Attila the Stockbroker

Antiwar songs by Attila the Stockbroker
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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, Attila started performing 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!

Attila has spent the last 24 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, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the US, Euskadi, France, Scandinavia, 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.