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The Progressive Patriot: A Search For Belonging (Paperback)
Now in paperback!
By Billy Bragg.
Published 1 May 2007. Black Swan.
Paperback. 368pp. 198 x 127 mm. ISBN: 0552772429
What does it mean to be English? What does it mean to be British? Does the rise in popularity of the St George’s flag represent a new beginning or symbolize the return of the far right? Is the Union Jack too soaked in the blood of empire to be the emblem of a modern multicultural state? In a country in which all of us are born under two flags, what does it mean to be a patriot?
In 2006, Billy Bragg saw his home town become the front line in the debate over who does and does not belong in twenty-first-century Britain – an apparent reaction to the terror attacks on London of 7 July 2005, when four British citizens from the immigrant community killed fifty-two innocent people and injured many more.
This book is an urgent, eloquent and passionate response to these events.Reflecting on his family history and revisiting the music that inspired him, Billy Bragg pits his own values against those of traditional Britishness in a search for a sense of belonging that is accessible to all and in so doing, offers positive hope to a nation no longer sure of its own identity.
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£7.99
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The Progressive Patriot: A Search For Belonging (Hard cover)
By Billy Bragg.
Published in hard cover 12 October, 2006. Bantam Press.
Hardcover. 304pp. Royal Octavo. ISBN: 0593053435
Part autobiography, part polemic, in this his first book, Billy delves into his own family history and childhood in Barking, and the influences of such luminaries as George Orwell, Rudyard Kipling, Simon & Garfunkel, Dylan, and The Clash, to reflect on how this shaped his own sense of Englishness. He also considers the historical impact of the Magna Carta, the People's Charter, the Civil War, the Second World War, and the Miners Strike on the formation of the national consciousness.
In a world in which British citizens can lay bombs to kill their countrymen, where religious fundamentalism is on the increase, and where the BNP are somehow part of the democratic process, what does patriotism actually mean?
Save £4 on the £17.99 list price!
£13.99
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Still Suitable For Miners
REVISED AND UPDATED EDITION Published February 7, 2002. Virgin Books.
"The first and only biography of this legendary songwriter is fully authorised and includes a foreword by the man himself. This new edition has been revised and updated, and recounts Billy’s political activity over the last four years as well as the work on his new album, England, Half English.
Ex-punk, ex-soldier, ex-member of the Labour Party, Billy Bragg is one of the few remaining left-wing icons of the 80s. As the founder of Red Wedge, he created the first politicised union of musicians. Perhaps most well-known for his passionately political lyrics, Bragg is also admired for his offbeat love songs. Billy is a rebel in every sense – he has repeatedly refused to follow the conventions of the music industry, selling his records at affordable prices whilst supporting unfashionable causes and tiptoeing into the charts with heartfelt songs about urban decay and callous governments. Still Suitable For Miners is the story behind this one-off man, who has proven again and again that pop music is an art form which still has something to say about political causes, and, thank goodness, a sense of humour.
Starting out in punk bands (his unfortunate moniker was Billy Bonkers), Billy rose from his working class origins to become one of the UK’s foremost protest singers in the 1980s. With songs like Between The Wars and A New England, Billy became a central figure both in pop music and in the politicised music arena that appeared during that decade. The failure of Neil Kinnock to take power led to the demise of Red Wedge but Billy’s career has continued to grow. In 1998 Billy was chosen, above many big names such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen, to write and record music for previously unheard lyrics left by the legendary American protest singer Woodie Guthrie, who died in 1967. This recognition of Billy as the ‘spiritual heir’ to Guthrie has given him the status he has long deserved as one of the foremost protest singers of our time
Billy Bragg’s life encapsulates so much about his generation: born in the 50’s with politics shaped by Thatcherism, passions forged by punk and hope provided by the end of the cold war. Yet his story is also unique: Billy is a British institution that will never go out of fashion – a peerless entertainer and fearless campaigner. Still Suitable for Miners is the fascinating story of Billy Bragg’s life as a much-loved maverick and idiosyncratic icon of leftfield pop."
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Reduced by £3 to: £11.00
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Billy Bragg Anglo-Italian Lyric Book
Published by Stampa Alternativa, Italy 1989. Paperback. 84pp. Illustrated. With 7-inch promo vinyl.
Excellent condition, but some slight discolouration of pages.
English text with translation into Italian.
Includes two articles by Billy - On Capitalism (first published in New Route magazine) and Billy Bragg Goes To Nicaragua. Plus lyrics from Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy, Between The Wars, Brewing Up, Talking With The Taxman, and Workers Playtime. And a short discography.
Seven-inch vinyl disc SCONC 013 features three tracks: Introduction; A New England (live at Condordia, Italy 11 July 1988); and Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards (Live at the Dominion Theatre, London 29 November 1988).
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Price: £6.00
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