Heart on My Sleeve: Collected Works 1980-2020
by Attila the Stockbroker
(Cherry Red Books, £14.99)

REGULAR Morning Star readers need no introduction to Attila the Stockbroker. Performance poet, musician and staunch socialist, his bimonthly diary — often bulletins from his shows in far-flung outposts and latterly, in the absence of gigs, his ruminations on music, poetry and  life in lockdown — has long been a favourite read of the people’s paper.

Already a bolshy young bolshie, in the late 1970s the advent of punk rock in general and the Clash in particular drew young John Baine to appreciate the DIY aspect of entertainment and its links with politics, first as organiser and master of ceremonies for Rock Against Racism gigs and, increasingly, as performer.

His new book Heart on My Sleeve was due to be launched last September with a celebratory tour here and abroad to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Baine’s first gig under his Attila nom de guerre — a reference to his barbarian tendencies during his thankfully short stint in a “proper” job as a clerk in the City — but the pandemic knocked that for six. However, he’s far from silenced, switching performances to Facebook Live.

Sharp of wit in person and on paper, he can be pithy and persuasive or eloquent and expansive — but never dull. Forty years on the road, organising his own tours, publishing and recording, have only honed his skills, not diminished them.

And this mighty 330-page anthology, featuring over 180 works — mainly verse, a bit of prose, the best of his lyrics — picked by the bard himself, is a fitting monument to a career that has taken him, so far, from Wellingborough and Wigan to Albania and Australia and back.

Interspersed with illustrations by Phill Jupitus, Womble, Dan Woods and Nick Staples, the words are divided into themed chapters that give a good and full account of the man.

Of course, Attila’s fascinations and obsessions are here, from Brighton & Hove Albion to the eastern bloc and, while the world has changed over those 40 years, the outlook for the ordinary folk remains the same: it might be bleak, but never hopeless.

Even constrained — or perhaps freed — by metre, Undaunted, Attila’s verse commentary on the fall of the Berlin Wall and what lay beyond is sharp.

Wit and levity are in constant supply, from the Load of Bellocs chapter’s childlike delight in its menagerie of creepy-crawlies to the mind-blowing fantasy North Korea Mourns Comrade Mickey Finn of T Rex: two ticks on your Attila bingo card right there.

But if the laughs are long and hearty, for me and, I suspect, for many readers of a certain age, it’s the stuff that’s closer to home that will endure. His love for his wife Robina, his relationships with his mum, dad and stepdad are all here  — funny, poignant and truly “heart on my sleeve” stuff.

It’s great to have all this stuff in one compendium and Attila’s most recent reflections, on Brexit, the lockdown and his scary lung condition, are a welcome bonus for even the most dedicated fan.

It’s a perfect companion piece to Attila’s excellent autobiography Arguments Yard: 35 Years of Ranting Verse and Thrash Mandola, which will get a-five year update and reprint later in the year.

Heart on My Sleeve is available from attilathestockbroker.bandcamp.com, most bookstores, real and virtual, and from Cherry Red Records.