GREETINGS from Belfast, where I wrote today’s column. It’s so wonderful to be back! 

I have a long history here, having gigged in this vibrant, welcoming city for 40 years. I started in the ’80s, during the worst of the Troubles, at Queen’s University and the legendary Errigle Inn, then the pioneering cross-denominational school Lagan College, then the late lamented Warzone Centre — where I recorded a live album, imaginatively entitled Live in Belfast, in 2004 — followed by the Rotterdam Bar and most recently at the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival and, last Wednesday, at the Black Box as part of Imagine Belfast Festival.

It has been so good to see the city blossom in recent times as the desperate days of the past recede into the background. Also wonderful to come in on the ferry from Cairnryan in Scotland for the first time, following a long drive to Dumfries and a gig there last Tuesday.

Thursday I was in Derry at the brilliant rebel bar Sandino’s, Friday in Lurgan and today I’m playing the Grand Central in Dublin as special guests of Menace, legendary English punks with Irish roots. Tomorrow I’m back over the water at Mac Arts in Galashiels for the first time, and Monday sees the long journey home. 

I get around. 

Last Saturday was a very poignant day: the final gig at The Art House in Southampton, which has closed after 15 years. Having played there at least 10 times, myself and my band Barnstormer 1649 were proud to have been asked to do the last show, and it was lovely — happy and sad at the same time. 
 
Bick, Jani and the crew will carry on galvanising the local scene with all kinds of things as Bunker178 Events but the overwhelming costs and, crucially, lack of support from the corporate music world/Arts Council/everyone who should be nurturing and supporting the grassroots rather than just raking in profits and backing mainstream and often elitist projects finally overwhelmed them, as it has done so many others.
 
An incoming Labour government must enforce a levy on corporate promoters and streaming services to support the venues where everything begins, and where so many of us in the alternative scene ply our trade. I have spent 43 years in them, and I can tell you that they — the ones still surviving — have never been more threatened by rising costs and ludicrously out of touch funding organisations. 

Keep Music Live.
 
And before that, a week and a bit ago, Brighton bowed out of Europe after a great first season. We did the double over Ajax and beat AEK Athens, Marseille and Roma. Injuries and exhaustion did for us, as the pundits said they would, but we’ve had a wonderful time. I’m certain we’ll be back and our fans did us proud, as we have since the 1990s! 

And hats off to our North Stand Kollective for their response to some nasty incidents courtesy of the AS Roma ultras at the game in Rome. “Totti loves pineapple on pizza” said our banner, a reference to the iconic Roma forward and the ultimate Italian food crime. It went viral, causing hilarity across the football world: we do things differently in Brighton and we have certainly made an impact in our first season! 
 
Next week we’re away at Liverpool and, of course, I have gigs planned around the game: Coventry on Friday, Liverpool Saturday and Chorley Sunday. 
 
Finally for this week, another great big red salute to the indefatigable and brilliant Joe Solo, whose new album Sledgehammer Songs is his best yet. Fifteen absolute bangers in the great political tradition of Hanns Eisler and Bertolt Brecht: art as hammer AND mirror, the heart of a lion, the soul of Kevin Rowland and balls the size of watermelons. As someone who writes sledgehammer songs too, I raise my hat to him, and his collaborators Commoners’ Choir, Rebekah Findlay and Jess Silk.

There’s a great tongue-in-cheek swipe at Billy Bragg with This Guitar Refuses To Apologise, an anthem for all with Raise Your Voice and Sing, a hymn to punk rock with On a 45, and Bryan Adams goes Commie 20 years on with Summer of 89. BUY IT! All proceeds to the struggle, as ever. 

Joe Solo, you make Stakhanov look like a lazy f*cker. 

Sledgehammer Songs is available to buy from joesolomusic.bandcamp.com

For further info, please visit facebook.com/attilathestockbroker and/or https://attilathestockbroker.bandcamp.com/merch