BILLY BRAGG made his name as the voice of the miners' strike and Red Wedge, with his anthems of Old Labour and New England. The Bard of Barking was famous as an anti-establishment protest singer who backed the Liverpool dockers and the striking miners.
He was, you’d think, as much of a socialist as you’re likely to meet. So it came as a surprise when, just before the last general election, he came out in support of the Liberal Democrats.
“I feel utterly betrayed by them,” he admits now. “I did that to stop the Tories getting in. I urged people to vote tactically, and look what happened.
“If it’s any comfort, my vote was a postal vote (Billy lives in Dorset and votes there). I spent the whole election period in Barking urging people to vote Labour to keep the BNP out there. Again, I wanted people to vote tactically to keep the right wing out.
“The trust I put into them,” he stops himself and pauses, before picking up again. “What I tried to do by voting for those toe rags was to keep the Tories out, and then they did what they did.”
Billy is no longer backing any party, and over the last few months he’s been trying to get young people engaged in politics through music. After this summer’s riots, he’s encouraging young musicians to step up and offer their perspective.
“Music helped me to make connections when I was growing up – between the situation I found myself in and the powerful people who put me there,” he says. “The disturbances stirred up a s---storm of opinion in the mainstream media, much of it from people who have no real experience of the pressures faced by this generation – the first in a century that are likely to grow up worse off than their parents.”
His Left Field in Motion Tour will take that concept on the road, calling in at The Picket next week.
“I’ve played the Picket before, plus I played the old Picket, so I’m looking forward to it,” says Billy. “Liverpool is a place I look forward to on any tour. I feel like it recharges my batteries.”
For this tour, he’s playing in student towns, encouraging young people to make their point through music.
