26th January Sydney

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

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.

  1. 12 Responses to “26th January Sydney”

  2. By jack tobin on Feb 1, 2008

    man, i forget lyrics i wrote all the time. audience knows it, and they actually seems to like it. they think its funny, ike some sort of an inside joke. hell, go with it right?

  3. By geoff on Feb 3, 2008

    Bragg ultras now eh?

    I was born in a company town.

  4. By geoff on Feb 3, 2008

    whoops.

    I grew up in a company town.

  5. By kris on Feb 3, 2008

    great show billy. cant wait for the new album to come out. my oldies were at that concert too. they had a ball. great time had by all

  6. By Callum on Feb 3, 2008

    31st Jan in Melbourne. What can I say? Billy, I had only seen you once before at Glasgow ‘Barralands’. Must have been best part of 20 years ago at an Anti A concert with I think Loyd Cole. Anyway, Thursday night at POW in St Kilda. Superb, fantastic, & please come back soon! Cal

  7. By Matt G on Feb 4, 2008

    Great night, loved the show, remember there is still an open invitation to visit Darwin.

  8. By Alex on Feb 4, 2008

    Thanks for a great night, Billy. You are an inspiration - it is a great honour to meet someone who ‘walks the walk’ with so much passion.
    Sorry we couldn’t be more helpful with the NPWA lyrics!

  9. By Viv on Feb 5, 2008

    Bragg ultras? I’m flattered.

    Still, you got it right in Melbourne :)

  10. By Max on Feb 7, 2008

    Billy said speak up so here it goes. Less Woody Guthrie tunes and unexpected guests and more Billy Bragg tunes thanks. You’ve got so may great songs of your own - play em. That’s what the kids came for! I hate saying it but people are sneaking out the back early - that never used to happen. Cheers.

  11. By Susan on Feb 12, 2008

    Yep, have to agree with Max, people were sneaking out the back, but the presence of a bunch of extremely rude and drunk females who talked through everything except the 3 songs they knew almost spoiled it for me… almost. Had a great time, it’s been a long time between drinks for me too - last time was Sydney in 1989 or 1990… come back SOON!

  12. By Susan on Feb 12, 2008

    Just had to say, too, Kate Nash, beautiful voice. Nearly as good as Kirsty.

  13. By helen on Feb 23, 2008

    i found the audience perfectly politically lovely and friendly and happy and loving = as was Billy…play what ever songs you want mate - we were there to see whoops hear whatever it was you had to offer up…it was by far the best bb concert i have seen…were there with some lovely close friends (some were bb virgins ???!!) we had a ball I am still in the bb zone after how many weeks - 5 ?

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