Mixing pop and politics...

Hey there folks I'm selling my copy of a rare Billy Bragg CD on ebay and thought you might be interested:

Artist: Billy Bragg & the Red Stars
Title: Live Bootleg / No Pop No Style Strictly Roots
Label: Elektra / Billy Bragg
Catalog: PRCD-9270 / BB5107
Year: 1995

Tracks:
1. To Have And To Have Not (3:32)
2. Ontario, Quebec And Me (2:29)
3. Rumours Of War (4:15)
4. A Lover Sings (3:50)
5. Sulk (4:05)
6. Accident Waiting To Happen (4:12)
7. Cindy Of A Thousand Lives (4:28)
8. Body Of Water (4:25)
9. Ship In My Harbour (4:45)
10. North Sea Bubble (4:06)
11. Mbh (3:02)
12. Sexuality (4:59)
13. The Price I Pay (3:29)
14. Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards (5:34)
15. Levi Stubbs Tears (3:47)
16. St. Swithin's Day (3:57)
17. Greetings To The New Brunette (4:00)

All tracks recorded live at the Phoenix Festival,England July 1993.

Elektra released this CD as a promo to US press, while Billy Bragg sold it directly from his website in the UK for a short period of time. This is an official release, not a bootleg of any sort. It includes a few songs with Billy solo before he's joined by his band -- the Red Stars. The cover of Weddings Parties Anything's "Ship In My Habour" is unique to this release.

The case is in perfect condition with no dogears, writing, or creases. The CD face is flawless. Click on the photos below for larger versions.



You can bid on it here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Billy-Bragg-No…

New dates for this Fall in the U.S.:

17 October 2008 - State College, PA, USA - The State Theatre
18 October - Ithaca, NY, USA - State Theatre
19 October - West Long Branch, NJ, USA - Monmouth University
21 October - Boston, MA, USA - Somerville Theatre
22 October - Boston, MA, USA - Somerville Theatre
23 October - Lebanon, NH, USA - Lebanon Opera House
24 October - Philadelphia, PA, USA - Keswick Theater
27 October - Washington, DC, USA - 9:30 Club
29 October - Charlottesville, VA, USA - Paramount Theater
30 October - Norfolk, VA, USA - Attucks Theater
01 November - Durham, NC, USA - Duke University
02 November - Asheville, NC, USA - Orange Peel

http://online.wsj.com/article_emai…

Rocker Billy Bragg on His Favorite 'Message Music'
May 30, 2008; Page W2

HIT LIST | Music
[Billy Bragg]
Retna Ltd.
Billy Bragg

With an acoustic guitar and gruff voice, Billy Bragg became an unlikely music star in 1980s Britain by merging Woody Guthrie activism with a punk-rock aesthetic. Although he's best known for music that champions workers' rights and other social causes, Mr. Bragg is also a prolific balladeer. The songs on his latest album, "Mr. Love and Justice," range from romantic meditations to strident protest songs, such as "O Freedom." "Life isn't all about politics, just as it isn't all about bling," Mr. Bragg says. "Somewhere between those two extremes is almost all of human experience." As Mr. Bragg prepared to launch a short U.S. tour with a June 6 concert in Seattle, we spoke to him about his favorite songs infused with a social message.
[cd cover]

Chuck Berry
'Roll Over Beethoven,' from 'Chuck Berry Is on Top' (1959)
(listen to a clip)
The pioneering rocker called for a musical rebellion with this song, but it also carried broader social implications, says Mr. Bragg, who calls it "the first naked expression of the coming supremacy of pop culture."
[cd cover]

Sam Cooke
'A Change Is Gonna Come,' from 'Ain't That Good News' (1964)
(listen to a clip)
"You don't get much more sugary pop than Sam Cooke," says Mr. Bragg. But just before he was shot to death in 1964, the soul singer wrote this anthem, which was embraced by the civil-rights movement.
[cd cover]

Bob Dylan
'I Shall Be Released,' from 'Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2' (1971)
(listen to a clip)
This song, first released by Mr. Dylan's close collaborators in the Band, works as a protest song because it's deeply metaphorical, says Mr. Bragg. "It becomes timeless," he says. "It could be about Guantánamo Bay."
[cd cover]

The Clash
'I'm So Bored With the USA,' from 'The Clash' (1977)
(listen to a clip)
This song from the punk band's debut railed against U.S. hegemony, but front man Joe Strummer was a student of American music. "The great thing about the Clash is they were such a contradiction," says Mr. Bragg.
[cd cover]

Otis Gibbs
'The People's Day,' from 'One Day Our Whisper' (2004)
(listen to a clip)
Singing about unions and working-class life in a country-music style, this Indiana performer covers themes Mr. Bragg explored in the 1980s. "He's carrying on the tradition," Mr. Bragg says.

--John Jurgensen

Someone was good enough to tape the show at the Roundhouse and upload it to dimeadozen, and I decided to commit the awful crime of converting the results from FLAC to .Mp3s so we can all enjoy the results.

Yes, they suggest against this. And no, I don't care.

I renamed the files myself, but it's certainly possible I made a mistake. And come on, folks. We live in a time when such things are easily shared.

Good quality audience recording:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YPZCQ…

Live at Camden Roundhouse,
London, England (Half English)
4th March 2008

World Turned Upside Down
A Pict Song
'Billy Talks 1: You're My Guitar Hero'
Farm Boy
St Swithin's Day
Mr Love And Justice
The Saturday Boy
'Billy Talks 2: Barking'
Accident Waiting To Happen
Another Man's Done Gone
Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key
I Almost Killed You
Moving The Goalposts
'Billy Talks 3: England'
O Freedom
Sexuality
Between The Wars
Sing Their Souls Back Home
Levi Stubbs' Tears
'Billy Talks 4: Request Time'
Ever Fallen In Love
'Billy Talks 5: Johnny Clash'
Old Clash Fan Fight Song

Disc 2:

'Billy Talks 6: Victoria Park 1978'
I Keep Faith
There Is Power In A Union
Great Leap Forwards

Encore

The Milkman Of Human Kindness
To Have And To Have Not
The Busy Girl Buys Beauty
The Man In The Iron Mask
Richard
Lovers Town Revisited
A New England

Billy Bragg on Andrew Marr. Plays a bit of "Sing Our Souls Back Home"

I finally got my copy of Mr Love & Justice today. I'm thrilled. It's fantastic!!!! Braggo never lets me down.

I slept way later than usual today, but the good part about that was that when I woke up, the mail had come with my discs. I immediately turned on the stereo and have since listened to both the band and solo discs twice each already.

My immediate favorite song is You Make Me Brave. LOVE. The music (band version) of Something Happened also completely rocks my world. And I Almost Killed You and Farm Boy and...

I kind of expected to like the solo versions more but I find that the band versions are actually the one's I'm gravitating towards - although I prefer the solo versions of I Keep Faith as well as Sing Their Souls Back Home. In any case though, I will definitely be listening to both discs a lot and I think it is tremendously cool to have both versions to choose from.

And the album art work and design is very classy and nice and a good picture of Billy on the front.

I'm just so happy with this. I'm so in love with Braggo all over again. This is a good day.

Live version of "Tank Park Salute"



And a quick interview.

Also exciting, if you're a fan of Mermaid Avenue (from the chartattack interview):

When I talked to you two years ago, you said there was a possibility of more Mermaid Avenue material coming out. Can you give me an update?
Because I have a deal in which my work reverts to me and I retain ownership, the Mermaid Avenue albums will be returned to me soon. Then I'll be able to sit down with Jeff Tweedy and work out what we'd like to do about all of that. Hopefully, it will be possible to go back and go over the material. Some of it's just Jeff and I playing Woody Guthrie songs. It's not another monumental album, in that sense. But there are songs that you haven't heard from those sessions, so it would be lovely if we could do something with the whole of the sessions and maybe add some copies of the manuscripts that we worked with in time for Woody's centenary, which is 2012. That would make a lot of sense. I'm actually hoping to meet [Woody's daughter] Nora Guthrie for lunch tomorrow and see where she is with everything and what her plans are for the centenary. She has some brilliant stuff going on because she's that sort of person. If she's conducive to it and I can chat with Jeff to see how he feels about it, I'd really love to do Woody justice for his centenary. And it would be great to play those songs again. I have to choose each night which ones I can put in a set. I can't play an entire set of Woody Guthrie songs. But if we could do something where we were just playing Woody Mermaid Avenue songs, it would be a lot of fun. We never actually did tour.

http://www.culturebully.com/billy-…

Video of Billy on Conan, as well as an mp3 of his performance.

http://www.chartattack.com/DAMN/20…

Billy Bragg - 50 And Still Vital from chartattack.com

Tickets for the Toronto show go on sale on Monday. $30 beforehand, and $35 the day of the show.

Jonathan Coulton covering "The Saturday Boy"