Protest and survive
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 Posted in Articles | 9 Comments »In March 1984, my debut EP had been knocked off the top of the indie charts by the Smiths' first album. For the previous 12 months, I'd been travelling Britain trying to reinvent the idea of the political singer-songwriter. Now ...
Fair play in the music industry
Friday, March 13th, 2009 Posted in Articles | 4 Comments »By Billy Bragg and Dave Rowntree Google's decision unilaterally to remove the music videos from their YouTube network in the UK as a fee-negotiating tactic in a dispute with the Performing Rights Society is a stark illustration of the power-shift that ...
How we all lost when Thatcher won
Thursday, March 12th, 2009 Posted in Articles | 5 Comments »There is a bitter irony in the fact that the Bank of England chose the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the miners' strike to fire off its weapon of last resort in an attempt to damp down the conflagration ...
Q Magazine - November 2008
Friday, March 6th, 2009 Posted in Articles | 3 Comments »There is something about standing around with an electric guitar hanging down by your groin that is attractive to boys in their mid-teens. The 14-year-old kid who lived in the terrace house next door taught me to play in the ...
