Showing posts with label Billy Bragg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Billy Bragg. Show all posts
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Beyond the Maypole Documentary ft. Billy Bragg, Oyster Band and more
In this documentary the late Biggie Tembo (of Zimbabwean band The Bhundu Boys) does a fascinating inversion of the staid reporter goes to a strange land to investigate its traditional music trope. In "darkest England", Tembo reports on the still-earnest but creatively vibrant English folk scene of the mid-eighties featuring The Barely Works, Kathryn Tickell, Billy Bragg, The Oyserband, Robb Johnson and more besides.
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Labels:
Billy Bragg,
Oyster Band
Sunday, July 14, 2013
V.A. Not Just Mandela (1986)
Thanks to BarrieB for donating this rip and scan which this re-up is built around.
Not Just Mandela is a 1986 anti-apartheid benefit L.P. on Davy's Lamp Records that features a rip-roarin' rarity called "Africa" by a Billy Bragg/Neurotics alliance as well as some good hard-to-find tracks by The Housemartins, The Internationalists and Attila The Stockbroker.It's another in a line of politically-inspired British compilations of the eighties we've discussed HERE and HERE.
Tracklist
A1 Billy Bragg With The Neurotics – Africa
A2 Real By Reel – Fighting Talk
A3 Porky The Poet – Nobby
A4 Paul Howard – We Will Win
A5 Some Other Day – Bury Your Sins
B1 Attila The Stockbroker – The Ballad Of Airstrip One
B2 The Sullivans – Falling For Nothing
B3 Porky The Poet – Beano
B4 Internationalists – Every Fifth Man Is Guilty
B5 Housemartins – You
Hey, you. reader! Let us know your thoughts on this very rare (and slightly earnest collection) in the COMMENTS section!
Friday, May 11, 2012
Words by Woody: Guthrie's Greatest Gifts
Listening to the new box set, from Billy Bragg & Wilco, Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions got me thinking about what are the best adaptions of Woody Guthrie's words to the music of others:
1: Bob Dylan & Joan Baez: Deportees (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)
When schoolteacher Martin Hoffman set this 1948 Guthrie poem about the dehumanization of immigrants to music he really could not have know how germane those words would be to American politics fifty years later or that he would start a trend still booming to this day. His version was spread by Pete Seeger and became a centerpiece of Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue of the mid-seventies.
Bob Dylan & Joan Baez - Deportee by vicky7xthomas
2: Billy Bragg & Wilco: Way Over Yonder in a Minor Key
The nineties may not have been Brit folk-punker Billy Bragg's best decade as a solo artist but his success in bringing Woody Guthrie into the 21st century, a task for which he was anointed by Nora Guthrie, will remain one of the most celebrated accomplishments of his life.
3: Wilco & Billy Bragg: California Stars
Despite having a less reverent, historically-minded view of the task of adapting Guthrie's words than Mr. Bragg, Chicago alt-country/NOT alt-country band Wilco drew up a stellar set of songs in order to play The Band to Bragg's Dylan.
4. Jim James, Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, and Anders Parker: Careless Reckless Love
Curious that Nora Guthrie chose to have Jay Farrar, former partner of Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, into the archives but the results are pretty as hell, so let us ignore any subtext in her choice.
5. The Dropkick Murphys: Shipping Up to Boston
Boston celtic-punks The Dropkick Murphy's earned a trip to the Guthrie Archives and came out of with one of their most famous songs and an appearance in Martin Scorsese's The Departed.
6. The Klezmatics: Mermaid Avenue
New York Jewish-folk preservationists, the Klezamtics celebrated another aspect of Woody's words with two [!] collections, Wonder Wheel (2006) and Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah (2006).
So what's the most successful melding of Woody's words and modern music? Let us know in the COMMENTS section.
Labels:
Billy Bragg,
Bob Dylan,
Dropkick Murphys,
Jay Farrar,
Klezmatics,
Wilco,
Woody Guthrie
Saturday, July 2, 2011
V.A. Revolution No. 9 A Tribute to the Beatles (1991)

So three years after Sergeant Pepper Knew My Father (see HERE) raised the profile of UK indie-pop in 1988, someone must've decided that a sequel was in order. Only Billy Bragg (more HERE) and Frank Sidebottom (R.I.P.) remain in the cast and a new charitable plot was duly crafted ( "All profits raised by this album are being donated to Oxfam to help their relief program in Cambodia. War is over if you want it").

So were back in the pre-Nirvana UK underground and it`s gonna be a mixed bag according to your personal bias. Certainly this album has personal faves (Billy Bragg, Heavenly, Mega City Four, Senseless Things) as well artists I appreciate (Paul Weller solo, John Otway, The Pooh Sticks) plus a dose of artists I cannot for the life of me recall a thing about (everybody else). You`re take on it may well differ...
1 Revolution - Billy Bragg 1:50
2 True Life Hero - Pooh Sticks 2:16
3 She Said, She Said - Driscolls 3:29
4 Across the Universe - Family Cat 4:10
5 I Must Be in Love - Senseless Things 1:57
6 Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) - Moonflowers 5:24
7 I Am the Walrus - John Otway 3:23
8 All to Much Loves - Young Nightmare 4:33
9 Don't Let Me Down - Paul Weller 4:05
10 If I Needed Someone - Anyways 3:33
11 It Won't Be Long - Heavenly 2:08
12 A Hard Day's Night - Mega City Four 2:55
13 Flying - Frank Sidebottom 2:18
14 Drive My Car - Brilliant Corners 3:27
15 I'm Only Sleeping - Family 3:14
16 Rain - Beatle Hans & The Paisley Pervers 4:40
So which do you reckon is the better tribute album, Revolution No. 9 or Sergeant Pepper Knew My Father. Leave us a COMMENT (which is where you`ll find the Revolution No. 9 link)
P.S. Having brought two of my regular muses, Billy Bragg and Mega City Four together (via The Beatles) you might well expect it's time for another holiday in MC4 and you'd be right but I have a little personal archaeology to drag you through first...
Don't missMRML's
Summer Punk
collection HERE
Labels:
Billy Bragg,
Mega City Four
Friday, July 1, 2011
Discount: Love, Billy (Bragg)

Discount were 2nd tier members of the hard-touring, wildly-prolific indie-punk underground of the nineties but by now they are just the first entry on Alison Mosshart's (The Kills, The Dead Weather) resume. So around the time they were releasing split singles with J Church, touring on the cheap and sleeping on floors the band stopped to cover five Billy Bragg songs for this 1998 E.P. on Fueled By Ramen Records, Love, Billy. The covers give a a bashing American pop-punk reading to some less obvious Bragg songs (only "Help Save the Youth of America" is from his foundational period).
You can let us know what you think of these Bragg covers in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find the Love, Billy link).
Labels:
Billy Bragg,
Discount
Thursday, June 30, 2011
V.A. Sergeant Pepper Knew My Father (1988)

Sergeant Pepper Knew My Father was a benefit album for Childline that included a load of late eighties British alterna-rockers covering The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in its entirety. The long out-of-print albums' hit was sorta smarmy version of "With a Little Help From My Friends" by Wet Wet Wet which was very strangely made a double A-side with Billy Bragg's version of "She's Leaving Home", thereby allowing Bragg (fully embracing his Cara Tivey side) to have a number-one-hit-by-association.
So while I'm not sure this contribution showcases Billy at his best, it's great to hear Sonic Youth , The Wedding Present and The Fall adding a dose of grubbiness to this whole affair.

Tracklisting:
A1 The Three Wize Men - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
A2 Wet Wet Wet - With A Little Help From My Friends
A3 The Christians - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
A4 The Wedding Present with Amelia Fletcher - Getting Better
A5 Hue & Cry - Fixing A Hole
A6 Billy Bragg with Cara Tivey - She's Leaving Home
A7 Frank Sidebottom - Being For Benefit Of Mr. Kite
B1 Sonic Youth - Within You Without You
B2 Courtney Pine Quartet - When I'm Sixty-Four
B3 Michelle Shocked - Lovely Rita
B4 The Triffids - Good Morning Good Morning
B5 The Three Wize Men - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
B6 The Fall - A Day In The Life
So tell us what you make of this strange passel of eighties UK indie bands? Leave us a COMMENT (wherein you'll find the link).
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Nigel and The Crosses (R.E.M., Soft Boys, Squeeze and Bragg

While I'm not YET prepared to go right down the Robyn Hitchcock rabbit hole, his best songs ("I Wanna Destroy You", "Have a Heart Betty, I'm Not Fireproof, "Queen of Eyes", Cynthia Mask" and I know I've hardly scratched the surface thus far) are mercilessly wonderful.
Nigel & The Crosses was the band name for Hitchcock plus various combinations of Peter Buck, Peter Holsapple, Glenn Tilbrook, Mike Mills, Billy Bragg, Andy Metcalf & Morris Windsor. This bootleg from a 1989 show at The Borerline in London features a great set list of both originals and covers in excellent sound quality.
Setlist :
- I Wanna Destroy You
- She Said She Said
- Eight Miles High
- Queen Of Eyes
- Waterloo Sunset
- America
- Freeze
- The Veins Of The Queen
- Birdshead
- Rain
- Flesh Number One
- Bells Of Rhymney
- The Rumour
- Kingdom Of Love
- Listening To The Higsons
- Revolution Number One
- Sin City
- Route 66
- You Ain't Going Nowhere
- I Saw Her Standing There
- Foxy Lady
Labels:
Billy Bragg,
Robyn Hitchcock
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Billy Bragg: Joe Strummer Tribute (2003)

While former Clash-man Joe Strummer seemed to visibly struggle with his agitator personae as he aged, Billy Bragg never has. Perhaps it's has something to do with the fact that when (most of us) first heard Joe, he was yelling, "I wanna riot of my own" whereas the first we heard of Billy he was confessing, "I don't want to change the word...I'm just looking for another girl". Maybe being a lover and a fighter made Bragg's mixing of pop and politics more tenable in the long run. (Cue debate over whether it's better to burn out or fade away...)
This is an audience recording, which not just because it has that you-were-there sound but also because this show is about the audience, who all sing along and mourn together. In this small club setting, with a set laced with his more rabble-rousing originals alongside a brace of Clash covers, Billy becomes less of a performer and more the leader of a rock n' roll wake.


P.S. Interesting Guardian video HERE about politics at Glastonbury this week, need less to say it features a chat with Mr. Bragg
Labels:
Billy Bragg,
Joe Strummer
Sunday, June 26, 2011
A Folk Tribute to Bob Dylan - BBC Radio 2 May 18th 2011

As someone who once compiled a bootleg collection of Billy Bragg doing Bob Dylan covers (see HERE) I was excited to see this collection British folkies, ancient and modern, covering Dylan's second album, The Freewheelin Bob Dylan, in its entirety. As this programme arrived amidst the ONSLAUGHT that accompanied Mr. Dylan's 70th birthday, I filed it in the bulging "Blog Ideas' folder. Then as my Billy Bragg series (see much, much more HERE) grew more obsessive, I thought this was the time to present it to those MRML readers who like music where you can hear fingers striking guitar strings and where singers 'lean forward just a bit'.
01. Programme Intro
02. Blowin' in the Wind - Seth Lakeman
03. Girl from the North Country - Thea Gilmore
04. Masters of War - Martin Simpson
05. Down the Highway - While and Matthews
06. Bob Dylan's Blues - Ewan McLennan
07. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall - Karine Polwart
08. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right - Ralph McTell
09. Bob Dylan's Dream - Martin Carthy
10. Oxford Town - Coope, Boyes and Simpson
11. Talkin' World War III Blues - Billy Bragg
12. Corrina, Corrina - Cara Dillon with The Scoville Units
13. Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance - Rory Mcleod
14. I Shall Be Free - Rab Noakes with Fraser Speirs
NOTE TO LISTENERS: At the explicit demand of the original uploader this programme is offered here only in .flac format. If you are at all uncomfortable with this wonderful-sounding but wildly cumbersome format simply convert it 320 kbps MP3's using a FREE version of a program like Switch Sound Converter.
See you in the COMMENTS section!
Labels:
Billy Bragg,
Bob Dylan
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Billy Bragg: The Complete Peel Sessions (1983-2001) FIVE CD SET!

I was wrong.
I said that all Bragg's BBC recording would be another five CD box set. In fact, just Braggy's sessions for Peely require a five CD {bootleg} box-set!!
And now, thanks to a most generous reader, Andy Campbell, you all get this mind-bogglingly expansive five CD set for yourself.
#1
(recorded 27th July 1983 ; first broadcast 3rd August 1983)
A New England
Strange Things Happen
This Guitar Says Sorry
Love Gets Dangerous
Fear Is A Man's Best Friend
A13 - Trunk Road To The Sea
#2
(recorded 21st February 1984 ; first broadcast 27th February 1984)
Lover's Town
Myth Of Trust
To Have And To Have Not
St Swithin's Day
#3
(recorded 18th September 1984 ; first broadcast 20th September 1984)
Between The Wars
Which Side Are You On ?
A Lover Sings
It Says Here
#4
(recorded 20th August 1985 ; first broadcast 2nd September 1985)
The Marriage
There Is Power In A Union
Jeanne
Days Like These
#5
(recorded 2nd September 1986 ; first broadcast 15th September 1986)
The Warmest Room
Greetings To The New Brunette
Chile Your Waters Run Red Through Soweto
Ideology
#6
(recorded 30th August 1988 ; first broadcast 19th September 1988)
She's Got A New Spell
Valentine's Day Is Over
The Short Answer
Rotting On Remand
Billy Bragg - The Whole Peel : Volume 2 (1991 to 1996)
#7
(recorded 12th May 1991 ; broadcast 15th June 1991)
Life With The Lions
Tank Park Salute
Accident Waiting To Happen
The Few
#8 (acoustic)
(broadcast live 13th October 1995)
Northern Industrial Town
A Pict Song
Brickbat
This Gulf Between Us
Reading Festival
(recorded & broadcast 24th August 1996)
Levi Stubbs' Tears
Greetings To The New Brunette
Waiting For The Great Leap Forward
Upfield
Sexuality
A New England (fathers' version)
The Whole Peel : Volume 3 (1996-1998)
Peel Xmas Spectacular
(broadcast live 22nd December 1996)
Goalhanger
Levi Stubbs' Tears
Dark End Of The Street
A New England
Deck The Halls With Boughs Of Holly
#9 Woody Guthrie Session
(broadcast live 9th July 1998)
My Flying Saucer
Another Man's Done Gone
Black Wind Blowing
Psalm
Aginst Th' Law
All You Fascists Bound To Lose
Ingrid Bergman
Christ For President
The Whole Peel : Volume 4 (1999 part 1)
Tracks 1-8
Live From Peel Acres
(broadcast 25th March 1999)
Billy co-presents the John Peel Show live from John's house (Peel Acres) and plays tracks from the Mermaid Tour official bootleg
Tracks 9-15
Billy Bragg & The Blokes at Glastonbury
(recorded 25th June 1999 ; broadcast 30th June 1999)
Milkman Of Human Kindness
The Warmest Room
Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key
All You Fascists Bound To Lose
California Stars
Glad & Sorry
A New England
The Whole Peel : Volume 5 (1999-2001)
John Peel Tribute Concert, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
(recorded 4th December 1999 ; broadcast 9th December 1999)
It Says Here
Scholarship Is The Enemy Of Romance
Island Of No Return
The Myth Of Trust
Man In The Iron Mask
Richard
St Monday
Jeanne
Levi Stubbs' Tears
A13
Festive Fifty 25th Anniversary Special
(recorded 13th December 2000 ; broadcast 19th December 2000)
Brickbat
Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key
John Peel's 40th Anniversary In Radio, King's College Student's Union, London
(recorded 24th September 2001 ; broadcast 11th October 2001)
A Lover Sings
Milkman Of Human Kindness
St Monday
She Came Along To Me
Everywhere
This is is the largest single-serving download MRML has ever presented and I would REALLY appreciate some shout-out's to Mr. Andy Campbell in the COMMENTS section for his staggering gift to us.
(Download linkS are in that same COMMENT section where you may say your thanks!)
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Billy Bragg
Friday, June 24, 2011
Billy Bragg: Peel Session (1996)

So, , according to the wonderful site Keepin' it Peel, Billy Bragg's The Peel Sessions album (MRML's inaugural post) doesn't even scratch the surface of Bragg's visits to Peely. When I found this sesion it was labelled as Christmas Spectacular and was identified as occurring on December December 12th 1996. I can't find that date on the aforementioned Peel site (the interview is left in here, so there can be no doubt whose show this is) but it's a great solo Bragg session circa the album, "William Bloke".
All I can say is enjoy this and if anyone can help hook me up with more of Bragg's legion of BBC recordings (really, a third box set - "The Bard of the BBC"!) I would be a most appreciative blogger!
Don't forget to leave us a COMMENT (which is where you will find the link for
1996 Peel Session).
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Thursday, June 23, 2011
Riff Raff: The Singles (1977-1980)

Perhaps Billy Bragg's punk era band, Riff Raff left, as Andrew Collins, author of Bragg's biography, believes, "a prevailing sense of would've" but I suspect he's been wearing his nostalgia goggles too tightly. Riff Raff have a really nifty catalog of under-appreciated songs but there's a thousand bands from this era that can claim the same or better. Riff Raff were another casualty of the cross-fire between punk rock and pub rock, who, by sorta splitting the difference between the two, got 'shot by both sides'. "I Wanna Be a Cosmonaut" is a great ripper, "Romford Girls" (listen here) is very nice pop song while both "She Don't Matter" and "Richard" effectively lays the groundwork for what will come. It's a fascinating collection, well worth it for obsessives, but it lack the inventiveness and the fire that defines the man's solo work. One suspects that it wasn't the birth of punk that changed Billy's life but it's widely-rumoured death.
What do you think of Riff Raff in comparison to Bragg's solo work? Leave us a COMMENT (which is where you will find the link for The Singles (1977-1980).
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Labels:
Billy Bragg,
Riff Raff
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Billy Bragg: Live in Toronto (1991)

More from the "Don't Try This at Home" tour of 1991 and from the Canadian leg of the tour that yours truly witnessed, albeit in Vancouver rather than Toronto, from where this bootleg originates. Fuzzpsych, who posted this show at Archive.org, mentioned that he wasn't able to capture the final song of the night, a twenty minute version of Dee-Lite's "Groove is in the Heart" with solos and guest appearances and whatnot. I'm gonna call that a blessing as I found the whole thing intolerable but then I'm a real grump sometimes...
So COMMENTS are obviously a good thing - please carry on leaving them (and don't forget that the comment section is where you'll find the BBC Paris Theatre link).
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Sunday, June 19, 2011
Billy Bragg & Kirsty MacColl Hackney Empire (1991)

Wince-inducing cover art aside, this is a BIG one. It`s a New Year's Eve concert broadcast live by the BBC this includes lots of Bragg-iness and also an entire set by the wildly-talented and prematurely-departed Kirsty MacColl. Billy and Kirsty's intersecting history includes having their less-than-auspicious debut records come out on the same day in June of 1978 on Chiswick Records (Bily in Riff Raff, Kirsty in The Drug Adix), both having covered Smiths` songs (Bille did "Jeanne" and Kirsty totally owned "You Just Haven't Earned it Yet, Baby" ) having both recorded Bragg's "A New England" (Billy`s had less words and Kirsty`s had more production) and, always a big one for this blogger, they both loved The Clash:
Interestingly, Billy and Kirsty also bonded over the less-than-stellar Johnny Moped song "Darling, Let's Have Another Baby" to which they manage to inject a lot of life.
CD 1 76:09
Billy Bragg:
1. Richard
2. Little Time Bomb
3. St Swithin's Day
4. A Lover Sings
5. Honey I'm A Big Boy Now
6. The Few
7. The Man In The Iron Mask
8. Levi Stubbs Tears
Kirsty MacColl & Band
9. A New England
10. Fifteen Minutes
11. Don't Come The Cowboy
12. Train In Vain
13. Walking Down Madison
14. Free World
15. They Don't Know
16. There's a Guy Down at the Chip Shop Swears he's Elvis
17. Fairytale of New York
18. Darling Lets Have Another Baby (w/ Bragg).
CD 2 75:10
Jupitus as Porky the Poet
19. Bestiality
Billy Bragg
20. Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
21. The Warmest Room
22. Suwlk
23. Accident Waiting to Happen
24. Help Save The Youth Of America
Everybody
25. Auld Lang Syne
Billy Bragg
26. You Woke up my Neighbourhood
27. Greetings to the New Brunette
28. Body of Water
29. North Sea Bubble
30. Must I Paint You A Picture
31. Mother of the Bride
32. Cindy of a Thousand Lives (w/ MacColl)
33. Sexuality (w/ MacColl)
CD 3 30:08 / 33:05 / 2.48
34. Between The Wars > A New England
35. Billericay Dickie
Everybody
36. A Message To You,Rudi > Messages / Intros
Billy Bragg
37. A13, Trunk Road to the Sea
By the 90`s Bragg was touring with a full band (led by long-time associate Wiggy), The Red Stars, who I saw at The Commodore in Vancouver in 1991. The band was good, as this bootleg ably demonstrates, but there was a certain air of business-as-usualness that those old solo shows never had.
So COMMENTERS, two questions, what did you make off Bragg`s Red Stars era and what`s your take on Kirsty MacColl (and don't forget that the comment section is where you'll find the three Hackney Empire links).
P.S. I`m still looking for shows from a few different eras so if anyone knows a good source for Billy Bragg bootlegs let me know!!
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Labels:
Billy Bragg,
Kirsty MacColl
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Billy Bragg: Live in Wellington (1987)

By 1987, Bragg's records were no longer one-man affairs. While Bragg layered on piano, backing vocals, pretty guitar, and other assorted horns n' strings he began to slowly bury that raw-as-hell guitar and that rough-as-hell voice.
The good news for those of us who love our Bragg performance free of violin, flugelhorn and that damnably tinkly piano sound he favours, there's a tonne of great sounding boots made during this period where Billy still toured solo. This one from Wellington in 1987 includes a slew of tracks from the excellent (despite the excessive fiddly bits) album Greetings to the New Brunette all roughed up.

So do you think Braggy's ever-slicker production took away from his music or added to it? Leave us a COMMENT (and don't forget that is is where you'll find the Live in Wellington link).
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Billy Bragg: Live in Edinburgh (1986)

Yup another radio show (and yes another German radio show despite the shwo taking place in Scotland). While this includes an inordinate amount of DJ patter (all in Deutsch), the person who ripped this made sure to keep most of the talking as separate tracks.
Thanks for all the awesome Braggy COMMENTS - please carry on (and don't forget that the comment section is where you'll find the Live in Edinburgh link).
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Friday, June 17, 2011
Billy Bragg: Live in Bremen Schauburg (1984)

Braggy sure spent a lot of the eighties either on TV or the radio!
Today's boot is a great-sounding 19 song radio broadcast from Germany in 1984.
Our videos, also of mid-eighties and German vintage, but are from a show in Rockpalast in 1985, much of which is on YouTube.
MRML readers: Love the COMMENTS thus far !! (which is the section wherein you'll find the Live in Bremen link).
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Thursday, June 16, 2011
Billy Bragg: Live in Malmö (1986)

Both the sound quality and the performance on this 1986 Swedish radio show are furious. Do yourself a favour and give it a listen. Speaking of favours, YouTube user onionbaraon has Uploaded an ENTIRE concert from Billy's visit to East Germany - phenomenal!!
MRML readers: Let us know you make of this treasure trove of early Bragg stuff in the COMMENTS (which is where you'll find the Live in Malmö link).
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Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Billy Bragg: BBC Paris Theatre (1984)

Lots more to say about Billy Bragg but for now let's continue to observe the man's evolution with this BBC concert from back in 1984!
Thanks for all the Bragg-related COMMENTS on our last Billy post, it was encouraging to hear your early reactions ot the Bard of Barking
So COMMENTS are obviously a good thing) - please carry on leaving them (and don't forget that the comment section is where you'll find the BBC Paris Theatre link).
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Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Bill Bragg: Live at the Key Theatre (1983)

Billy Bragg started this blog.
Well, not him personally but my first upload, nigh-on four years ago, was Bragg's criminally out-of-print BBC Sessions and I seem to return to Bragg's rough-hewn folk-punk n' whatnot sound every year - like some sorta concussed migratory bird. After all, once I began talking about British agit-punk of the eighties like The Redskins (more HERE) and The Neurotics (more HERE) I knew more Bragg was coming.
I'm not gonna tell you I knew who Bragg was in 1983 (though I did try to translate an article from a French magazine about him in 1985). It wasn't all the way until 1988 when the now out-of-pint compilation Back-to-Basics so devastated me. Hard-strumming, sing-along folk was the soundtrack of my childhood whereas clashing, shout-along punk rock got me though my adolescence. Now one man had had found the essence of each and spliced the two divergent strains of Anglo-American music together. Bragg's solo electric style is singular one and, while influential on a whole new generation of folk-punks, is rarely attempted by others.
This real early bootleg is raw-as-hell and contains the rare song "Voice in the Wilderness". Supposedly there is a longer version available but this seven track version is all I can offer (unless some milkman of human kindness out there has an upgrade for us!)
MRML readers: What did you make of this early Bragg stuff when you first heard it? Let us know in the COMMENTS (which is where you'll find the Live at the Key Theatre link).
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