Mr. Love & Justice

In 2006 he authored his first book, The Progressive Patriot, an eloquent protest against the extremist British National Party electing twelve councilors in his east London hometown, electing them in the very locality which molded both the young Billy and his beliefs and, in bitter irony, contains the street so proudly named Bragg Close in his honor. But then London and politics are in the Bard’s blood just like the milk and one sugar in his tea; here is the sole pop musician, the lone political activist and the only common citizen from the East End to be seriously and quite publicly nominated for a statue of himself to be cast and then mounted on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.

For a man of the people and of the streets he is indeed. Starting out those twenty five years ago as a singing-in-the-street punk/rock urchin truly left its mark on Billy as a quarter of a century later Our Man Bragg led The Big Busk, a successful yet hilarious event which saw over 500 happy people perform massed ensemble versions of classic busker material such as Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door and Maggie May directly in front of the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank of the Thames. 500 grinning faces who’ve never been close to a famous person before as over three thousand guitar strings were plucked enthusiastically, many of those strings in tune.

Equally as remarkable the past ten years witnessed Billy Bragg collaborating with both Woody Guthrie and Ludwig Van Beethoven, no small feat given Guthrie died in 1967 and Beethoven one hundred and forty years before that. But when Nora Guthrie saw Billy perform in New York at a Woody celebration one summer she knew she had found the musician to edit the lyrics and apply the music to her late father’s unpublished songs. Collaborating with the US indie rock group Wilco, the two Woody/Billy albums, Mermaid Ave. (Vols. 1 & 2), gave Billy Bragg a pair of sizeable North American hits and exposed him to a new audience. In 2007 Billy was commissioned to write lyrics for the Ode To Joy for a gala concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London. There the Bard of Barking met Her Majesty who later requested a copy of Beethoven’s score with Billy’s signature on it.