visitors since 4 August 2001 100,000 visitors in 4 years - keep 'em coming!
Sharp-tongued, high energy, social surrealist rebel poet and songwriter. His themes are topical, his words hard-hitting, his
politics unashamedly radical, but Attila will make you roar with laughter as well as seethe with anger...
Inspired by the spirit and 'Do It Yourself' ethos of punk rock,
and above all by The Clash and their overtly radical, political stance, he started as a punk bass player in 1977 and took the name Attila the Stockbroker in 1980, blagging spots for his poems and songs in between bands at punk gigs. He quickly got a couple of John Peel radio sessions, a deal with London independent record label Cherry Red Records and before very long was on the front cover of Melody Maker...and he hasn't
looked back since! He celebrated the 25th anniversary of his first gig with a sold out show at the Komedia Theatre in Brighton on September 8th 2005.
Attila has spent the last 25 years performing his work across the world
at literary and music festivals, rock venues, arts centres, pubs,
universities, schools, folk clubs and punk squats in the UK, Germany,
the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the US,
Euskadi, France, Scandinavia, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, Italy,
Poland, Hungary - and more improbably in Romania, Bulgaria, Czech
Republic and a hotel basement in Stalinist Albania.
He's created his own global network,
organises most of his own gigs (and many for other performers at various one-off
events and festivals and at the regular spoken word/music events he runs in his native
Brighton) and is very proud to have earned a
living as a poet since 1982.
He's released 14 music/poetry albums in 5 countries and 4 books of
poems: 'Cautionary Tales for Dead Commuters' (Unwin Paperbacks, 1985),
'Scornflakes' (Bloodaxe, 1992), 'The Rat-tailed Maggot and Other Poems'
(1998) and and 'Goldstone Ghosts' (September 2001).
He's written for many national and local
publications including The Guardian, Time Out, NME, Sounds Magazine, The Independent...done
loads of radio and TV work...but writing the words and music for his own performances
and those of his band is what inspires him most.
Attila loves humour (wit, wickedness,
satire, subversion) and hates 'comedy' (bland jokes about Seventies TV, adverts
for undrinkable beer, endless moronic game shows, corporate gravy train spotting).
In 1994 Attila formed his first-ever
band, BARNSTORMER, combining his two great musical loves - medieval music and
punk! - and giving him the chance to use his classical violin training and play
loads of his favourite medieval instruments (crumhorn anyone?). The band released
their debut album, 'The Siege of Shoreham' in 1996, and gig regularly all over
the place alongside Attilas's solo shows.
The second Barnstormer album, 'Just One Life', was released in October 2000
and the latest, 'Zero Tolerance' in March 2004.
'Live in Belfast', his latest solo CD of poems and songs, was released in March 2003.
For a full list of Attila's releases
go to the Discography section and for ones currently available
to Merchandise.
Attila also...
does sporadic double act shows with the legendary Aylesbury nutter
JOHN OTWAY
performs BELLOCOSE, a one-hour celebration of the life and work of
his mentor, the poet, satirist and historian Hilaire Belloc (as featured
on Radio Four's 'Poetry Please' and 'Pick of the Week')
is currently passionately involved in the battle for a new stadium at
Falmer for his beloved Brighton and Hove Albion FC, 2nd Division Champions 2001-2, Third Division Champions
2000-1 and on the way back at last!
‘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....
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!
Forthcoming gigs - Solo and with his 'baroque and roll' band Barnstormer