The Gig Cartel - Artist profiles: Billy Bragg

Billy Bragg has been a fearless recording artist, tireless live performer and peerless political campaigner for over 35 years. Honoured with the PRS Outstanding Contribution to British Music award at the Ivor Novello awards in May 2018, he is regarded a valuable statesman and activist. He has released 12 studio albums: Life’s a Riot with Spy Vs Spy(‘83), Brewing Up With Billy Bragg (’84), Talking With The Taxman About Poetry (’86), Workers Playtime (’88), Don’t Try This At Home (’91), William Bloke (’96), Mermaid Avenue [with Wilco] (’98), Mermaid Ave Vol 2 [with Wilco] (’00), England, Half English (’02), Mr Love & Justice (’08), Tooth & Nail (’13), Shine a Light: Field Recordings from the Great American Railroad[with Joe Henry] (’16), and numerous compilations, the most recent being 2019’s ‘The Best Of Billy Bragg At The BBC’. His peerless career has been marked by numerous milestones, including a number one hit single, having a street named after him, meeting the Queen, being the subject of a South Bank Show, appearing onstage at Wembley Stadium, curating Left Field at Glastonbury through thick and thin, and once sharing spotted dick with a Cabinet minister in the House of Commons cafeteria. Earning a mention in Bob Dylan’s memoir, he is the author of three non-fiction books, the second of which, Roots, Radicals & Rockers, was shortlisted for the Penderyn Music Book award and was source material for a BBC4 documentary about the skiffle classic Rock Island Line. Still as relevant as ever, in 2019 he sold out his three night special ‘One Step Forward, Two Steps Back’ tour at venues across the US and UK, making new fans and stirring the blood of older ones. All of which proves that at their best, Billy’s songs present what the Guardian called ‘the perfect Venn diagram between the political and the personal.’