Episode 13: There Ain’t Nobody That Can Sing Like Me
Thursday, May 1st, 2008 Posted in Podcasts | 5 Comments »In the early 1990s, Nora Guthrie, daughter of Woody Guthrie, sees Billy in concert in the States and adds him to her shortlist of musicians to write new music to her late father's undiscovered lyrics. Later that decade, and with the ...
Episode 12: William Bloke
Saturday, April 5th, 2008 Posted in Podcasts | 6 Comments »Ten years on the road, temporary health problems, and a burgeoning relationship lead Billy to re-think his life and career. Then Billy's partner, Juliet, falls pregnant and Billy knows everything really has changed for good. Eventually he writes William Bloke - ...
Episode 11: Don’t Try This At Home
Sunday, January 27th, 2008 Posted in Podcasts | 3 Comments »Billy's relationship with Go! Discs is threatened as the independent label allows itself to be bought out, and by arguments between the label's founder, Andy MacDonald, and Billy's manager, Pete Jenner. Despite this, Go! Discs chucks a very large budget at ...
Episode 10: Victim of Geography
Thursday, December 20th, 2007 Posted in Podcasts | No Comments »In 1989 a crafty comment, during a political song festival, about rabbits running free gets Billy chucked out of East Berlin with a warning he would never play East Germany again. He didn't - because within a year the Berlin ...
Episode 9: Where’s My Playtex?
Friday, November 30th, 2007 Posted in Podcasts | 3 Comments »It's 1988. Billy, Wiggy, and the Red Stars tour extensively, and work with Natalie Merchant in the States. Billy and Cara Tivey record She's Leaving Home for charity, but after the record goes to number one in the UK (with ...
Episode 8: Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards
Thursday, November 15th, 2007 Posted in Podcasts | No Comments »Billy and Wiggy recall the making of Workers Playtime in 1988, and how producer Joe Boyd, some veteran Sixties session musicians, and the wonderful Cara Tivey helped them create a classic album. RSS feed The songs on these podcasts feature on ...
Episode 7: The Internationale
Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 Posted in Podcasts | 3 Comments »The Berlin Wall comes down as Billy tours the States with Wiggy and the rest of the Red Stars. Relieved at the bloodless overthrow of a repressive police state, but dismayed by the West's crowing, Billy decides he should examine ...
Episode 6: Taxman
Friday, December 22nd, 2006 Posted in Podcasts | 3 Comments »Johnny Marr and John Porter help Billy find a slicker style of production in the studio as he writes and records the material for Talking With The Taxman About Poetry. The peerless Kirsty MacColl, who had already scored a hit ...
Episode 5: Brewing Up with political pop
Saturday, October 14th, 2006 Posted in Podcasts | 2 Comments »Billy and Wiggy return from America to discover not glamour, but the grim battle of the Miners' Strike, and Billy is forced to think about his political ideals and articulate them in his writing and performing. RSS feed The songs on ...
Episode 4: Brewing Up with the Burns
Saturday, September 30th, 2006 Posted in Podcasts | 1 Comment »It is 1984 and something approaching Bragg Mania exists in the UK as Billy tops the indie charts. He's rubbing shoulders with his heroes The Smiths as well as The Redskins, and he's had his face on the front of ...
Episode 3: PJ to top of the indie charts
Thursday, July 20th, 2006 Posted in Podcasts | No Comments »In which Billy describes how he came to record his first (mini) album of songs he had honed in live performances, and how he found out about a certain music manager by the name of Pete Jenner - formerly svengali ...
Episode 2: Oliver’s Army to the Tunnel
Tuesday, May 9th, 2006 Posted in Podcasts | 1 Comment »Riff Raff is dead. So what do you do when your punk dream dies with it? Join the Army, of course, if you're Billy Bragg. And then leave it, sharpish. Billy continues his series of podcasts on his career with a ...
Episode 1: Prehistory to the end of Riff Raff
Saturday, March 11th, 2006 Posted in Podcasts | 2 Comments »The first episode of Billy Bragg’s new series of podcasts in which he discusses his career with Wiggy - childhood friend, guitar teacher, and musical collaborator in Riff Raff and the Red Stars.
