce that the first ever live DVD of my band Barnstormer has just been produced. It was recorded live in Ulm, Germany during our 2005 tour: it is 87 minutes long and has an extra 12 minutes of photo gallery. And though it's a 1 camera job it's bloody good: well done to Gunne who put it all together! Tracks: March of the Levellers/The Diggers Song/The World Turned Upside Down/Comandante Joe/Death of a Salesman/The One That Got Away/Baghdad Ska/Haider!/Old Teenagers/The Blandford Forum/Marktsektor One/Game Boy Rude Boy/Scumball Pinochet/Just One Life/I Won't Run Away/Libyan Students From Hell!/Holiday In Albania/This Is Free Europe/Tyler Smiles/The Iron Men Of Rap!

It's a special limited edition - if you want a copy please send £11/20 Euro inc p&p to the PO Box address below.

Plenty of gigs already confirmed for next year. As always, there will be many more. If you want to organise something please get in touch...

Have a good Pissedmas!
Cheers Attila



News Update - October 2006 - Part 3

Hi everyone...

20 gigs in November - and I'm already planning for next year. In late January/early February, the great radical songwriter David Rovics from the US - currently getting quite a few plays on Andy Kershaw's Radio 3 folk show - will be over again and we'll be doing some shows together. Then, in addition to the usual solo and Barnstormer band shows, I am teaming up with internationally celebrated classical guitarist and local legend RICHARD DURRANT for some gigs. We're calling the show 'Chalk and Cheese!' In addition to doing what he does best Richard will be rocking (sometimes) and along with my poems and songs I'll be getting my crumhorn, cornamuse, fiddle and mandocello out! It's going to be weird, but I promise, it'll work.. If you're interested in organising dates for either of these please get in touch.

In between all this, I've had quite a shock. I've written a poem about it. Poetry as therapy.

Cheers everyone
Attila



News Update - October 2006 - Part 2

Hi everyone...

One more batch of gigs to announce in what has been my busiest year ever - which is saying something after 26 years. I am now well and truly into my autobiography 'Arguments Yard' and have conquered my Luddite tendencies to the point where I've established a thriving MySpace page with 4 songs (and links to 2 more sites with songs/poems) plus a blog on which I've started posting regular installments from it. In the latest couple I've just had my first gigs as Attila in 1980, been photographed by the Daily Mirror wearing a Viking helmet (!) and had an offer of 'management' from Ray 'Alien Autopsy' Santilli....
Address above: if you enjoy it you can subscribe and comment if you like - that would be a real help. I certainly have some stories to tell and as much feedback as possible would be great! I'm hoping to have it finished by the middle of next year....then it becomes a book. And as part of the story, I am including my best poems old and new, in the context of how they came about - so it will be a 26 years' poetry anthology as well.

For the next German tour with my band Barnstormer we welcome back 'Baby' David Beaken on bass - 12 shows in November - and before/after that I'm up North (where, coincidentally, Brighton have some away matches!). Due to a cancellation I have a gap/space/aperture on Thursday 2 November, so if anyone has any suggestions for a short notice gig anywhere in Tyne & Wear, Yorks or Lancs I'd be interested to hear from you.

Cheers Attila



News Update - October 2006 - Part 1

My busiest summer ever, crowned by a wonderful tour with Patrik Fitzgerald. He surpassed my already high expectations with stunning versions of his old stuff and lots of fine new songs: good news is that he will certainly be making the trip back from NZ again in the not too distant future. And I've got a wonderful live recording from Trondheim in Norway (thanks Torgeir) bits of which are already up on my MySpace page: the whole thing will definitely surface as a CD before too long!

October is a bit of a quiet month - I need a rest! - then in November I head to the North of England, Germany with Barnstormer and back up North again. 'Baby David' has rejoined Barnstormer for this tour (our third bass player this year!) and as is traditional we'll be warming him up at the Duke of Wellington in Shoreham on November 6th.

At the end of January 2007, David Rovics is heading over again and we'll be doing more shows together - if anyone wants to put us on, please get in touch.

As always, I am on the look out for new venues all over the UK and Europe - so if anyone has any ideas let me know!!...

Cheers A



News Update - July/August 2006

Hi everyone...

Had a couple of weeks' break, now the gigs start again in earnest...and it's nearly time for my long awaited tour with punk poet pioneer PATRIK FITZGERALD. I am so looking forward to this, and I know some of you are too. As I've mentioned before, Patrik was a big help and inspiration to me when I first started out, way back in 1980, and he's coming over from his home in New Zealand for his first UK tour in years. Highlights for me will be our (my first ever) gigs in Norway and Sweden, and thanks very much to Torgeir Lund for putting those together.

Thanks also to Paul 'Pog' Stapleton for producing a compilation CD of Patrik's unreleased material, entitled 'Floating Population', which will be available at all the gigs - or via a cheque for £11 inc P&P to Paul Stapleton, Beat Bedsit, 105 Tivoli Crescent North, Brighton, Sussex, BN1 5NA, UK or £11 via Paypal to beat_bedsit@yahoo.co.uk For those who don't know and/or want to know more Patrik's site is http://www.myspace.com/patrikfitzgerald and he puts up a mixture of old favourites and newer material - check it out! He's definitely one of the people who is to blame for Attila the Stockbroker!

BEFORE THAT....

Great one coming up on Saturday at Brentford Football Club - David Rovics, Robb Johnson, Chris T-T and yours truly. Full house! Then a show for the Woodcraft Folk followed by a trip back to my old stamping ground of Harlow for one final gig with David Rovics before he goes back to the US.

Then myself and my band Barnstormer are off to Switzerland for three shows. Having established that both our regular bass players Baby David and Tommy Muir were unavailable, we have recruited an old friend, the legendary Protag of Blyth Power/Zounds fame, as a very special stand-in. He's currently learning the stuff and, in what is becoming rather a tradition, Barnstormer will be breaking him in (sounds painful, but it won't be) with another gig at our local beer heaven, The Duke of Wellington in Shoreham by Sea, on Tuesday 1st August, before we set off for Switzerland. I hope very much that Mr P. will join the bass player 'pool' for future events as well! (In addition to our warm up gig, Adverts legend and brilliant songwriter TV SMITH and his German backing band GARDEN GANG will also be playing at the Duke of Wellington on Wednesday August 9, getting ready for the Wasted Punk Festival in Blackpool)

On Friday August 11 I'm comparing the Acoustic Stage at Wasted solo, and on Sat 12 playing with Barnstormer alongside the mighty Newtown Neurotics among many others with yet another stand in bass player, the already mentioned Paul 'Anal Beard/Pog' Stapleton!

After the tour with Patrik things are coming together for the rest of the year. Barnstormer will be touring Germany/Austria again in November And I shall be doing loads of solo gigs before and after that. As always, if you want to discuss organising a gig, please get in touch. I've got my own PA.......

My Myspace site is flourishing - just changed the tracks, 'Baghdad Ska' up there right now but I've uploaded loads of early 'medieval' Barnstormer stuff and that will be there soon..

Hope to see you somewhere!

Cheers Attila



News Update - July 2006

PROTAG JOINS BARNSTORMER!

As always, the May/June gigs with David Rovics were really good - his songs just get better and better. (There are a few more at the end of July as well) And the icing on the cake was tour opener Tracey Curtis, whose incisive, tuneful songs stick in your head like, well, glue! We'll certainly be doing more gigs together in the future...

Looking forward to the Latitude Festival - certainly the most performance poetry-orientated event of its kind ever, which is great, and well done to rising poetic star Luke Wright of Aisle 16 (the hit of Glastonwick!) for putting it all together. Then Robina and I are having a bit of a holiday, because after that, August is very busy...

Firstly, Barnstormer are off to Switzerland for three shows including the big anti fascist festival in Bern, and having established that both our regular bass players Tommy and Baby David were unavailable, we have recruited the legendary Protag, of Blyth Power/Zounds fame, as a very special stand-in. He's currently learning the stuff and, in what is becoming rather a tradition, Barnstormer will be breaking him in (sounds painful, but it won't be) with another gig at beer heaven, The Duke of Wellington in Shoreham, on Tuesday 1st August, before we set off for Switzerland. I hope very much that Mr P. will join the bass player 'pool' for future events as well! He is an absolute legend....

(In addition to our warm up gig, TV SMITH and his German backing band GARDEN GANG will also be playing at the Duke of Wellington on Wednesday August 9, getting ready for the Wasted Festival in Blackpool)

On Friday August 11 I'm comparing the Acoustic Stage at Wasted solo, and on Sat 12 playing with Barnstormer alongside the mighty Newtown Neurotics among many others! Then the long awaited tour with punk poet legend Patrik Fitzgerald begins. I am really, really looking forward to this, and I know some of you are too.....Highlights for me will be my first ever gigs in Norway and Sweden, and thanks very much to Torgeir for putting those together. Hope to see you somewhere!

Cheers Attila



News Update - May 2006

My massive UK tour with David Rovics, the USA's finest political singer-songwriter by miles in my opinion, starts at the Borderline in London this Friday. David will be accompanied by singer Allie Rosenblatt, I'll be doing my stuff, and opening the show will be Tracey Curtis from Wales, a new face on the scene: I did some gigs with her last month and she has a stash of powerful, socially aware songs and a wonderful voice. So a full evening! Sandwiched in the middle of the tour is our Glastonwick Beer Festival and then there are more gigs in late June/July.

Their websites:
http://www.davidrovics.com
http://uk.360.yahoo.com/traceycurtisinfo

In August, as previously announced, I'm doing another tour - with Patrik Fizgerald, the original punk poet (best known for the classic 'Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart' but he has written loads of great stuff!) who was a big inspiration and help to me when I started as Attila way back in 1980. Patrik is coming over from his new home in New Zealand to do the Wasted Punk Festival in Blackpool and we are touring together after that.
You can hear some of Patrik's songs at http://www.myspace.com/patrikfitzgerald

All dates on the Gigs page
Enjoy the World Cup...or enjoy whatever else you're doing if you don't like football!

Cheers, Attila



News Update - Spring 2006

Hi everyone

LOADS of gigs coming up as you can see here. Next week, my first visit to North Wales for years: thanks to my old mate Rhys Mwyn from Anhrefn and Kelvin from Social Forum Cymru for sorting it! Then after Belfast it's Germany with my band Barnstormer (one gig needed in the Ruhr) and then a major UK tour with David Rovics, Tracey Curtis and Allie Rosenblatt. In between, 2nd and 3rd of June is our 11th Glastonwick Beer/Music Festival (all details and web link below) and then, after the World Cup is over, punk poet legend Patrik Fitzgerald comes over for the Wasted Festival and I'm organising his first UK tour in ages - if anyone is interested in booking him, or us together, a few dates are still available. Patrik and I are doing some shows in Norway too.

I now have 4 recent songs (well, 3 and my poem 'Asylum Seeking Daleks') on MySpace - and they will change regularly... http://www.myspace.com/attilastockbroker
And our 'Seagulls Ska' football hit is up there too http://www.myspace.com/seagullsska

Hope to see you at a gig somewhere!
Cheers, Attila



News Update - March 2006

Just returned from a great time on the West Coast of the USA with David Rovics, 17 shows in 19 days (my third tour over there, and second with David). Robina and I met loads of wonderful people - thanks to everyone who helped us! Great to see at first hand just how much opposition there is to the unspeakable politics of Bush and Co. Gigs in Wales and Ireland coming up before my next German tour with Barnstormer in May and then I'm on the road all over England with David Rovics, Allie Rosenblatt and Tracey Curtis - with our eleventh Glastonwick Beer Festival sandwiched in between. And in August I shall be touring the UK with the definitive, original punk poet PATRIK FITZGERALD, who is coming over from New Zealand to do his first gigs in years. Anyone interested in organising a gig for Patrik and myself please get in touch now; I know he has fans out there....

On the local front, the award winning Dark Star Brewing Company who own the Evening Star in Brighton have now taken over the rock history-sodden and legendary Duke of Wellington pub in Brighton Road, Shoreham - after I heard it was being sold and suggested they buy it! Furthermore, my great mate and Glastonwick co-founder Roy 'Not So Slim' Chuter is the new landlord, finally realising his true vocation! To celebrate, we're putting unique klezmer-punk accordeonist Geoff Berner from Vancouver on on Sunday 2nd April and I shall be joining him on fiddle - please come along if you can!

Cheers Attila



News Update - February 2006

Hi everyone

Huge amounts of gigs coming up. Firstly, a big WEST COAST US TOUR with DAVID ROVICS. Then a GERMAN TOUR with my band BARNSTORMER and THE FISH BROTHERS, for which we need MORE GIGS... if you want to put us on, please get in touch now. Then a UK tour with David Rovics, Allie Rosenblatt and Tracey Curtis, either side of GLASTONWICK 2006, our 11th annual Beer/Poetry/Music/More Beer Festival, for which I've booked lots of new performers alongside some old favourites.

And in AUGUST I am planning a tour with punk poet legend PATRIK FITZGERALD!! Meanwhile the world goes even more insane, Brighton STILL haven't got our new ground, and St. Pauli have reached the German Cup semi final (I'll be there..)



News Update - December 2005

All the best for the festive season from us here in Southwick. Have a great time, whomever you support/worship (or don't!). No more gigs this year - but here are some of the early fixtures for 2006.... If you're a gig organiser please read on, you may be able to help.

Saturday 7 January (1pm) I'm doing a gig in the Theatre Truck in the middle of Belfast City Centre as part of Belfast's Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival
Capacity is VERY limited (it's a gig in the back of a lorry!!) so if you want to come book your tickets soon!

Thursday 26 DeNachten Festival in Antwerp with Penny Rimbaud from Crass, Richard Hell ...and The Fall. Bloody hell. The Fall. Never seen them live. Should be interesting!
Saturday 28 Punk Poetry Festival at the Melkweg in Amsterdam with the aforementioned Mr. Rimbaud among others

At the beginning of February I may be doing some shows in Denmark - more news soon.

Then from 25 February to 16 March I'll be touring the West Coast of the USA with the fantastic US radical singer/songwriter David Rovics.

If anyone over there in the States is interested in helping put on a gig, please get in touch with me ASAP and I'll pass your details on to David who is organising everything. The return leg in the UK will be from May 26 - June 9: likewise, anyone who'd like to organise a show over here please get in touch now.

From May 3rd - 8th or so I'm planning a short German tour with my band Barnstormer - anyone in Germany who'd like to put us on then, please get in touch as well...

Cheers Attila



News Update - November 2005

First the really good news: grass roots action by thousands of ordinary people in defence of our culture WORKS! As many of you will know, last Friday Prescott finally gave us the green light for Brighton & Hove Albion's new stadium at Falmer. This is the culmination of more than TEN YEARS of campaigning. If you don't like football, it doesn't matter: this was about a lot more than football! If you do, I'm sure you'll know all about it by now...... Great news too for Wrexham AFC, a groundbreaking legal decision in their favour which bodes well for all smaller clubs threatened by property speculators, as we were - hope to see a few Red Dragons at the Sun in Llangollen a week tomorrow for some celebratory beers! Great, too, to see the real Man U fans reacting to the despicable Glazer takeover by forming FC United of Manchester. I've said it once, I'll say it a thousand times: PROFITEERS OUT OF FOOTBALL - IT'S OUR GAME NOT THEIRS!

Now the bad news: hardly the end of the world, but as some of you will have found out my website was temporarily down due to the fact that the domain is changing from one belonging to Klaus, the first webmaster (huge thanks!) to current webmaster Marcus's one (huge thanks!) and there was a slight gap between the two, which is why it was briefly down. Normal service has now been resumed!

Gig wise, loads in the next few days, including another batch with the brilliant David Rovics from the US, with whom I'll be touring the West Coast of the US next March.

And in Leeds on Wednesday 9 November we're joined by a POP STAR - Danbert Nobacon from Chumbawamba!



News Update - 13 September 2005

Thankyou to everyone who came to my 25th Anniversary Gig on September 8th: it simply could not have been better. Sold out and absolutely wonderful from start to finish: one of the happiest days of my life. Thanks above all to the Newtown Neurotics for reforming in my honour - they were brilliant - to Blyth Power, TV Smith, Swill Odgers and my cohorts in Barnstormer: and last but certainly not least to my inspirational wife Robina who joined me on piano for 'Valentine's Day.' Photos are here and here (thanks to Teq and Lois!)

There's a commemorative 'Making Poetry History' T-shirt available from the Merchandise section too.....

The half-hour BBC Radio 4 programme 'Giving It Lip' which was recorded to celebrate my 25th anniversary is now available here (MP3 24MB). And now we start the next 25 years! Lots of gigs coming up.... Soon I'll be off to Germany and Switzerland with Barnstormer and in November once again on tour round the UK with David Rovics: we'll be touring the West Coast of the US together next march. As always, all details in the Gigs section... cheers everyone!

Attila



News Update - September 2005

I hope those of you who caught my Radio Four programme enjoyed it! The "Listen Again" facility has expired now but if there is any way of making the programme available from this site it will be done. Loads of gigs coming up, and if you're intending to come to my 25th anniversary gig there aren't many tickets left so get yours now!

Cheers, Attila



News Update - July 2005

Firstly: as I sit here writing this I'm listening to the radio reports of what seems very much to be an Al Qaeda atrocity in London. Remember, these are the people who were armed and trained by the US when they were fighting 'communism' in Afghanistan, cheered on by everyone from UK and US governments, Sky and BBC News to The Guardian and many on the 'left' as 'freedom fighters'......... Bastards, trained by bastards. A huge curse on them all, and sympathy to all the injured and bereaved. If you want to read my thoughts on all this, look at Attila's views on the Iraq Crisis.

Now on to happier things.

To celebrate my 25th anniversary BBC Radio Four have recorded a half hour special programme entitled 'Giving It Lip - Attila the Stockbroker 25 Years On' which will be broadcast twice: on Sunday August 21 at 16.30 and on Saturday August 27th at 23.30. Live poems and songs old and new spanning all the years, interviews, reminiscences... details below for those who want to look on the web for it. I did loads of work on it and hope you think it's good! For those of you in mainland Europe, you can get Radio 4 pretty well on 198 Long Wave.

The programme details go on the Radio 4 'What's On ' page seven days before transmission - simply click on the name of the programme and it will lead to the programme synopsis. This is the link to use, but it won't have details of Giving It Lip until 14th August.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/whatson/search/daylist.cgi?tmp=whatson/sdk/radio4/daylist_radio4.tmpl&day=Today&service_id=49700

The programme will go out on the 'Listen Again' page shortly after transmission and will be up there for a week. The Listen Again list can be found at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/listenagain.shtml

Before that, Robina and I head off to Canada for my first tour there since 1994 - really looking forward to it. Dates on the Gigs page. It'll be great to play Winnipeg and the Vancouver Folk Festival again and meet up with the unique Geoff Berner.... Then, after a break in August, it's time for my 25th Anniversary Tour: solo in the UK, apart from in Brighton & St. Ives, and with Barnstormer in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Once again, all details on the Gigs page. Have a good Summer everyone...! Cheers, Attila



News Update - June 2005

I've finalised the lineup for my 25th Anniversary Gig on Sept 8th this year and am very happy to say that my great friend Steve Drewett will be reforming the Newtown Neurotics, my cultural companions through the 1980s, as part of the celebrations! Joining them will be some of the musicians whose work I have enjoyed most over the years: the mighty Blyth Power, my great friend TV Smith and Swill from The Men They Couldn't Hang. Barnstormer and The Fish Brothers will do sets too, and of course there will be the odd poem, old and new, from yours truly. This is a big gig in a small venue: Komedia, Gardner Street, Brighton. Tickets are now available from Komedia or by phone on 01273 647100. It's going to be a memorable night!



News Update - May 2005

Hi everyone! Rather hung over this morning after yesterday's celebrations: no money, no ground but - WE STAYED UP! Those who know about football will understand. SEAGULLS!!!! Thanks to all those of you who have already emailed your congratulations...

As for the election...well, as I've said many times, the choice was between a bucket of sick and a swimming pool full of sick, and we got the bucket. We need a fair electoral system and a new radical party. Respect? Maybe. Well done Mr. Galloway, anyway!

Lots of gigs in the coming months, firstly with the unique klesmer-punk accordeonist/songwriter Geoff Berner from Vancouver and his singer-songwriter friend Carolyn Mark, and there's a very rare appearance from my mate Steve Drewett of the Newtown Neurotics at the Engine Room in Brighton next Sunday, warming up for his appearance at the Morecambe Wasted Punk Festival, which I'm compering on the Saturday. Our Glastonwick Beer Festival is at the beginning of June, another UK tour with David Rovics after that, then Glastonbury, some gigs at the G8 Protests, and then my first Canadian tour for eleven years. Still busy writing my autobiography - it's a mammoth task, though, and after some reflection I don't think it'll see the light of day in its entirety until next year, though I shall be reading extracts at gigs.

We're doing a big 25th Anniversary German tour with Barnstormer in October. If anyone else in Germany wants to put us on, please get in touch now.

Our Glastonwick Beer festival is at the beginning of June, and, incidentally, this year you can order Glastonwick tickets direct from me if you like. They are £5 per session, 3 sessions in total (Friday night, Saturday afternoon music session and Saturday evening) Send a cheque made out to Barnstormer Events and an SAE to PO Box 668, Portslade, East Sussex, BN42 4BG. They can also be bought from the outlets listed on the website, where you'll also find the daily line-ups.

After Glastonwick there's another tour with David Rovics...



News Update - Spring 2005

With the 25th Anniversary of my first gig as Attila the Stockbroker approaching on September 8th this year, I'm currently writing my autobiography, which, unsurprisingly to anyone who knows me, will be called 'Arguments Yard'. Fans of pre-1989 Albania may appreciate the short excerpt below...

It will contain the best of my older poems (as part of the narrative) and all the new ones I've written since my last poetry book 'The Rat-Tailed Maggot' came out in 1998. I'm hoping it will be published in time for the anniversary - we'll see what happens! Currently looking for a publisher - any suggestions welcome.

Loads of gigs coming up, including our 10th Glastonwick Festival in early June, followed by my 3rd UK tour with David Rovics. In mid July,I'll be making a welcome return visit to the Vancouver Folk Festival with more dates in Canada after it. In September I am planning big 25th Anniversary shows in Brighton and London and a European Tour with Barnstormer: some dates are already confirmed but plenty are still free, so if you want to put me/us on, please get in touch.

This year's visitors from abroad (apart from David Rovics) include unique klesmer-punk satirist/accordeon virtuoso Geoff Berner from Vancouver (mid-May) and big bad balladeer Rory Ellis from Melbourne (May-August - he's more or less living in England now!)

Cheers, Attila

Excerpt from 'Arguments Yard' I promised....the true story of my first encounter with 'the radical left ..'

During the miners' strike of 1972 (three day week, power cuts - some readers will be old enough to remember!) I was sure their cause was right. Hearing that pompous git Ted Heath and his upper class cronies whining about the miners 'holding the country to ransom' made me very angry: the Tory government sounded just like the kind of nasty, authoritarian, mean spirited bullies I was up against at school, and I knew that miners were people who did a very dangerous job, earned low pay, and produced the fuel which was the cornerstone of our daily lives. Given that my mum and I had no money whatsoever apart from her widow's pension I was instinctively on the side of the underdog in any case, and roughly at the same time as the miners' strike there was a terrible murder in a deprived area of Brighton that brought about my earliest attempts to write a directly political poem. Aged about 14 and a half, I resolved to make my first radical contacts, and wandering down Gloucester Road in Brighton one day in my school holidays, I came across something that proclaimed itself in large letters to be 'The Brighton Workers' Bookstore'.

I went inside, and sure enough, there were loads of books. Books by Karl Marx (I'd heard of him!) Lenin (him too) Stalin (him too, but wasn't he supposed to be a bit nasty?) Mao (ah, the Little Red Book, I knew about that) and some bloke called Enver Hoxha (who?) A large pamphlet proudly proclaimed 'Albania - The Only Socialist Country In Europe!' I'd never heard of Albania, and certainly wasn't aware that it was in Europe. I knew a song called 'The Misty Coast of Albany' by Tyrannosaurus Rex, but given Marc Bolan's hippy-bollocks lyrical bent I doubted very much that there was any likelihood of a connection with revolutionary Marxism. Characteristically, even at that early age, I took the bull by the horns. 'Where's Albania?' I asked the bloke in charge. 'And why is it the only socialist country in Europe? What about Russia and places like that?'

When I walked into that shop I had never heard the word 'revisionist' before. By the time I left, some two hours later, clutching a handful of pamphlets and copies of The Worker (Weekly Paper of the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist)) I had heard the word 'revisionist' many, many times. More times than I would ever have believed possible. I now knew that Albania stood alone as a beacon of socialism in Europe, and that it was allied to the People's Republic of China. Even if I still didn't know where it was. And I knew that the Soviet Union and its allies were revisionists. Even if - despite listening very hard, and concentrating very hard too - I had, if I am honest, still very little idea what 'revisionist'meant. But I knew it wasn't a nice thing to be.

I went home and got out a map. Soon I knew exactly where Albania was. At the age of 14 and a half, I started to read about Comrade Enver Hoxha, how he led the Albanian communist partisans to victory against the Nazis, and about his battles with the Yugoslav revisionist plotters (if you were a revisionist you were always a plotter - it went with the territory). I started listening to Radio Tirana. And I began to understand the importance of efficient tractor production, something that really hadn't occurred to me before.

News Update - March 2005

With the 25th Anniversary of my first gig as Attila approaching on September 8th this year, I'm currently writing my memoirs!

These should be published around that time as part of a new (my 5th) book of poems - entitled 'Arguments Yard', like the photo...

Taking time off at the moment to do that, but there are lots of gigs coming up from April onwards (with many more in the pipeline) including our 10th Glastonwick Festival, my 3rd UK tour with David Rovics and a welcome return visit to the Vancouver Folk Festival in July. In September I am planning a big 25th Anniversary European Tour with Barnstormer: some dates are already confirmed but plenty are still free, so if you want to put us on, please get in touch.



Latest News from Attila - 17 January 2005

I'm proud and happy to say that 'Tom Hark (We Want Falmer!)', the single that we released as Seagulls Ska as part of our campaign for Brighton FC's new stadium, reached Number 17 in the Top 20 of week beginning 9 January 2005. Thanks to everyone who bought a copy: if you'd still like one it's still available online or by cheque in the Merchandise section. The primary aim - to gain massive publicity for the Falmer campaign in the month before the Public Enquiry into the new stadium restarts - was hugely successful, with articles in most of the national press, loads of regional and national TV and a full play on Radio One's Top 40 Chart Show! It was a lot of hard work, but well worth it! The battle goes on, and Seagulls Ska will be doing the odd gig from time to time..

Meanwhile, I'm currently working hard on plans for 2005: German tour with Barnstormer next month, our 10th Glastonwick Festival will defininitely take place on the first weekend of June, I'll be doing a May/June tour with US singer/songwriter David Rovics and there should be some May shows with Rory Ellis from Australia as well. Very much hoping to be making a long-awaited return to Canada in July. More news soon....



Latest News from Attila - December 2004

After well over 100 gigs in 2004 that's more or less my lot gig-wise for this year - but there is still a huge amount going on! Following a very enjoyable 10 and a half hour sponsored gig on 28 November at the Evening Star in Brighton in aid of Brighton FC's Alive & Kicking Fund, which I did non-stop (apart from two visits to the toilet) and which raised £2,000 for the cause, we're about to release an Albion single! Read on below... And my first DVD, 'Live at the Heartland Café', a solo performance of songs and poems recorded in March 2004 during my US tour with David Rovics, is available now from the Merchandise section.



Attila's Sponsored 10 1/2 Hour Gig in aid of Brighton & Hove Albion

On Sunday 28th November I will be doing a sponsored 10 and a half hour gig from 12 noon until 10.30pm (opening time till closing time!) at the very wonderful Evening Star, Surrey Street, Brighton in aid of Brighton & Hove Albion's fund raising appeal. As many of you know, we have no proper ground and are desperate for cash to keep the club going until we get our new ground at Falmer. I'm doing my bit of course!

I'm pretty confident that after 24 years I have enough material in my back catalogue to do a ten and a half hour set of songs and poems without needing to repeat anything! There will be some interesting cover versions in there too. The set list will definitely reach from the floor to ceiling of the pub...

Sponsors can back me by the hour or for the whole stint. There will be sponsorship forms in the Evening Star and the Albion Club Shop and pledges can be made directly to me at attila@solutionsinc.co.uk. Support on the day is very welcome - and 3pm to 4pm will be 'Albion Hour' when I will be doing all the Albion poems I have ever written, culminating of course in the epic 'Goldstone Ghosts', the poem I wrote for the last ever game at the Goldstone in 1997. So if you want to hear loads of stuff I haven't done for years, from 'Russians In The DHSS' onwards, come along!



News Update - September 2004

Well, the good news is I've written loads of new poems and as always I've got stacks of gigs, solo and with my band Barnstormer, coming up all over the country and abroad - details can be found here. Many of course coincide with Brighton's away matches! Among many others, in October we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Barnstormer with a joint Barnstormer/Fish Brothers tour of Germany, and in November I'm organising another Joe Strummer Remembrance Sunday at the Concorde 2 in Brighton following the tremendous success of last year's event - the full line-up will be announced shortly, and I hope even more people will come this year. David Rovics from the US and Rory Ellis from Oz will both back in the UK in November and I'll be linking up with them here and there. Oh, and my website just won an award from the Poetry Kit people - thanks to them, and even more thanks to Marcus Williamson who does such a sterling job maintaining it. Hope to see you at a gig somewhere.......

Cheers Attila



News Update - 25 March 2004
Click for a larger image Click for a larger image
(Click on the pictures for a larger image)
First thing to say is - 'Zero Tolerance', my new CD with my band Barnstormer, is out NOW. It's the most angry, political CD I have every done, hardly surprising given current events in the world. ...targetting the oil hungry, arrogant New World Order in all its forms, Bush's New Labour toadies, 'celebrity culture', middle aged ex-radicals who turn into corporate fodder and Chelsea chairman Roman Abramovich's 'contribution' to football - among other things! Definitely our punkiest album so far, though as always very varied: there's ska, dub (courtesy of 'Cool Brother' Andy Baron) an Oi! song about oil, the angry punk-folkesque roar of 'Guy Fawkes' Table' and a romantic (!) ballad co-written with my wife Robina. 'Comandante Joe' gives Strummer the tribute he deserves so much. And as a special bonus, there's the definitive German version of 'Marktsektor One' ..... Tracks: Death of a Salesman/Baghdad Ska/Baghdad Dub/Hey, Celebrity!/Guy Fawkes' Table/Mohammed The Kabul Red/Song For The Defeated/Comandante Joe/Valentines Day (Hans Blix & The Clash)/Blood For Oil/Oil Power/Abramovich's Donkey Sanctuary/What's The Difference?/Bunter's Revolution/A Nasal Appraisal/Marktsektor One. Running time 51 mins.
(Incidentally, the beard was a very temporary arrangement, as you'll see from the inside cover!)

If you would like a copy, please go to the Merchandise section and order by cheque from my PO Box or by credit card from Townsend Records. It's available at all the forthcoming gigs, and there are loads and loads of them as you can see on the Gigs page! For the first time for years, this album is available in the shops via Universal Distribution. If you'd like to order it, it's Zero Tolerance by Attila the Stockbroker's Barnstormer on Roundhead Records, cat no HELMET CD 6.

CALLING ALL FOOTBALL FANS! (AND EVERYONE ELSE!)

The next two weeks are vital in the battle to save Brighton & Hove Albion FC. Without our new stadium, which is under serious threat, the club I have supported since I was 6, which we have been battling to keep alive since our stadium was sold behind our backs by profiteering bastards in 1997, will die. Many of you know about this and will need no further encouragement I hope - please email John Prescott at planning.general@odpm.gsi.gov.uk with one message - to say YES to the Albion's Community Stadium at Falmer! And we have an Early Day Motion supporting our stadium application tabled in the House of Commons: please email your local MP and ask him/her to support the Early Day Motion No.889 which can be viewed at http://edm.ais.co.uk/weblink/html/motion.html/ref=889 You don't have to like football to help us. The fight to save the Albion is a grass roots struggle against rapacious profiteers, self seeking bureaucrats and snobby Tory NIMBYs. PLEASE SUPPORT US!

Cheers and hope to see you somewhere soon, Attila



News Update - July 2004

Just come to the end of another stack of great gigs. Our Glastonwick Beer Festival was brilliant as ever - thanks to Alex, Tom and everyone who came - and the UK tour with David Rovics was the best yet, his songs just get better and better and his new CD 'Songs for Mahmud' proves it. Glastonbury meant 6 gigs in 3 days for me and was great fun, and I was a Football Ambassador in Portugal during Euro 2004. Speaking of which.........

Real Football 1, Pampered Poodles 0. Well done Greece. A Sheffield United reserve, a Bolton reserve, an ex Leicester centre half and some Bundesliga bit players have just showed the overpaid prima donnas of the rest of Europe how to play football! Very much like watching Brighton: no stars, no money, great defence, noisy fans and we win against all the odds (OK in our case it's only the 3rd and 2nd Division Championships and the Play off Final this year but you get my point!)

Gig wise, here is what is coming up in the next few months so far - there will be loads more. It's my band Barnstormer's 10th anniversary in November and in October/November, for the first time, we'll be touring with the Fish Brothers (that's the rest of Barnstormer with Martin Fish on vocals) as our support band - get in touch if you'd like to organise a gig.

Have a great Summer! Cheers, Attila



News Update - 25 May 2004

For the first time in years I have an album in the shops - 'Zero Tolerance', my new album with Barnstormer, is now available in UK record shops through Universal Distribution. So if anyone feels like hunting for it/ordering it, that would be great - it will encourage more places to stock it!

'ZERO TOLERANCE' by ATTILA THE STOCKBROKER¹S BARNSTORMER on Roundhead Records, cat no Helmet CD 6, distributed by Universal.



News Update - 15 May 2004

Just back from another highly enjoyable tour of Germany and Prague with my band Barnstormer - we'll be back over the water again in October celebrating the band's 10th anniversary. But loads happening before then......

On Tuesday 18th May urban (and urbane) folk singer Rory Ellis, from the same streets and pubs as Weddings Parties Anything, arrives from Melbourne for his first ever UK tour - we're doing a number of shows together in the following few days, he's playing at Glastonwick and has heaps of other gigs organised as well all over the country, so check him out at http://www.roryellis.com! Our Glastonwick Beer/Music Festival happens 28-29 May this year (for all the details, just follow the link). Then I start a mammoth and wide ranging UK tour with the fantastic David Rovics from the US including Glastonbury, where for the first time I'll be compering and playing with Barnstormer on the Leftfield Stage (Fri 28, 8-10pm) and with Barnstormer again on the main Cabaret Stage (Sat 29, 2pm) as well as doing my regular solo and Otway double act shows. I'm also heading over to Portugal for a couple of gigs during Euro 2004 - and of course will be cheering on Brighton in the 2nd Division Play Offs! In July I'm making my first appearance at the Wasted Festival (formerly Holidays in the Sun) among other things...and I'm very much hoping to have my first DVD available by the autumn, thanks to a great bit of filming by Doug Van Dyke at the Chicago gig on my March US tour. All details in the Gigs section. Have a great Summer and hope to see you somewhere! Cheers, Attila



News Update - 25 March 2004 (part)

As a spin off from the album, Rosey R*E*P*E*A*T of Cambridge indie label Repeat Records has just released a split white vinyl single featuring 'Baghdad Ska' and 'Night Bus' by Cambridge punk drum'n'bass outfit Bomb Factory....we'll be launching the single at the Portland Arms in Cambridge on April 15. If you want one email Rosey@repeatfanzine.co.uk or come to the gig!

And my stepson Patrick's excellent new band Random Negative (all 15/16 years old) have just released their first five track EP, recorded during the same sessions as 'Zero Tolerance' and co-produced by yours truly. You may have seen them supporting Barnstormer over the past year at Glastonwick, Joe Strummer Remembrance Sunday and elsewhere. Without a hint of bias I can say that if you like intelligent, original punk rock somewhere between Radiohead and the Mega City Four(!)with great melodies and good lyrics, you will really enjoy it! If you would like a copy, you can get 'Zero Tolerance' and the Random Negative EP together for £15 , or the Random Negative CD alone for £6 inc p&p, from the PO Box address on the Merchandise page. Check their website in the Links section.
A LETTER FROM AMERICA

Robina and I have just come back from a most enjoyable and inspirational two and a half weeks touring the USA from Minneapolis to Boston via 13 other towns and cities in the company of the brilliant, charming and caffeine-addicted David Rovics. It was fantastic to meet so many people who share our values and loathe the New World Order as much as we do: cheers everybody!! Think on this: in the US you have to REGISTER to vote, only 50% do, and less than half of them voted for Bush. There is an enormous underground opposition over there and it was a privilege to play for some of them - alongside one of the best radical singer-songwriters in the world. No kidding, no hyperbole: Rovics is the dog's bollocks, when it comes to telling it like it is he makes the Sixties bunch sound like Little Jimmy Osmond! And soon you'll be able to hear him too - David will be doing our Glastonwick Beer Festival at the end of May, we'll be touring the UK together through much of June, and he'll be doing Glastonbury as well, straight after me and Otway in the Cabaret Marquee. And he's recording his second session for Andy Kershaw's Radio 3 World Music programme which will be broadcast on Sunday 30 May. Check him out!



News Update - March 2004

Hi everybody! Loads of news: on March 5 I start my second US tour - alongside spot-on radical Massachusetts songwriter DAVID ROVICS (http://www.davidrovics.com) - really, really looking forward to it and to meeting lots of kindred spirits! All the dates are here, and as it says at the bottom of the list, I've a free night in Boston on Saturday March 20 if anyone fancies putting on a gig there. By the time we get back, 'Zero Tolerance', my 3rd album with my band Barnstormer, will be ready, and we'll have plenty of new songs for the next Barnstormer German (and Prague) tour at the end of April... In between there are some UK gigs as well.

Then gravel-voiced urban folk singer Rory Ellis from Melbourne - a man from the same streets, and pubs, as Mick Thomas/Weddings Parties Anything - joins me for a few shows and then it's time for GLASTONWICK 2004, our 9th Annual Beer, Music, Poetry and More Beer Festival, on May 28-29 with a brand new line up (apart from Otway!) all details in the gigs section...

And then DAVID ROVICS and I embark on our 3rd UK tour together. Loads of gigs are already confirmed but there are still some free dates between June 14-24: once again, if you would like to put us on, please get in touch.

SAVE THE ALBION!

Please help us save Brighton & Hove Albion FC, the football club I have supported all my life, and where I am Poet in Residence and PA Announcer (Apologies if I've got in touch with you about this already!) Yes, the battle is on in earnest again: many of you know the long, hard fight we have had to save our club ever since our ground was sold behind our backs by evil scummy moneymen eight years ago. The local planning inspector has turned down our application for our new stadium at Falmer and now it's down to John Prescott: if we don't get Falmer the Seagulls' very existence is once again threatened. Please email Prescott in support of our application at
planning.general@odpm.gsi.gov.uk. Cut and paste and sign, pass on, post on any football noticeboards/sites: and THANKS!
Dear Mr. Prescott:

Falmer is the only viable site for the new community stadium for Brighton and
Hove Albion FC: the city is stuck between the Sussex Downs and the sea:
there's nowhere else: and the vast majority of local people supported the
plans in a referendum.

Yours...
NEW ALBUM AVAILABLE FROM 24th MARCH


ATTILA THE STOCKBROKER'S BARNSTORMER: 'Zero Tolerance'

My 3rd album with the band: driving melodic punk, ska, Barnstormer's first ever dub track, plus some quieter songs, but some of them are actually the angriest! My most political record ever as you'll see from the titles.... Available from 24th March 2004 - orders can be taken now, either from the PO Box or by credit card from Townsend Records, and they will be sent out on that date. Go to the
Merchandise section if you'd like to order it.

Death of a Salesman/Baghdad Ska/Baghdad Dub/Hey, Celebrity!/Guy Fawkes' Table/ Mohammed the Kabul Red/Song for the Defeated/Comandante Joe/Valentine's Day/Blood for Oil/Oil Power/ Abramovich's Donkey Sanctuary/What's the Difference?/Bunter's Revolution/A Nasal Appraisal/Marktsektor One



News Update - 21 January 2004

The new album is recorded! More news soon..



News Update - January 2004

On January 5 I go into the studio with my band Barnstormer to record our third album, the follow up to 1996's 'The Siege Of Shoreham' and 2000's 'Just One Life'. 16 songs, really looking forward to it! We aim to get the CD out in March/April in time for our next load of gigs in mainland Europe. (Not sure what it will be called yet - watch this space!)

Tracks in order: Death Of A Salesman/Baghdad Ska/Comandante Joe/Hey, Celebrity!/Blood For Oil/Oil Power/Guy Fawkes' Table/Mohammed (The Kabul Red) /Song For The Defeated/Baghdad Dub/Valentine's Day (Hans Blix and The Clash) /Bunter's Revolution/Abramovitch's Donkey Sanctuary/A Nasal Appraisal/What's The Difference? Plus by popular demand a German version of 'Marktsektor One' as an extra track.

Current world events are, of course, a major theme. I write about what's happening!

(Incidentally, I'm very much looking forward to Saddam's trial. He'll have lots to say about all his old friends in the US/UK/French governments and that lovely German pesticide firm. Or do you think as I do that the whole thing will be done behind closed doors and Rupert Murdoch will have exclusive transmission rights so we don't hear about it - any more than we heard about the 150 US/European companies which did business with him all those years?)

A couple of spin-offs are already arranged: Rosey of R*E*P*E*A*T fanzine/DIY label in Cambridge will be releasing 'Baghdad Ska' as a split single with the excellent Bomb Factory - and East Side Records in East Germany will be releasing the album on vinyl. But first we've got to record it.....

Gigs coming in apace. Soon I'll be posting the itinerary for my US tour with David Rovics which will be happening between March 5-22. Barnstormer have some gigs in Devon and Cornwall in early Feb - and remember that our new bimonthly 'Barnstormer' cabaret series at the Komedia starts on January 22nd. Lots of other gigs, all in the Gigs section. Hope to see you somewhere and happy new year!

Cheers Attila


News Update - 24 November 2003

Just back from a very enjoyable tour of Denmark.....organised by the techno-loving, Crystal Palace supporting MC Jabber, which proves that poetry really does break down seemingly impenetrable barriers - thanks a million, Scott, you did a great job! And I now have a new Danish website thanks to Michael: http://attila.prognet.dk

Apart from a forthcoming short tour of France between 11-15 December with my band Barnstormer, a spot at Apples & Snakes Poetry Cabaret's 21st Anniversary celebration at the South Bank on December 16 (I did the very first gig!) and a Brighton FC fundraiser at the Concorde 2 on December 21st, that brings 2003's gigs to an end. Over 100 of them, including three German tours with Barnstormer (and our first gig in Hungary) a thoroughly enjoyable second UK tour with the brilliant David Rovics, loads of solo gigs in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Germany and Denmark, some great fun shows with Otway, 5 shows at Glastonbury, our Glastonwake beer festival and, the highlight for me, Joe Strummer Remembrance Sunday - thanks to all those who played and all those who listened, and if you've got photos, reviews or thoughts, email them to me and we'll stick them on the Remembrance Sunday page!

In Jan/Feb next year we will be recording the new (3rd) Barnstormer album which will be out well in time for Barnstormer's 10th Anniversary Tour in mainland Europe between October 6-18 (supported by the Fish Brothers - this tour will be legendary, and if you would like to reserve a date, get in touch ASAP!) Of course, Barnstormer and the Fish will be doing some UK dates as well around this time.

Other plans include a solo tour of the US with David Rovics in March - really looking forward to that - a return to Shoreham Airport for our Glastonwake Beer, Music, Poetry and More Beer Festival on May 28-29, another UK tour with David Rovics in June including Glastonbury, plus loads more solo gigs, at least one more European jaunt with Barnstormer ...and who knows what else? If you have any suggestions, get in touch!

Next year I am also reviving the Barnstormer events series I ran for 8 years in my home village here in Southwick - but at the far more suitable and accessible KOMEDIA THEATRE in Gardner Street, Brighton. Events will happen bi-monthly on Thursdays, first one in January. Details on the gigs page. There will be some great line-ups! Please come and support us, especially if you remember the Southwick ones! http://www.komedia.co.uk

And early next year Brighton & Hove Albion WILL finally be granted planning permission by John Prescott for our new stadium at Falmer! After 7 years! I say WILL. We'd better be.....

All the very best for the forthcoming festive season...
Cheers, Attila



News Update - November 2003

11 November 2003 - Joe Strummer Remembrance Sunday - gig of the year!
No time to relax though - loads more: up North this week, off to Denmark next.
More soon!
Cheers Attila



News Update - September 2003

A very busy Autumn in store. Following quite a few UK solo gigs in September and October I'll be over in mainland Europe again with Barnstormer in late October. Then there are loads more UK gigs in November, including Joe Strummer Remembrance Sunday, which promises to be the gig of the year and a fitting tribute to an inspirational man! After that I'll be doing a Danish solo tour and then Barnstormer's first ever French tour happens in December...Hope to see you somewhere!



News Update - July 2003

A bit of a holiday and some lovely hot weather to go with it! A fair few gigs now confirmed for the rest of the year and many more to come: if you're interested in a booking, get in touch. One of the highlights of the rest of the year should be the Joe Strummer Remembrance Sunday benefit gig which I'm co-organising for 9th November at the Concorde in Brighton: we should have a fantastic line up of bands and performers (watch this space!) and we'll be raising money for the charity set up by Joe's wife to help kids from disadvantaged backgrounds get involved in music.

Have a great Summer everyone - more news soon...



News Update - June 2003

Had a great tour with David Rovics in May - what an insightful, inspirational songwriter, and what a good bloke! Looking forward very much to the return leg in the US next March - any US organisers interested in booking a show for us, please get in touch. Glastonwake, our beer festival now relocated at Shoreham Airport, was a tremendous success and will definitely be happening again next year. Thanks to Tom and everyone at the Airport for making us so welcome and to Alex for the fantastic beer selection as usual!

Off to Germany (and Hungary!) with Barnstormer on June 12, then it's time for Glastonbury again - five shows for me this year, three with Otway in the Cabaret Marquee (2 pm Fri-Sun 27-29 as usual) and two more with Barnstormer. Then there are a couple of gigs in Cornwall, and then I'm having a bit of time off!

On the media front I've got a couple of poems in the new weekly BBC 3 poetry series which starts on June 15 and looks as though it'll be very good (put together by my old mate Henry Normal) and I've contributed extensively to a Radio 4 feature about Jacques Brel which will be broadcast 11.30am on 17 July.

Have a great Summer!
Cheers Attila



News Update - April 2003

Hi everyone.

So the American occupiers let the Baghdad looters ransack the museums, the ancient library was allowed to burn down - the only building they occupied and made absolutely secure was the Oil Ministry. Wonder why? My new song "Baghdad Ska" is on the Iraq crisis page. That's what I think of it all.

On a much happier note, my new solo poetry/music album 'Live in Belfast' is up and running, available at the masses of gigs I have coming up (see below) and via Townsend Records on my website.

And, as many of you know by now, our Glastonwick Beer Festival (RIP) has been replaced by GLASTONWAKE! at Shoreham Airport: same weekend, 30-31 May. Exactly the same principle as Glastonwick but now in very different - unique - surroundings! The two 7-11 evening sessions have a full programme of entertainment in the Glastonwick tradition: we very much recommend you book in advance since the capacity is a bit smaller than at Southwick. All details including line-up, map, prices, booking details and details of the special shuttle bus service from Shoreham railway station to the airport are at:
http://www.cask-ale.co.uk/beerfestival.html

If you enjoyed Glastonwick, celebrate with us at Glastonwake! We're off to a flyer!

News Update - 17 March
NEW CD OUT NOW!

ATTILA THE STOCKBROKER - LIVE IN BELFAST Released 17 March 2003 - Roundhead Records

A brand new solo CD of poems and songs from Attila.....

It was more or less twenty years ago that my first LP, 'Ranting at the Nation' was released by Cherry Red Records - on good old black vinyl of course - and although I've had about 15 releases in various countries since then, in many ways this is the follow up: a spoken word/musical time capsule, the definitive recording of my current live solo set. 'Live In Belfast' is a seething cauldron of topical, hard hitting recent material reflecting the state of the world today - plus a couple of old favourites never before released on CD. The anger we are all feeling right now at this ridiculous, arrogant and evil war is reflected in my poem 'New World Order Rap': 'Change the names and fudge the dates - for United Nations read United States...'

Among other things, Iraqi weapons inspectors come to England looking for weapons of mass distraction, unemployed asylum seeking gay pacifist Daleks move in next door to a family of Daily Mail readers, noted 'eater of all the pies' Billy Bunter marches with the Countryside Alliance and Railtrack's bosses get what they deserve - a lifetime slaving in a Northwich salt mine listening to endless loop tapes of Phil Collins!

But perhaps the most important song in the collection is 'Death of a Salesman' - about the other September 11th, in 1973, when the US installed the fascist Pinochet in Chile.....and this song makes the connection between American foreign policy in the last 50 years and the attacks on the World Trade Centre which have brought the world to its current perilous state..

There is also my tribute to Clash frontman Joe Strummer - 'Commandante Joe' (lyrics above) and, rather more unusually, a tribute to recently deceased former T.Rex bongo player Mickey Finn by the 'Dear Leader', Comrade Kim Jong-Il of North Korea!

And there's a true story about a night spent in an Australian pub called 'The Duck's Nuts' - and lots, lots more! There's also a 12 page booklet with my thoughts on the current world crisis - some of this is reproduced
here. To order one please go to the merchandise section.

'LIVE IN BELFAST' (recorded 1st February 2003)

My Poetic Licence/Asylum Seeking Daleks/New World Order Rap!/ The Iraqi Weapons Inspectors' Report/Commandante Joe/Bunter's Revolution/ Carriage H/Effineff/Supermodel/Punk Night at the Duck's Nuts/ Frogspawn Man versus the Boy Racers/Brain Tree/A Symptom of Modern Society/ A Nasal Appraisal/Hole Poem/Death of a Salesman/ The Spencers Croft Cat/Doggy on a String/Song For The Defeated/ North Korea Mourns Comrade Mickey Finn of T.Rex/Hey Celebrity!

The CD is only available at my gigs, by cheque from my PO Box or by credit card from Townsend Records (along of course with my 4 other CDs, poetry books and tapes) To order one please go to the Merchandise section here.

There is so much to say and do, to sing about and shout about right now, and believe me, I am!

Huge amount of gigs coming up. From 17-23 March I'm on the road with Joseph Porter of Blyth Power (and his sleeping bag, yuk!) and as well as doing all the stuff from the new CD I'll be accompanying Joseph's wonderful songs on my new viola. There's a rare performance of 'Cheryl - A Rock Opera' with my mate 'Two Hits' Otway in Bedford on March 21 in there as well. Then, on April 3rd at Talking Heads in Southampton, there's the first in an increasing number of gigs I'll be doing this year as a double bill with the celebrated and flamboyant performance poet Murray Lachlan Young (another one at Komedia in Brighton on May 23, more later in the year, bookings welcome!)

After a few more solo UK gigs I'm off to Germany with my band Barnstormer for nine shows at the end of April. Then brilliant radical singer/songwriter David Rovics arrives from the US and we tour the UK together through the middle of May. Then it's time for Glastonwake, the successor to Glastonwick, our beer and music festival at Shoreham Airport (see above) and in June Barnstormer are off on tour to Germany again, and also fitting in our first ever gig in Hungary at the Uz Hallam Festival in Gyor (thanks Vigi!) My annual shows at Glastonbury (solo, with Barnstormer and with Otway) take us up to the end of June, and there's plenty more in the pipeline!

All details in the Gigs section. Hope to see you somewhere.....Cheers, Attila

News Update - March 2003

My new solo poetry/music CD 'Live in Belfast' (see track listing and comments below) has just gone into production and will be released on Monday 17 March. As well as many very new and very topical poems and songs it has a twelve page booklet with my views on the current world crisis. Part of this is reproduced here.

News Update - February 2003

NEW ALBUM 'LIVE IN BELFAST' COMING SOON! Just back from a quick and very enjoyable trip to Belfast and Dublin - recorded a new live spoken word/music album at the Belfast gig with over an hour of new and very topical material on it which I aim to get released as soon as I can, in time for the stacks of gigs I've got coming up all over the place in the next few months (see Gigs section).
Thanks to Mac, Colin and all at the Warzone Centre in Belfast for making it possible, to Mac for a brilliant job recording and editing and to Byrneos for organising the Dublin gig.

The CD master has just arrived, ready for action - as soon as I have got the sleeve together it will go into production and should be out within the month. Best and most topical solo recording I've ever done (most of it written in the last six months, some in the last two weeks) over an hour long, and in addition to all the new stuff there are two much requested old favourites...

It was almost exactly twenty years ago that my first album 'Ranting at the Nation', also a live and very topical collection, was released by Cherry Red Records - and despite the 13 or so releases which separate them, in many ways 'Live in Belfast' is the follow up. More news as soon as the CDs are ready!

'LIVE IN BELFAST' (recorded 1st February 2003) - Track listing...

My Poetic Licence/Asylum Seeking Daleks/New World Order Rap!/The Iraqi Weapons Inspectors' Report/Commandante Joe/Bunter's Revolution/ Carriage H/Effineff/Supermodel/Punk Night at the Duck's Nuts/ Frogspawn Man versus the Boy Racers/Brain Tree/A Symptom of Modern Society/ A Nasal Appraisal/Hole Poem/Death of a Salesman/ The Spencers Croft Cat/Doggy on a String/Song For The Defeated/ North Korea Mourns Comrade Mickey Finn of T.Rex/Hey Celebrity!

There's so much to shout about, sing about, write about right now, and believe me, I am! Needless to say I am available for 'Stop the War' gigs, firefighters' support gigs, 'keep live music legal' gigs, 'Tony Blair MP - I'm Tory Plan B' anagram gigs!

What a bunch of traitors this 'New Labour' government is: : as for Blair, what an abject, cringing US government toady. In Europe they call him 'Bush's poodle': personally I think that is an insult to poodles. I think of him more as Bush's amoeba: no heart, no guts, no brain, no head, no bollocks and no spine!

STOP THE WAR!

I'M SO BORED WITH THE USA!

News Update - January 2003

After a very enjoyable year where I toured Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland and Holland either solo or with Barnstormer I have a hell of a lot of gigs all over the UK coming up. And there's also a visit to Ireland and 3 more planned trips to Germany, 2 with Barnstormer and a welcome return in February (solo) to the restarted Political Song Festival in East Berlin where I had such fun in the mid 80s (see the new 'Best Ever Gigs' page). I've written stacks of new poems (some of the new ones are in the 'Poems section') and new songs, and am very much hoping to record a new live poetry CD in Belfast at the end of January. In March I'm doing some gigs with Joseph Porter from Blyth Power (and, probably, his sleeping bag - yuk!) and will be accompanying him on violin/viola as well as doing my own stuff. All details in the gigs section.

In May my friend David Rovics - a wonderfully sharp, insightful and radical singer/songwriter from the US, if you didn't see him on tour with me last year - is returning to these shores and we're touring together. If you're interested in putting us on together email me. And if you don't know David's stuff, check out www.davidrovics.com. He really is the modern Woody Guthrie and then some!

As mentioned in previous news items, our Beer and Music Festival here in Southwick, Glastonwick, has been scuppered by the twits at Southwick 'Community' (!) Association. However, we will be holding Glastonwake at Shoreham Airport Bar on Fri 30 and Sat 31 May. It won't be Glastonwick. But it will be good!

Hope to see you somewhere......

News Update - December 2002

RIP GLASTONWICK!

and for no good reason.......what a bloody shame.

Glastonwick, the annual Southwick Beer, Music, Poetry and More Beer Festival which we have run in our home village for the last seven years, is no more. Despite being the most successful community event ever seen in Southwick, giving about 1500 people a really good time every year and making profits of many thousands of pounds each year for Southwick Community Association, their trustees have told us they are refusing to host it at the Barn Theatre and Community Centre again. The reason they gave is they "haven't got enough volunteers to staff it" - which is nonsense. For every one volunteer they provide we provide five, and we could easily provide ten. Their definition of "community" is very bizarre, and it obviously doesn't include us.

If you have enjoyed Glastonwick in the past, you may have come in the future, or you simply like the idea of a festival where BOTH the real ales from small independent breweries AND the music are excellent (at other festivals I've been to it's always been one or the other, but everyone who has been agreed we've cracked it!) please e-mail Southwick Community Association's trustees your feelings (as politely as you can) at enquiries@southwickcommunitycentre.org.uk and copy your message to our local paper, the Brighton Evening Argus at rowan.dore@theargus.co.uk because many of their staff came to Glastonwick too, they are as fed up as we are, and this one will run and run! Cheers everyone. We won't be beaten. If anyone (CAMRA, breweries, local council ents officers, where are you?) has any suggestions or proposals - anywhere in the country - for taking the Glastonwick "good beer and good music/poetry" idea somewhere else, then we, the organisers, would love to hear from you at this address. Alex Hall, Beer Maestro, probably has contacts with more small independent breweries than anyone else on the planet. And we know lots of musicians and poets! We will be holding "Glastonwick - The Wake" at Shoreham Airport Bar on either or both of the 30th and 31st of May as part of the Adur Festival. It won't be Glastonwick. But it will be good...

Please forward this email to anyone you know who enjoyed our festival. And thanks to all of you who came!

Meanwhile the rest of my life goes on apace and there are loads of gigs, in the UK and abroad, in place for 2003 with more to come.

Wonderfully perceptive, radical US singer songwriter David Rovics is back next year and we're touring together in May. If you'd like to put us on, please get in touch!

NEWS UPDATE - NOVEMBER 2002

Coming back to the Netherlands for six shows in December. It's been a while and I'm looking forward to it! Thanks to Simonski in Amsterdam for organisation and publicity and to everyone who's putting on a show. I do most of my mainland European gigs in the German speaking countries these days and it will be great to be back for the first time in a couple of years....all dates are here.

My October solo tour of Switzerland, Germany and Austria was very rewarding, especially from the language point of view: it was great to stand on stage and talk in German for hours! Before that, myself and my band Barnstormer were in Poland (for the first time) and Germany....lots of gigs in the second half of the year, very few of them in the UK. This situation will be rectified early in the New Year!

NEWS UPDATE - OCTOBER 2002

WE MADE IT THE BIG ONE FOR OTWAY!

On Sunday 6 October my old mate John Otway became a Top Ten, Two Hit Wonder (25 years after the first Hit) as his new single 'Bunsen Burner' entered the charts at NUMBER NINE! The 50th birthday present he wanted, a fantastic effort by everyone involved, and a big two fingers to bland teen pap pop smegma and the machinations of the corporate music industry. Above all, a massive blow for FAN POWER - the single was chosen by the fans, put into the Top 10 by the fans and hopefully will stay there for a bit since Otway and the Big Band (all old mates of mine, especially Richard Holgarth who has played on quite a few of my recordings) will be on TOP OF THE POPS on Friday 11th October!

Rarely have I seen a happier human being than Otway at his London Palladium gig last Sunday to celebrate the Hit...

A wonderful success, and it couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke. Well done to the Otway Hit Squad for all their hard work getting the records in the shops and of course to everyone who bought the Hit... and if you haven't got it yet, buy one and help keep Otway in the charts for as long as possible! I'm happy to say that myself and Robina will be joining in the celebrations at this year's Otway Dunkerque Trip in November, so if you're going, see you there! While Otway and the lads are live on TOTP I'll be in Dortmund as part of my first mainland solo poetry/music tour for 4 years covering Germany, Austria and Switzerland and featuring stacks of new material. A short solo tour of Holland is in the pipeline for December as well. In between I shall be cheering Brighton (now under the guidance of Steve Coppell, who used to manage our rivals Crystal Palace...) off the bottom of Division One! If the Albion can do as well as Otway in the next few weeks we won't be going down....no way...!

Cheers everyone!
Attila

NEWS UPDATE - SPRING 2002

It was with great pride and pleasure that I stood in the centre circle at the Withdean Stadium at half time last Saturday (13th April) and performed 'Poetry in Promotion', my final poem for the 2001-2 season as Poet in Residence at Brighton & Hove Albion, to celebrate our second successive Championship! After the long, hard battle we all fought to save our club, things are looking better and better! You can read the latest poem and many other football poems here.

Lots of gigs coming up in the next three months: solo, with my band Barnstormer (in the UK and Germany) and a few with soon to be TWO-hit wonder OTWAY (see below!) Hope to see you somewhere! And I'm very much looking forward to touring the East Coast of the USA with TV Smith in July.......

Some overseas visitors joining me at the forthcoming gigs as well. MICK THOMAS, Australia's finest songwriter bar none, is over in in the UK in May/June - I'm doing a show in Bath with him and setting up a few more gigs for him as part of his tour (he will be doing Glastonwick this year) Mick's UK tour itinerary is at http://www.mickthomas.com

Also at the gig in Bath and doing lots of other shows in May with me as a double bill is DAVID ROVICS from New York, the best new (to me) radical political songwriter I have heard for years, very much in the Ochs/Seeger/Guthrie tradition but firmly rooted in the 21st century - and indeed post September 11th. He says the things about America that the rest of the world is thinking! Lots of info on David and his full itinerary at http://www.davidrovics.com

Last but not least is GEOFF BERNER from Vancouver, an unclassifiable, deranged klesmer-punk accordionist/songwriter (!) who will be opening for Barnstormer in Ipswich and doing shows at the Schooner in Southwick (with Leon Rosselson) and the Evening Star in Brighton, among others..info below and more at at http://www.geoffberner.com

The entertainment line-up and booking details for our Glastonwick Beer, Music, Poetry and More Beer Festival, indisputably the high spot of the year in Southwick and now in its seventh year, can be found here.

We are also now running a new monthly series of gigs at THE SCHOONER on Southwick seafront.

HELP MY MATE OTWAY HAVE ANOTHER HIT!

This is also the year when my good mate, sometime double act partner and soon to be FORMER one-hit wonder OTWAY HAS ANOTHER HIT, given to him by us, his fans as a 50th birthday present on Sunday October 6th! He's been a one hit wonder ('Cor Baby That's Really Free' if you've been living on Mars or are a lot younger than we are!!) for far too long and we're going to change all that.....

If you would like to be part of OTWAY'S HIT SQUAD and help him HAVE ANOTHER HIT, get on Top of the Pops and subvert the entire corporate music industry in the process (it's possible, very possible - some of you will know that the same internet-based process already got him voted the UK's 7th best lyricist in a national poll, beating Bob Dylan!) email patsy@elvis.com and in any case have a look at the website: http://www.otnews.net

LET'S MAKE THIS THE BIG ONE FOR OTWAY!

NEWS UPDATE - NOVEMBER 2001

November - December sees myself and my band Barnstormer doing our biggest ever European tour - 19 dates in 19 days in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Bis dann/a bientot/see you there! If you have any problems finding any venues please email michel@indiepunk.de and he'll send you the address, but most of them are pretty well known and the gigs should be well publicised locally. This tour is our first major one with our new Lancastrian (via Worthing) Hull City supporting bass player Tom Muir and as a four piece (with former bass player Dan Woods now on guitar, M.M.McGhee as ever on drums, and me on everything else).

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Martin Fish and Tim O'Tay for their sterling contributions in the first six years of Barnstormer! Tim is now involved in a new project called Acoustic 80s and Martin is concentrating on The Fish Brothers...if 'concentrating' is the right word! Cheers both of you......

To those who have asked when Barnstormer will do more UK shows, especially up North - I PROMISE there will be some in 2002.

NEWS UPDATE - OCTOBER 2001

GOLDSTONE GHOSTS

'Goldstone Ghosts,' my new book of football poems, is now available. Although there is no doubt that it certainly helps a great deal if you like football - and specifically Brighton & Hove Albion FC - I really don't think it's essential. These poems are about much more than events on the pitch - and there is a 'history' section to explain the background to the book for non-football fans.

It's the story in verse of our battle to save our club from greedy moneymen and a celebration of our recent renaissance. You may well enjoy it even if you're not interested in football!

Available for £3 from the Club Shop in Queen's Road, Brighton, Borders in Churchill Square, Waterstone's in North Street, the Evening Star in Surrey Street, Parrish's Newsagents in Southwick Square, Southwick and Atomic Sounds in Shoreham. For everyone who isn't from Brighton for £3.50 inc P&P from my PO Box address. SEAGULLS!



POET IN RESIDENCE AT BHAFC - FOR EVER?!

I had a really enjoyable first season as Poet in Residence at my beloved Brighton and Hove Albion FC (enjoyable in every sense, since my poetry over the P.A. system before our home games went down pretty well, I wrote nearly 30 new poems for my book - see below - and most importantly of all we won the Third Division Championship, our first piece of silverware since 1964, and all this in our Centenary season!)

I say 'first season' because the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Club, Dick Knight and Martin Perry,always very supportive, have asked me to continue in this position for the indefinite future, and of course I'm very happy to accept!

So visitors to the Withdean Stadium will still hear the occasional pre-match poem from me over the PA , and of course I will be continuing my role as stadium announcer, playing the pre-match music (no Phil Collins, as much punk rock as I can get away with!) and doing the announcements along with my colleagues Paul and Richard. And in the 'roll of honour' at the front of the Club programme you'll still find 'Poet in Residence' between 'Physiotherapist' and 'Programme Editor!' 'Happy to say that this season is going as well as the last - no one can say we don't deserve it!'



WEBSITE

Thanks very much to Klaus Fleischer for his sterling work in setting up my website and running it for the last three years. He's very busy and has had to resign from the post. Since I remain a completely unreconstructed Luddite (appropriate for one of New Model Army's biggest fans, I guess!) it is now in the capable hands of Marcus Williamson, and I am very grateful to him for volunteering to take it over!

www.attilathestockbroker.com will be regularly updated.......




If you want to keep in touch, the best way is to join the newsletter mailing list - and if you like an argument, join the discussion group - there's nearly always something going on!

Cheers Attila