Attila The Stockbroker is the stage name of John Baine, an English punk poet, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter from Southwick, United Kingdom, born in 1957. He performs solo and with Barnstormer 1649, a band that combines early music and punk, and has also led his medieval punk project Barnstormer for many years.

Work and recordings

He releases poetry, punk and punk poetry, and has issued more than forty recordings, including albums and singles. He also has eight books of poems and an autobiography. His work crosses performance, music and print, and he writes as well as performs.

Early punk and touring

His first punk gig takes place in 1977, when he plays bass in Brighton Riot Squad at the Vault in Brighton. He gains wider attention through John Peel on BBC Radio 1 in the early 1980s and goes on to tour extensively for decades as a self-sustaining DIY performer. He tours East Germany four times before the Berlin Wall comes down and twice soon afterwards, and he performs in the first punk show in Stalinist Albania. He is also due to play in North Korea at one point but has to decline because of a booked tour in Canada.

Political and cultural activity

Attila The Stockbroker is closely associated with political punk and activism. He is targeted by fascists in the early 1980s, and he once has a long political argument with Skrewdriver singer Ian Stuart during a Black Flag gig at the 100 Club in London. His support slots include Manic Street Preachers, Julian Clary, New Model Army and Billy Bragg. He has also stood in for Donny Osmond at a gig. As a journalist, he writes for NME, Sounds, Time Out, The Guardian and The Independent, and he contributes a regular column to The Morning Star.

Books, festivals and football

His autobiography combines personal history with political and cultural movements, including Rock Against Racism, the Anti Nazi League, the Miners’ Strike, the Wapping dispute, Red Wedge, the Poll Tax campaign and protests against two Gulf Wars. It also draws on his tours in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the USA and mainland Europe, and especially his time performing in East Germany during political change. In the UK, he appears at Glastonbury Festival every year since 1983 and organises Glastonwick, a beer and music event in West Sussex. He is also involved in a 15-year campaign to save Brighton & Hove Albion FC.