Shoreham-based punk poet Attila The Stockbroker’s seventh collection of poetry and song lyrics contains a poem he wrote for Roy Chuter after the lifelong Albion supporter took his own life in August.

The rabble rousing lyricist read it to Seagulls fans before the opening game of the season at the Amex.

Its final lines – “There in the Albion’s darkest hour... so sad we could not be in yours” – crowns a personal and fitting tribute to a man who helped save the club in the 1990s and contributed to the match day programme, as well as Gulls Eye fanzine.

Now, for the fifth annual Ropetackle Beer Festival, which celebrates a few more of Attila’s great passions, a new tipple will be brewed by Burning Sky Brewery in Chuter’s honour. Chuter had recently taken over as landlord at the Duke Of Wellington in Shoreham.

“We’ll have 28 beers from a lot of different breweries all over the country,” says Attila, a few days before the two-day bash kicks off.

“We’ll have two specials brewed by a new brewery, Burning Sky – which is Mark Tranter, who used to be with Dark Star – because we’ve had two big tragedies at the Duke Of Wellington in the last year.

“My great friend of many years and big Albion supporter Roy Chuter died, and so did Brodie Dawson who was another landlord.

“The beers – and the festival – is in their honour.”

Attila will compere the festival which features English folk rock original Robb Johnson & The Irregulars, plus radical singer-songwriter Grace Petrie.

“She’s an up and coming singer-songwriter who has been getting a lot of plays recently on Mock The Week and Radio 4,” explains Attila.

“And on Saturday we have the mighty Blyth Power doing a 30th-anniversary gig supported by Louise Distras, who is a really good young working-class singer-songwriter from Wakefield who has come out of the pub scene.”

One commentator described Distras as the love child Patti Smith and Billy Bragg never had.

The beer festival grew out of Attila’s summer Glastonwick bashes. But with that being a summer occasion, a spring gathering is another way to raise money for the Ropetackle Centre.

“We normally get 300 a night. The message is if you want to come, get your tickets in advance. It does generally sell out and it will this year.”

To keep the atmosphere on track, Attila will also read from his latest collection, UK Gin Dependence Party, whose opening tale takes aim at insular politicians.

“It’s a take on the retired Colonel Blimp-type character, the ‘let’s all go down the golf club and get p***ed and talk about black people’ sort of thing.”

Attila’s been writing and singing for more than 30 years and he’s currently putting his autobiography together before an autumn release.

He’s always written about what’s happening in the world and what’s happening to him, but digging through all the memories has made his more recent work particularly intimate and personal.

A poem to his late father-in-law called Never Too Late, is both personal and universal. Anyone who’s ever struggled, through stubbornness, to get on with others will appreciate this tale of reconciliation.

The Long Goodbye, written for and about his late mother as she struggled with Alzheimer’s, closes the collection.

“I wrote it to help her remember who she was and every time I’d read it by the end she had forgotten. It was like I had a new audience every time I read it to her. To be fair it’s got huge amount of recognition. It’s struck a chord with a lot of people.”

Albion fans amazed by the speed of change at the club might find solace in Terms And Conditions, which Attila penned after the chief executive referred to fans as customers.

“I sent it to him the day I wrote it. I get on well with Paul [Barber] but he represents everything I loathe about modern football. I am Brighton till I die and it’s not the Albion’s fault the way the game is going – but the amount of money that is sloshing around when people are living in such difficult circumstances is ludicrous.”

A fitting message indeed as Wayne Rooney demands £300,000 a week.

  • Attila first published The Long Goodbye in a pamphlet which has raised more than £2,000 for an Alzheimer’s charity. He read it on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour on Mother’s Day in 2006 and on Radio 3’s The Verb
  • To buy Attila’s UK Gin Dependence Party, visit City Books in Hove or purchase by paypal from www.attilathestockbroker.com