Episode 13: There Ain’t Nobody That Can Sing Like Me

May 1st, 2008 by Administrator | Posted in Podcasts | 5 Comments »

In the early 1990s, Nora Guthrie, daughter of Woody Guthrie, sees Billy in concert in the States and adds him to her shortlist of musicians to write new music to her late father’s undiscovered lyrics.

Later that decade, and with the participation of alt-country rockers Wilco, led by Jeff Tweedy, Mermaid Avenue is born. Widely admired and commercially successful in the USA, Mermaid Avenue volumes 1 and 2 are each nominated for a Grammy, and bring Billy a new audience in America.

Billy tells the story behind the making of the albums, and offers the prospect of unreleased tracks from the sessions becoming available in the next few years.

 
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Episode 12: William Bloke

April 5th, 2008 by Administrator | Posted in Podcasts | 6 Comments »

Ten years on the road, temporary health problems, and a burgeoning relationship lead Billy to re-think his life and career. Then Billy’s partner, Juliet, falls pregnant and Billy knows everything really has changed for good.

Eventually he writes William Bloke - an album that reflects fatherhood, the end of Margaret Thatcher and of the Soviet Union - and replaces Marxist ideology with Socialism of the Heart.

The songs on these podcasts feature on the fabulous Billy Bragg Volume 2 boxed set, available from the Billy Bragg Shop here. (Volume 2 NTSC version suitable for North America and Japan, etc is here).

 
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3rd February Perth BDO

February 8th, 2008 by Billyb | Posted in Road Blog | 19 Comments »

The flight over to Perth takes three and a half hours and there is nothing to see en-route but thousands of miles of desert. The city sits in splendid isolation on the far western coast of Australia. This is the last date on the BDO tour and everyone seems determined to put on a good show. Although, as Adelaide, the Essential Stage is in a shed at the showgrounds, this room has been fully carpeted and is far enough away from the main stage to not be affect by rumble. The only problem is the heat, which reaches 100 degrees during the afternoon, necessitating the placing of powerful fans onstage to cool the performers. Instruments suffer, lines go down and Enter Shikari’s samples refuse to play in the heat. Despite this, I had my best show of all the BDO dates. Due to the acoustic qualities of the room, I was able to relax and talk to the audience who rewarded me with their rapt attention.

I finished off by inviting Kate and her band, along with sundry members of Anti-Flag and Sarah from Operator Please up onstage to sing the finale of A New England. Inspired by Chris 2, I jumped from the top of my amp on the last beat, almost busting my leg in the process. Great fun.

The night before in the hotel bar, Tom Morello had issued a challenge to all the bands to take part in a ping-pong tournament on Rage Against the Machine’s travelling table. The Big Day Out Invitation Tourney took place backstage during the afternoon.

Having defeated Adam from Silverchair, I was knocked out in the semi-finals by Win Butler, lanky lead singer of the Arcade Fire. His final match against Zac de la Rocha of Rage was a thriller. As the light faded, the wind was getting up and playing havoc with the finer parts of each players style. Zac won the first game and for a while, it looked as if Win might pull level and take it to game three, but he went down fighting 21-18.

At the after-show party, there’s a feeling that summer camp is over and we all have to go home. While Gaz Mayal spins the discs, members of LCD Soundsystem reflect on what has been their last ever gig, the guys from Spoon promise to seek me out at SXSW and Win Butler gives me a point-by-point analysis of his match with Zac. The evening ends somewhat abruptly when the free bar starts charging ten bucks for a beer.

1st February Adelaide

February 7th, 2008 by Billyb | Posted in Road Blog | 7 Comments »

The two Melbourne sideshows were out in St Kilda, giving me even more reason to play the Yarra Song, in which I express my support of the local Australian Rules team and how I love the fact that it often rains when we’re in town. After the first show, I awoke to find it tipping down. Brilliant, as were the shows. Adelaide was more of a challenge. Conscious of the fact that this was the only stop on the tour where I wasn’t doing a sideshow, I wanted to put in a good performance, but the proximity of main stage had a negative effect on proceedings, generating audible low bass rumble all through my set. It didn’t help that our stage was in a huge cowshed either.

28th January Melbourne BDO

February 7th, 2008 by Billyb | Posted in Road Blog | 1 Comment »

We went early out to the festival site to catch the set from Anti-Flag. The Pittsburgh punk band have the unenviable job of opening on the main stage at midday, which for a black-clad bunch of spike-tops presents a challenge. Undaunted by the heat and the hour, they’ve been putting in high velocity sets and today we finally managed to get our act together in time to catch them.

Their powerfully political tunes and between-number rants soon stir the crowd to life, a dust cloud rising from the mosh-pit during the more frantic songs. The set ends with bass player Chris 2 leaping from the top of his bass cabinet on the final beat.

The Essential Stage was in grassy corner of the site, giving it the atmosphere of a second stage at a folk festival, which suited Kate Nash, Tom Morello and myself right down to the ground. Having got a few shows under our belts, collaborations are starting to flourish. I get up and sing ‘A New England’ with Kate while she returns the favour during my set with ‘Great Big Kiss’. Later The Nightwatchman calls me up along with Chris 2 and Justin from the ‘Flag to sing the Midnight Oil anthem ‘Beds Are Burning’.

The next night, after a hard day’s promo, I went to see one of Arcade Fire’s side-shows and was relieved to see Regine Chassagne cranking the hurdy-gurdy with her usual enthusiasm, the instrument clearly none the worse for having been in our tender care for a day.

27th January on to Melbourne

February 6th, 2008 by Billyb | Posted in Road Blog | 5 Comments »

Our little touring party of soundman Grant Showbiz, tour manager Andy James, BDO tour rep John Baker and myself were the last to head out for Melbourne and, just as we were checking out of the hotel, John received a panicked phone call. A member of Arcade Fire had inadvertently forgotten their hurdy-gurdy. Could we possibly bring it safely to Melbourne for them?

It came in a sealed pine box that John memorably described as looking like a wombat’s coffin and provided the highlight of an otherwise uneventful trip. Australian airports are so calm. For a nervy flyer like myself, this is a wonderful contrast to the madness of flying in America or the constant struggle that is Heathrow and Gatwick. The building are spacious and bright, the staff wonderfully laid-back and the concourses seldom crowded. This is some feat given that the Australians fly everywhere. They live in a vast country dotted with a few cities and once they’ve done the drive between Sydney and Melbourne they feel no urge to do it again.

Anyway, I want to thank Arcade Fire for finally giving me something to say to the check-in clerk when she asked if anyone had given me anything to bring on the flight: ‘Yes m’am. A hurdy-gurdy’

26th January Sydney

February 1st, 2008 by Billyb | Posted in Road Blog | 12 Comments »

The Sydney sideshow was the best so far, a Saturday night special. One of my favourite songwriters, Mick Thomas, formerly of Melbourne stalwarts Weddings, Parties, Anything opened the evening and he was followed by The Nightwatchman. Both joined me for an encore of Woody Guthrie’s ‘Do Re Mi’. My set also featured a guest spot for Kate Nash, who came on midway through to duet on the Shangri-La’s classic ‘Give Him A Great Big Kiss’ The song opens with a proclamation of intent by Kate – ‘When I say I’m in love, you best believe I’m in love L-U-V’ and includes two passages of conversation between the two of us. She had never sung the song before so I had to be sure I delivered my lines for her to respond to.

Strapping on my acoustic guitar for the song prior to Miss Nash’s appearance, running the arrangement through my head, I took my eye of the ball for a second and began NPWA by singing the second verse first. I didn’t realise anything was up until half way through the second verse when I was struck by a sudden sense of déjà vu. There are only two courses of action open to you when you stuff up like this, to use the local vernacular: either just carry on, pretending nothing is wrong and let the audience think you’re crazy or stop and fess up. I chose the latter, relying on the Bragg ultras in the front row to help me out. Yet when I asked then for the first line of the song, they looked at me like rabbits caught in the headlights of a large truck.
Thanks guys.

Despite this little pocket of turbulence, the set was a zinger. Kate performed a wonderful version of Great Big Kiss and, with the crowd urging me on, I went back for a second encore and played the whole of Life’s A Riot.

25th January Sydney Big Day Out

January 30th, 2008 by Billyb | Posted in Road Blog | 2 Comments »

Went down early to the Essential Stage where Kate Nash again called me up to sing A New England. It works much better this time with me on acoustic guitar, allowing her band to play the song their way rather than accompanying me as they did at the club date a few nights ago.

Then it’s down to the Lilyworld for our pageant to mark Australia Day. My mad plot, hatched in the Coolangatta airport departure lounge, was that we Brits should stage a re-enactment of the discovery of Australia by Captain Cook, except that I would be dressed as Captain Hook. Shannon had excelled herself in the 48 hours since we first came up with the idea, finding not only a Capt. Hook costume, but also a crocodile outfit, a Queen Elizabeth I get-up and a Tinkerbell costume for herself. With a few other bits and bobs picked up at a costume shop we passed on the way to the gig, we really looked the part.

In the true spirit of the Lilyworld stage, the audience didn’t really know what the fuck was going on, but eventually got into the spirit of things. The plot, such as it was, followed the traditions of pantomime with Queen Elizabeth acting as narrator, Hook comes ashore with his pirate crew and Tinkerbell, they have a short discourse on the nature of fairy powder then Hook proceeds to declare Australia Terra Nullis – empty land. This was the legal argument that the British used to justify their invasion of the continent. Claiming that there was nothing here, Hook asks the boys and girls to tell him if they saw any animals or people. Cue pantomime crocodile and indigenous warrior. Crowd shout ‘behind you’. This goes on for a few minutes until an aboriginal activist appears to make a brief speech about Invasion Day. Exit omnes.

Slipping out of my false moustache and costume, I dashed across to the Essential stage to deliver a blistering set that went down a storm and came in on time. Brilliant. I think I might have worked out how to do this. Among those watching from backstage was Peter Garrett, former front man with Midnight Oil, now Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Arts in the newly elected Labour government here. Back in the dressing room we chat for half and hour, comparing notes on how to deal with the heightened expectations that follow the fall of a conservative administration such as that of Margaret Thatcher or John Howard.

A wonderful day was rounded of with a visit to the Boiler Room stage to see new chums LCD Sound System do a stonking set with includes the splendidly self-flagellating ‘North American Scum’.

Episode 11: Don’t Try This At Home

January 27th, 2008 by Administrator | Posted in Podcasts | 3 Comments »

Billy’s relationship with Go! Discs is threatened as the independent label allows itself to be bought out, and by arguments between the label’s founder, Andy MacDonald, and Billy’s manager, Pete Jenner.

Despite this, Go! Discs chucks a very large budget at Billy’s next studio album, Don’t Try This At Home. The extra cash, and the contribution of Johnny Marr and REM, lead to a Big Pop Production, and promotional videos.

 
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Sexuality, featuring Billy, Wiggy, Kirsty MacColl, Phill Jupitus, et al.

The songs on these podcasts feature on the fabulous Billy Bragg Volume 2 boxed set, available from the Billy Bragg Shop here.(Volume 2 NTSC version suitable for North America and Japan, etc is here).

24th January Promo Day

January 27th, 2008 by Billyb | Posted in Road Blog | 2 Comments »

The notion of this festival being the Big Day Off has proved rather hollow for yours truly. Since I got to New Zealand, I’ve been doing loads of promo for the new album on those days when I’m not performing. It’s all good stuff but it kind of explains why it took me over a week to post my first blog entry. I didn’t even get my swimming trunks wet until we got to Byron Bay. My itinerary (aka the lie-tinerary) claims today is a day off but I’m running round doing interviews from 9.30am till 4pm. All good stuff though: Classic FM talking about Beethoven and Blake, local prison radio talking about Jail Guitar Doors and then discussing the album with people who have actually heard it.

Good news is that Shannon, the poor soul tasked with job of production manager the Lilyworld stage, has got the props we need for our little bit of mischief at tomorrows BDO.

23rd January Sydney

January 27th, 2008 by Billyb | Posted in Road Blog | No Comments »

The Big Day Out takes the opportunity of the long weekend that marks the peak of the summer holidays here to hit the two biggest cities in the country, Sydney and Melbourne. Australia Day marks the anniversary of the arrival in Sydney Harbour of the first ships bringing prisoners from Britain to found a prison colony on the far side of the world. This year, the anniversary, 26th January, falls on a Saturday, but the BDO organisers have chosen to hold their festival on the day before in the hope of avoiding overt displays of nationalism, which have blighted the BDO in recent years. In 2005, following ugly race riots at a beach in a Sydney suburb, the BDO caused a national outcry by banning the Australian flag from the festival site.

Identity is always a matter of contention and the Australians, whose country has only been in existence for three human lifespans, are acutely aware of this problem. Ambiguity about new arrivals and a realisation that they took the land from its original owners makes Australia Day a time for airing doubts as well as showing pride.

Being a keen student of both history and identity, I asked a few of the Australian artists on the tour if we should do something to mark Australia Day – or Invasion Day as the indigenous peoples refer to it. Perhaps aware of the earlier controversies, no-one seemed interested. It took a delayed plane and a conversation over a bottle of Jamesons with the mischievous crew from the Lilyworld stage to hatch a plot.

We arrived in Sydney in time to go along to Kate Nash’s jam-packed side-show, where she invited me up to perform A New England with her band.

23rd January Byron Bay

January 25th, 2008 by Billyb | Posted in Road Blog | 2 Comments »

Situated an hour or so south of Brisbane on the east coast of Australia, the locals refer to the Gold Coast as BrisVegas, a sun-baked mix of Blackpool, Surfers Paradise and the Strip. BDO goes there because at the height of the summer break, that’s where the kids are and they turn up in bare-backed in bronzed hordes. Today, the Essential Stage is in a tent in its own corner of the site, so with the luxury of a sound-check, the set is much more relaxed, allowing me to slip in a few slow songs along with the faster paced crowd pleasers. Later we stand out front to witness the tail end of Bjork and the blast-off of Rage before heading back ahead of the crowds.

If you love sun and surf, the Gold Coast is a good place to spend a few days, but those of us seeking something a little more special headed down the coast to Byron Bay, where the hippies and surfers meet on some of the most beautiful beaches in Australia. Tipped of by a couple of members of Spoon over a back-stage game of table football at the Gold Coast BDO, we light out to the town of Bangalow, where Aussie indie label Spunk are holding a tenth anniversary party.

In the old Agricultural and Industry Hall in this sleepy NSW hill town, we enjoy an evening of extraordinary performances from Joanna Newsome, Andrew Bird and the aforementioned Texas based Spoon. I’ve long been an admirer of Miss Newsome’s work and she was at her best, plucking her harp with minimal accompaniment. The real discovery though was Andrew Bird who built a wall of sound with his violin and whistled mournfully through an astounding set. Spoon were as good as their table football suggested – they had beat us twice in a row.

My first Australian side show was at the Great Northern Hotel, a big old pub in Byron Bay, where the back room was packed and the atmosphere electric. Having finally thrown off the heavy hands of jetlag, I put in a well-paced set that did the trick, half the audience staying behind until closing time to hug me while we smiled into their mobile phone cameras.

18th January Auckland NZ

January 25th, 2008 by Billyb | Posted in Road Blog | No Comments »

The BDO tour kicks off in the Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland. All the dates take place in built environments, either sporting venues or agricultural showgrounds. This makes it a lot easier to get out of the fierce sunlight and to avoid the occasional torrential downpour.
I’m performing on the Essential Stage on a bill that includes Kate Nash, Enter Shikari and The Nightwatchman aka Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine. In Auckland, the Essential Stage is side by side with the Green Stage so as soon as the Hilltop Hoods stop playing on the Green, I’m thrown straight into my 45 minute set on the Essential.

Without a soundcheck and using a new type of amplifier, I’m immediately encountering problems with feedback and volume levels. Grant Showbiz, my soundman and producer has been in NZ since Jan 1st and so I remind him that he’s not on holiday now and he sorts the sound out but meanwhile on the Green stage, the next band decide to so a soundcheck during my set so my performance is somewhat embattled.

I console myself by wandering down to the Lilyworld stage to watch hot Japanese ska band the Cool Wise Men. Lilyworld is a corner of BDO where anything can happen. Gaz Mayall, who is DJing down there, introduces the Men by letting off a fire extinguisher into the audience and I end up on stage singing and dancing with them, before slipping away to watch Rage Against the Machine play a blistering set to a frenzied Kiwi crowd.