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Billy Bragg

Not a lot of people I know even really know about Billy Bragg, I discovered him in about 1984 and was immediately hooked on his Brewing Up album. Billy sings his songs of love, socialism and revolution without any drums or bass, just his electric guitar and his voice. Its gritty and angry and you can probably learn more about England in one Billy Bragg album than you can in a whole textbook.

Billy Bragg wrote ‘A New England’ and Kirsty McColl made it a worldwide hit. Probably because she was a lot prettier than Billy and sang it ‘nicely’ not in an angry, shouty, broad UK accent. Kirsty McColl was killed in a bizarre speedboat accident where she was hit by some drug lord fooling around in a bay in South America where Kirsty and her family were on holiday. You can’t make this shit up !. There are a lot of vid clips of Billy doing ‘A New England’ but I prefer this old clip of a young Billy Bragg singing like he did when I first heard him in about 1982, amazing stuff \m/

JAMES DAUBENEY