Attila the Stockbroker – bringing politics, poo, poetry, crumhorn and recorder to Belfast on Wednesday evening (The Black Box as part of #ImagineBelfast)

Attila the Stockbroker certainly has stamina. Two John Peel sessions in 1982 have been followed by more than 40 years of performing in 25 countries* and over 4,000 gigs, not to mention 20 albums, eight books of poetry and his recent appointment as the Pooet in Residence at the National Poo Museum on the Isle of Wight.

This Wednesday evening he’s in The Black Box as part of the Imagine! Festival of Ideas and Politics, aiming to make people think, laugh and cry all in the space of about 75 minutes.

Attila (John Baine’s stage name) says he started out “as a kind of an angry ranting poet, jumping up on stage between bands at punk gigs”. Today, he’s “still an angry ranting poet, although I tend to jump up on stage between bands of punk gigs less than I used to”. But he continues to write and rant about politics, social issues, existential threats to the world, as well as deeply personal things related to his own life and family. After all these year, he’s still never lost his sense of punk and people coming together. 

 

Throughout the years, the performance poet and musician has repeatedly visited Northern Ireland, playing in the Errigle Inn, Queen’s University, the Rotterdam Bar, recording a live album in the late Warzone Centre, and even doing a turn at Lagan College. He speaks of previous gigs in Northern Ireland with great affection, so when he tells me “it’s one of my favourite places to gig in the world” I think he truly means it.

Attila works a lot of life experiences, hopes, dreams and frustrations into his music and poetry, but doesn’t see writing and performing as a form of therapy. Basically, “I don’t have an embarrassment gene: I have an over-abundance of self-confidence [and] it just comes out of me, I can’t stop it”.

“The reason that I love [performing] so much is precisely because I’ve done it on my own terms. I’ve never tried to fit in. I’ve never tried to become a celebrity by following the kind of career path where you get a PR person and they try and fit you in a category and sell you to people. I’ve never wanted that. All I’ve ever wanted is to write and perform, have an audience, and earn a living. And that’s what I’ve done and that’s what I’m doing. And I absolutely love it, now at 66 as much as when I started at 21. I mean, I can say no more than that.”

The running order changes between – and even during – shows. His upcoming Edinburgh run will be promoted as 14 completely different shows in 14 days, with no repeated material (and only delving into maybe a third of his back catalogue).

On Wednesday, expect to hear some of his early material as well as the latest work, and maybe even some scatological material. His role as Pooet in Residence isn’t just an excuse to make jokes about poo – though I fully expect him to take every chance to do so – but it offers an opportunity to raise awareness of bowel cancer. And as a bladder cancer survivor, Attila has already written a lot about the glories of flexible cystoscopy. (In the screenshot from our chat, he’s holding the museum’s mascot Poobert Turdock!)

And expect a wide variety of style and form with some early music, dub poetry, spoken word, and his own style of rap. While some might argue that his inclusion of live music featuring crumhorns and recorders in the show might require a trigger warning, he profoundly disagrees. But you’d expect the founder of the Recorder Liberation Front to say that even if the instrument “has been continuously played longer than any other musical instrument in Western culture”. In a moment of selling snow to Eskimos, he’s also bringing his fiddle with him on Wednesday. Just don’t expect any ukulele or techno music – those are properly beyond Attila’s pale.

His beloved Brighton & Hove Albion may get a mention too. The team won their last match in the UEFA Europa League 1-0 against Roma but lost on aggregate (first leg was 0-4). Still not bad for a that were Division 3 back in 2000 and whose league performance chart looks like a FTSE stock you’d want to avoid investing in.

Attila the Stockbroker is playing The Black Box on Wednesday from 8pm (doors open 7.30pm). Some tickets are still available through the Imagine! Belfast website. The next evening, he’ll be up in Sandinos Bar in Derry.

 * Attila has performed in French and German, and his ‘Informburo’ website was involved in the first ever punk performance in Stalinist Albania, and turned down playing in North Korea because he was already booked to tour ‘sensible’ Canada.