Billy Bragg – 40 years, 2,700 gigs and what he learnt from Taylor Swift

‘Billy Bragg: A People’s History’ is just out, a new and wholly original kind of memoir written by himself, friends, collaborators and fans, and packed with old snapshots, concert bills, reviews and ephemera. It’s very good indeed. He looks back here with us at …

 

… meeting Taylor Swift – “and we both knew who the other was!”

 

… a total of 2,700 gigs – “not counting prisons, In-Stores, Port-A-Stacks and picket lines”

 

… old blokes trying to take selfies

 

… finding old diaries in his archives and sensing how the memory plays tricks

 

… songs that get you out of trouble on stage

 

… bootlegging albums on his reel-to-reel, aged 12, complete with noises off - eg “Bridge Over Troubled Water plus a voice telling me Reach For The Sky was on telly!”

 

… a word-perfect recitation of Mr Tambourine Man

 

… listening to the Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll when the rest of the school was Glam Rock

 

… buying Ronnie Lane’s amp, “like returning home with a religious relic”

 

… “the power of music”: meeting someone who’d heard him on the radio beyond the Iron Curtain

 

… anxiety about American border control: “I was advised to get a new phone. As if that’ll make any difference. I’m Billy Bragg, political songwriter!”

 

… lost off-grid in Salt Lake City in the days before internet

 

… “Music can’t change the world but it gives you the ability to think it can be changed”

 

…plus Ian McLagan, Desmond Dekker, Ry Cooder, Jam b-sides and Motown Chartbusters Vol 3.

 

Order Billy Bragg: A People’s History here: https://burningshed.com/billy-bragg_a-peoples-history_book

 

https://www.billybragg.co.uk/product/billy-bragg-a-peoples-history-an-oral-history-in-the-words-of-people-who-have-been-moved-by-his-music/

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