Attila The Stockbroker’s 40th anniversary tour of Wales comes to Ceredigion this Friday.
The punk poet, latterly dub poet, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, exploded into public consciousness in 1982-3 via two John Peel sessions and a Melody Maker front cover and is now celebrating 40 years earning a living doing what he loves.
So far he has played 4,000 gigs in 24 countries, released some 20 CDs/LPs eight books of poems, his autobiography, Arguments Yard, and his collected works Heart on my Sleeve.
His latest album is a dub poetry collection called 40 Years In Rhyme with rhythms from Kingsley Salmon and What’s Left Dub. His current performance comprises spoken word, dub poetry, acoustic songs, a bit of early music on ancient instruments and, in Wales, a smidgeon of Welsh. He’s just written his first poem in it, Cerdd i David, a tribute to his late friend Dave Datblygu.
In the mid eighties, Attila met up with, gigged with and befriended Welsh language punk pioneers Anhrefn and Datblygu and organised their first gigs in England.
He has had links with the scene ever since, done countless gigs all over Wales, and as a keen linguist he has for years now acquired bits of Welsh from road and shop signs and the brilliant lyrics of his friend David R Edwards, poet and leader of Datblygu, who died during lockdown, and as a tribute to him Attila has started a project called Dim Google Translate.
See Attila The Stockbroker at Ceredigion Museum this Friday, 24 February, at 7.30pm.