“Have a good Edinburgh!” Strange phrase that, isn’t it, when the name of a city takes on a whole new meaning as an all-embracing life experience.

I mean, no-one’s ever said to me “Have a great Ipswich” or “Have a wonderful Welwyn Garden City…”

Of course, it’s all down to the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe, that ever-growing cultural extravaganza which takes over Scotland’s capital city every August, and where your humble narrator is currently doing 10 shows in nine days.

The Fringe is unrecognisable from the scruffily alternative, DIY-inspired experience I encountered when I made my first appearance in 1982, performing for a percentage of the door take at the now top-of-the-pile Assembly Rooms with Benjamin Zephaniah, Joolz and Seething Wells as “A New Variety Of Poets,” promoted by Roland Muldoon, head honcho of the legendary CAST/New Variety London cabaret circuit.

It’s another world from the improvisations of the late ’80s-early ’90s, when myself and my eccentric mate John Otway wrote a ridiculous rock opera called Cheryl and performed it — again for a percentage of the door take — at Marco’s Leisure Centre, a snooker and pool club which for three weeks in August became a seething hotbed of culture in a carefully created space between the green baize tables.

No, today’s mainstream Fringe (there’s a concept!) is dominated by a cartel of big-budget, slick impresario companies which take over the main venues, charge performers exorbitant “rents” in advance for a one-hour slot on their stages, sell tickets at exorbitant prices and — according to Unite the Union’s new Fair Fringe Campaign initiative — often treat the workers (technicians, leafleters, etc) who enable the shows to happen absolutely appallingly.

Unite’s latest report states that low pay and long hours are common and “volunteer” status even more so, with the implied assumption that the “fun” and “prestige” of being part of such a huge and varied event means that people should be prepared to work for peanuts or nothing at all.

I fully support their determination to seek fair pay and conditions for Fringe workers, and you can read all about their campaign at https://www.fairfringe.org

On the performer side of things the increased commercialisation of the Fringe and exploitation of the actual artists involved by corporate promoters meant that in about 1996 I stopped being involved.

I had always made money from my Edinburgh shows (I have to, it’s my living) and was never going to actually pay some faceless corporation for the right to do a gig. I came back in 2016 thanks to a new and totally brilliant initiative — PBH’s Free Fringe.

PBH is London cabaret performer Peter Buckley Hill, and a few years ago he had a superb idea: set up a network of Fringe venues where performers get the spaces for free and audiences pay what they like after the gig rather than buying tickets in advance.

It works brilliantly, it’s entirely performer-run, and the venues, which host the events, reap the rewards of increased food and drink sales. Simple.

No middlemen creaming money off, just a massive artists’ collective with a huge range of shows across multiple venues, and performers getting to keep every penny of what audiences put in their buckets.

It truly is back to the old DIY punk spirit, and hats off to the Free Fringe core team for their sterling work in programming the venues and co-ordinating us all. 

For this year’s offering, have a look at https://freefringe.org.uk/ or, if you’re in Edinburgh, pick up a copy of the Wee Blue Book in which all PBH shows are listed.

If you’d like to come and see my shows, I’m doing six mainly spoken word ones at 5pm at BarBados in Cowgate ( remaining ones tonight, tomorrow night and next Thurs/Fri/Sat) three mainly music ones at  5.15 at the legendary Bannermans rock n roll pub (Mon/Tues/Wed next week) and, in complete contrast, my Early Music Show in the refined classical surroundings of St Cecilia’s Hall, the Edinburgh Music Museum, at 2pm on Friday 23.

What’s a crumhorn? What’s a sausage bassoon? Come and find out!

For further information visit visit www.attilathestockbroker.com or facebook.com/attilathestockbroker or Twitter: @atilatstokbroka