Mixing pop and politics - he asks me what the use is

During the second lockdown (I think), with various gigs and shows having been postponed, I saw that The Bard Of Barking, Mr William Bragg was selling tickets for gigs in just over a year's time - "let's go for it" I thought "surely things will be back to normal by then".  Ah.

However, after 40 nights on the road fraught with the potential of one false move resulting in infection and losing the rest of the tour, he's made it through to the last night at The Roundhouse in Camden, which is a venue that I've not made it to before.  A quick wander around the neighbourhood suggests it's exactly the sort of environment I have no place in - I mean, even the Morrisons is way cooler than me.  It's also, given that it's approximately two degrees out, not exactly busy...

...until I join the queue outside The Roundhouse and immediately bump into Mr Rubenstein who I've not seen in a good ten years or so - and it was lovely to catch up (after I'd explained who was hiding behind the beanie, mask and scarf).   And after a quick display of our Covid passes (no demonstrators in evidence here thankfully) we're in - and separated as he heads downstairs (to the surprisingly packed standing area) and I retire to the seating area upstairs which appears to be preserve of older people (yes, even older than me!).

And, a few minutes late, Billy appears on stage, sings his latest album with minimal chat involved, reminds us to buy a teeshirt and then fucks off back to the hotel.  Oh OK.  I wasn't expecting that. 

Well, it probably won't surprise you to hear that wasn't quite how it went down.  It was a well-crafted mix of old and new songs played on a mix of guitars (that 1956 Gibson really sounded fine!) with a not inconsiderable amount of inter-song patter, some serious and some not quite so serious.  Last time I saw him (ten years or so ago!) he was accompanied by a band, which made for a pleasant change but tonight it's just him and Tom on the keyboards, which worked well as they tackled various songs covering the many years of his repertoire.  And many years it really is, spanning from 1983 with Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy to this year's The Million Things That Never Happened.

Musically, the highlights for me come from the far reaches of the back catalogue (the "bash 'em out Bragg" era songs - I'm old, after all) but the new songs come across better live for me than they did on the initial listen to the album - it always helps when you have the artist to explain them to you, I guess.  It's fair to say that after 40 nights on the road, his voice isn't on top form (he jokingly refers to this as "a Billy Bragg retro experience") but he gives it a good go and he gets a fair bit of help, particularly on the choruses.

But with Billy, it's not only the songs you're going for - the chat, opinions and thinking between the songs add just as much to the experience.  Throughout the evening we cover more topics than I could possibly give credit to here but the highlight for me was the discussion around how displaying empathy is somehow these days considered to be a bad thing (particularly by those with a complete lack of it).  This is concluded with "I Will Be Your Shield" and "The Milkman Of Human Kindness" songs displaying very similar traits but from the opposite ends of his illustrious career.  

He also had some very interesting thoughts around how "Sexuality" (from 1991) was written to combat Section 28, but with minor tweaks ("just because you're they, I won't turn you away - if you stick around, I'm sure that we can find the right pronouns") is depressingly relevant for the trans community today, seguing through male violence ("Valentine's Day Is Over" - "don't come round reminding me again how brittle bone is") to how old dog activists can still learn new tricks, but they need to be aware ("Mid Century Modern" - "the kids that pull the statues down they challenge me to see, the gap between the man I am and the man I want to be").  I tell you - he doesn't throw this stuff together in the last five minutes.  Except for the hyper-relevant ad libs to "Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards", which always make singing along very tricky.

It was also charming to have a more personal section on recording "Ten Mysterious Photos That Can't Be Explained" with his son and adding a middle eight on his suggestion (after he complained to his mum when Billy was having none of it) - "and the worst thing about it was how well it worked".  It's often easy to forget that those people you see on stage have a life - and lovely to be reminded.

Some further random highlights from the chat/songs

"Are there any young people out there?" <cheers> "Thanks for bringing Mum & Dad out"
"If you're going to shout out songs, please consider that you only have to remember the titles"
"Don't even think about a mosh-pit - there's people in there that need to get to the bathroom"
"Don't threaten me with Morrissey" - an update to "Sexuality"
"At the start of this tour, I used to rant against Boris Johnson and his long list of failures - but that took too long, so now I just say this song is dedicated to the Prime Minister" - before breaking in to "Accident Waiting To Happen"

One charming curiosity of note - "Walk Away Renee" works surprisingly well live as more as performance piece than a song ("and then one day it happened - she voted Tory and I stopped loving her").  And the final word has to go to "A New England" with its extra verse for Kirsty - a rousing song which, as he so correctly says, we may not get to do again for some time.

And with that, we spill out into the night - happy, thoughtful and hopeful with "our cynicism kicked to the kerb and our activism rejuvenated".  At least until we hit the very cold air outside anyway.