Post by marveloushagler on Nov 16, 2004 21:05:35 GMT -5
This review is excerpted from HERE TO STAY- HERE TO FIGHT #3, official info-bulletin of RASH-NYC
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REVIEW
"Still Suitable For Miners- Billy Bragg: The Official Autobiography" (Virgin Books; London 2002) 296 pgs.
Billy Bragg holds a dubious distinction in my life: he is the only major music act I've ever bought a concert ticket for and ended up walking out on.
I paid sixteen bucks to see him at Irving Plaza in 1997. I was dressed all sussed in my Sta-Prest, grey Fred Perry, red braces, DMs and denim jacket. I had a few pints at the bar before going, and I was expecting a rockin' socialist time. The adrenaline was definitely flowing, me having been raised on a steady diet of hardcore, punk and ska shows. I'll admit I hadn't heard much Billy Bragg. All I knew is that he played in a punk band (Riff-Raff), him and Alexei Sayle had jammed with the REDSKINS and he was as red as a baby's diaper-rashed ass.
When I got there, I was appalled. The show was about as much fun as church! It was all these NYU college types, sitting around, legs folded Indian-style, in their sweaters and horn-rimmed glasses. As I'm not much of an intellectual and I've never been to a wealthy university, I haven't crossed paths much with the democratic socialist movement in this country. But judging by what I saw, class-struggle Anarchism has much better concerts.
It wasn't that Billy Bragg was bad, per se, but I guess I'm not much of a folk music fan. The entire time he was on stage, I kept thinking back to that John Belushi scene in ANIMAL HOUSE where he smashes the guy's guitar against the wall. Also, Billy Bragg's jokes between songs really weren't that funny. It could also be that my sense of humor revolves around dick jokes.
Anyway, after two songs I had had it. I spent the rest of the night back at the bar, pounding pints and cursing the fact that I'd wasted 16 bucks of perfectly good beer money.
With my first negative experience with Mr. Bragg, it comes as a great surprise that I really liked reading his official biography "Still Suitable For Miners". Once I started reading it, I couldn't tear my eyes away. Perhaps it's because I respect Billy Bragg's commitment to socialism more than I like his music. But I highly recommend this book to all fans of 80's UK socialist punk.
Of course, the book starts off with Billy's childhood growing up in Barking, East London. I think it's cool that Billy grew up in Britain's equivalent of Brooklyn.
The chapters on Billy's experiences with his punk/ pub rock band RIFF RAFF (who released a bunch of records between 1978-1980, including an early EP on Chiswick) are really interesting. I was also surprised by the parts about his time in the British Army, and entertained following his early solo-years playing the pub circuit.
Probably the most interesting chapters of the book (surely to red skinheads in the USA) are the coverage of Billy's involvement with the 1984 UK Miner's strike, his tours of East Germany and his spearheading of Red Wedge. Red Wedge was a coalition of musicians started in 1985 dedicated to raising electoral support for Britain's Labour Party in the hopes of driving Margaret Thatcher from office. This coalition included Paul Weller of THE JAM, Jerry Dammers of THE SPECIALS, Roland Gift of the FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS and many other musicians who came from the mod and 2-Tone scenes. Although they failed to oust Thatcher from office in 1987, Red Wedge is an important example of the power of combining music with politics, something that labels like Insurgence Records and groups like RASH United continue to do to this day.
American red skinheads should read this book for coverage of an incredibly important time in the genesis of our subculture. The book has large passages not only on the above-mentioned historic events (Red Wedge, the Miner's strike, Bragg's tour of Eastern Europe), but also on the REDSKINS, ATTILA THE STOCKBROKER, SEETHING WELLS and other mid-80's UK redskin heroes. There's lots of stuff even I didn't know.
I thought it was a laugh that on Billy Bragg's first US tour, he opened up for the horrific New Wave act ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN. Old-school NY scenesters will also get a chuckle from the fact that Billy Bragg played a series of gigs at Danceteria, and even brought ranting redskin poet SEETHING WELLS with him. Oh, to have been a fly on that wall...
Finally, I liked the parts on Billy Bragg's efforts to put Woody Guthrie's unpublished lyrics to music. Woody Guthrie was a true American working-class rebel (and a Wobbly), and it gave me even more respect for Billy Bragg that he's keeping the memory of our important predecessor alive.
This book is very easy to read, and goes by quickly. The author sometimes overdoses on cheesy metaphors, but that doesn't detract from the story at all. He's also very thorough with times, dates, people and places, and the book includes a complete Billy Bragg discography.
I liked this book so much that it even inspired me to pull out my dusty Billy Bragg LPs and give the "big-nosed bastard from Barking" a second listen.
I found that he's not all that bad when you're sitting at home with a bottle of red wine feeling all sensitive and shit. But as for live events, I'll take a hardcore show or skinhead reggae dancehall anyday. Anything to be away from those fucking dull democratic socialist students...
---------------------------------------------------------------------
REVIEW
"Still Suitable For Miners- Billy Bragg: The Official Autobiography" (Virgin Books; London 2002) 296 pgs.
Billy Bragg holds a dubious distinction in my life: he is the only major music act I've ever bought a concert ticket for and ended up walking out on.
I paid sixteen bucks to see him at Irving Plaza in 1997. I was dressed all sussed in my Sta-Prest, grey Fred Perry, red braces, DMs and denim jacket. I had a few pints at the bar before going, and I was expecting a rockin' socialist time. The adrenaline was definitely flowing, me having been raised on a steady diet of hardcore, punk and ska shows. I'll admit I hadn't heard much Billy Bragg. All I knew is that he played in a punk band (Riff-Raff), him and Alexei Sayle had jammed with the REDSKINS and he was as red as a baby's diaper-rashed ass.
When I got there, I was appalled. The show was about as much fun as church! It was all these NYU college types, sitting around, legs folded Indian-style, in their sweaters and horn-rimmed glasses. As I'm not much of an intellectual and I've never been to a wealthy university, I haven't crossed paths much with the democratic socialist movement in this country. But judging by what I saw, class-struggle Anarchism has much better concerts.
It wasn't that Billy Bragg was bad, per se, but I guess I'm not much of a folk music fan. The entire time he was on stage, I kept thinking back to that John Belushi scene in ANIMAL HOUSE where he smashes the guy's guitar against the wall. Also, Billy Bragg's jokes between songs really weren't that funny. It could also be that my sense of humor revolves around dick jokes.
Anyway, after two songs I had had it. I spent the rest of the night back at the bar, pounding pints and cursing the fact that I'd wasted 16 bucks of perfectly good beer money.
With my first negative experience with Mr. Bragg, it comes as a great surprise that I really liked reading his official biography "Still Suitable For Miners". Once I started reading it, I couldn't tear my eyes away. Perhaps it's because I respect Billy Bragg's commitment to socialism more than I like his music. But I highly recommend this book to all fans of 80's UK socialist punk.
Of course, the book starts off with Billy's childhood growing up in Barking, East London. I think it's cool that Billy grew up in Britain's equivalent of Brooklyn.
The chapters on Billy's experiences with his punk/ pub rock band RIFF RAFF (who released a bunch of records between 1978-1980, including an early EP on Chiswick) are really interesting. I was also surprised by the parts about his time in the British Army, and entertained following his early solo-years playing the pub circuit.
Probably the most interesting chapters of the book (surely to red skinheads in the USA) are the coverage of Billy's involvement with the 1984 UK Miner's strike, his tours of East Germany and his spearheading of Red Wedge. Red Wedge was a coalition of musicians started in 1985 dedicated to raising electoral support for Britain's Labour Party in the hopes of driving Margaret Thatcher from office. This coalition included Paul Weller of THE JAM, Jerry Dammers of THE SPECIALS, Roland Gift of the FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS and many other musicians who came from the mod and 2-Tone scenes. Although they failed to oust Thatcher from office in 1987, Red Wedge is an important example of the power of combining music with politics, something that labels like Insurgence Records and groups like RASH United continue to do to this day.
American red skinheads should read this book for coverage of an incredibly important time in the genesis of our subculture. The book has large passages not only on the above-mentioned historic events (Red Wedge, the Miner's strike, Bragg's tour of Eastern Europe), but also on the REDSKINS, ATTILA THE STOCKBROKER, SEETHING WELLS and other mid-80's UK redskin heroes. There's lots of stuff even I didn't know.
I thought it was a laugh that on Billy Bragg's first US tour, he opened up for the horrific New Wave act ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN. Old-school NY scenesters will also get a chuckle from the fact that Billy Bragg played a series of gigs at Danceteria, and even brought ranting redskin poet SEETHING WELLS with him. Oh, to have been a fly on that wall...
Finally, I liked the parts on Billy Bragg's efforts to put Woody Guthrie's unpublished lyrics to music. Woody Guthrie was a true American working-class rebel (and a Wobbly), and it gave me even more respect for Billy Bragg that he's keeping the memory of our important predecessor alive.
This book is very easy to read, and goes by quickly. The author sometimes overdoses on cheesy metaphors, but that doesn't detract from the story at all. He's also very thorough with times, dates, people and places, and the book includes a complete Billy Bragg discography.
I liked this book so much that it even inspired me to pull out my dusty Billy Bragg LPs and give the "big-nosed bastard from Barking" a second listen.
I found that he's not all that bad when you're sitting at home with a bottle of red wine feeling all sensitive and shit. But as for live events, I'll take a hardcore show or skinhead reggae dancehall anyday. Anything to be away from those fucking dull democratic socialist students...