Billy Bragg | |
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 Bragg in 2010 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | William Bragg |
| Born | Stephen William Bragg (1957-12-20)20 December 1957 (age 68)[1] |
| Genres | |
| Occupations |
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| Instruments |
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| Works | Billy Bragg discography |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Labels | |
| Website | billybragg |
Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, author and political activist. His music blends elements offolk music,punk rock andprotest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic themes. His activism is centred on social change andleft-wing political causes.
Bragg was born in 1957 inBarking,Essex (later part of Greater London)[2] to Dennis Frederick Austin Bragg, an assistant sales manager to a Barking cap maker and milliner, and his wife Marie Victoria D'Urso, who was of Italian descent through her father.[3][a] Bragg's father died of lung cancer in 1976,[4] and his mother died in 2011.[5]
Bragg was educated at Northbury Junior School and Park Modern Secondary School (now part ofBarking Abbey Secondary School[6]) in Barking. He failed hiseleven-plus exam.[7] He developed an interest in poetry at age twelve, when his English teacher chose him to read a poem he had written for a homework assignment on a local radio station.[8] He focused on learning and practising theguitar with his next-door neighbour, Philip Wigg (Wiggy). Some of their influences werethe Faces,Small Faces andthe Rolling Stones. He was also exposed to folk and folk-rock music during his teenage years, citingSimon & Garfunkel andBob Dylan as early influences on his songwriting.[8]
During the rise ofpunk rock andnew wave in the late 1970s,Elvis Costello also served as an inspiration for Bragg.[9] He was particularly influenced bythe Jam,[10] as well asthe Clash, whom he had seen play live in London in May 1977 on their White Riot Tour, and again at aRock Against Racism carnival in April 1978, which he admits was the first time he really stepped into the world of music as it is used for political activism.[11] The experience of the gig and preceding march helped shape Bragg's left-wing politics, a change from his having previously "turned a blind eye" to casual racism.[11]
In 1977, Bragg formed thepunk rock/pub rock band Riff Raff with Wiggy. The band decamped to ruralOundle inNorthamptonshire in 1978 to record a series of singles (the first on independentChiswick Records), which did not receive wide exposure. After a period of gigging in Northamptonshire and London, they returned to Barking and split in 1980.[12] Taking a series of odd jobs including working at Guy Norris' record shop in Barking high street, Bragg became disillusioned with his stalled music career and in May 1981 joined theBritish Army as a recruit destined for theQueen's Royal Irish Hussars of theRoyal Armoured Corps. After completing three months'basic training, he bought himself out for £175 and returned home.[13]
Bragg peroxided his hair to mark a new phase in his life and began performing frequent concerts andbusking around London, playing solo with an electric guitar under the nameSpy vs Spy (afterthe strip inMad magazine).[14]
His demo tape initially got no response from the record industry, but by pretending to be a television repair man, he got into the office ofCharisma Records'A&R manPeter Jenner.[15] Jenner liked the tape, but the company was near bankruptcy and had no budget to sign new artists. Bragg got an offer to record more demos for music publisherChappell & Co., so Jenner agreed to release them as a record.Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy (credited to Billy Bragg) was released in July 1983 by Charisma's new imprint, Utility. Hearing DJJohn Peel mention on-air that he was hungry, Bragg rushed to the BBC with a mushroombiryani, so Peel played "The Milkman of Human Kindness" fromLife's a Riot with Spy vs Spy albeit at the wrong speed (since the 12" LP was, unconventionally, cut to play at 45rpm). Peel insisted he would have played the song even without the biryani and later played it at the correct speed.[15]
Within months Charisma had been taken over byVirgin Records and Jenner, who had been made redundant, became Bragg'smanager.Stiff Records' press officer Andy Macdonald – who was setting up his own record label,Go! Discs – received a copy ofLife's a Riot with Spy vs Spy. He made Virgin an offer and the album was re-released on Go! Discs in November 1983, at the fixed low price of £2.99.[16] Around this time,Andy Kershaw, an early supporter atRadio Aire inLeeds, was employed by Jenner as Bragg's tour manager. (He later became aBBC DJ and TV presenter, and he and Bragg appeared in an episode of the BBC TV programmeGreat Journeys in 1989, in which they travelled the Silver Road fromPotosí, Bolivia, to the Pacific coast atArica, Chile.)[17]
Though never released as a Bragg single, album track and live favourite "A New England", with an additional verse, became a Top 10 hit in the UK forKirsty MacColl in January 1985. Since MacColl's early death, Bragg always sings the extra verse live in her honour.[18]
In 1984, Bragg toured the UK supportingthe Style Council.[19] Later the same year he releasedBrewing Up with Billy Bragg, a mixture of political songs (e.g. "It Says Here") and songs of unrequited love (e.g. "The Saturday Boy"). This was followed in 1985 byBetween the Wars, an EP of political songs that included a cover version ofLeon Rosselson's "The World Turned Upside Down". The EP made the Top 20 of theUK Singles Chart and earned Bragg an appearance onTop of the Pops, singing the title track. Bragg later collaborated with Rosselson on the song "Ballad of a Spycatcher".[20]
In the same year, he embarked on his first tour of North America, with Wiggy as tour manager, supportingEcho & the Bunnymen.[21] The tour began inWashington, D.C., and ended inLos Angeles. On the same trip, in New York, Bragg unveiled his "Portastack",[22] a self-contained, mobile PA system weighing 35 lbs (designed for £500 by engineer Kenny Jones), the wearing of which became an archetypal image of the singer at that time. With it, he was able to busk outside theNew Music Seminar, a record industry conference.[23]
In 1986 Bragg releasedTalking with the Taxman About Poetry, which became his first Top 10 album. Its title is taken from a poem byVladimir Mayakovsky and a translated version of the poem was printed on the record's inner sleeve.Back to Basics is a 1987 collection of his first three releases:Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy,Brewing Up with Billy Bragg, andBetween the Wars. He enjoyed his only Number 1 hit single in May 1988, a cover ofthe Beatles' "She's Leaving Home", a shared A-side withWet Wet Wet's "With a Little Help from My Friends". Both were taken from a multi-artist re-recording ofSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band titledSgt. Pepper Knew My Father coordinated by theNME in aid of the charityChildline. Wet Wet Wet's cover dominated radio airplay and its video was shown over four consecutive weeks onTop of the Pops; on the single's first week at number one, Bragg also went on the programme to play his cover, with regular accompanistCara Tivey on piano.[24][25]
Bragg released his fourth album,Workers Playtime, in September 1988. With this album, Bragg added a full backing band and accompaniment, includingTivey on piano,Danny Thompson on double bass and veteranMicky Waller on drums. Wiggy earned a co-production credit withJoe Boyd.[26]
In August 1989 Bragg took lead vocal onNorman Cook's UK top 40 hit "Won't Talk About It", which sampled Bragg's song "Levi Stubbs' Tears" and was a double-A-side with "Blame It On the Bassline". The track was a bigger hit a year later withLindy Layton replacing Bragg as lead vocal.[citation needed]
In May 1990 Bragg released the politicalmini-LPThe Internationale on his and Jenner's own short-lived label Utility, which operated independently of Go! Discs, to which Bragg was still contracted. The songs were, in part, a return to his solo guitar style, but some featured more complicated arrangements and included abrass band. The album paid tribute to one of Bragg's influences with the song, "I Dreamed I SawPhil Ochs Last Night", which is an adapted version ofEarl Robinson's song, "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night", itself an adaptation of a poem byAlfred Hayes.[27] Though the album only reached Number 34 in the UK Albums Chart, Bragg described it as "a reassertion of my rights as an individual... and a childish two fingers [to Go! Discs boss Andy Macdonald, who'd recently signed a distribution deal with entertainment industry giant PolyGram]".[28]
His sixth studio albumDon't Try This at Home was recorded in the shadow of the build-up to theGulf War and subsequent ground war, inspiring the track "Rumours of War". Although there is social comment ("The Few", "North Sea Bubble"), it was intended as a more commercial pop album, released in September 1991. (Bragg called it "a very long-range attempt to convert the ball between the posts".[29]). The first single was the upbeat "Sexuality", which, despite an accessible video and a dance remix on the B-side, only reached Number 27 on the UK Singles Chart. Following overtures by rival labelChrysalis, Bragg and Jenner had been persuaded by Go! Discs' Andy and Juliet Macdonald to sign a four-album deal for a million pound advance; in return he would promote the album with singles and videos.[30] A more commercial sound and aggressive marketing had no appreciable effect on album sales, and after a grueling, 13-month world tour with a full band (the Red Stars, led by Wiggy), and a period of forced convalescence afterappendicitis, Bragg left Go! Discs in summer 1992, paying back the remainder of his advance in return for all rights to his back catalogue.[31]
Bragg released the albumWilliam Bloke in 1996 after taking time off to help new partner Juliet Wills raise their son Jack. (There is a reference to him in the track "Brickbat": "Now you'll find me with the baby, in the bathroom".)[32] After the ambitious instrumentation ofDon't Try This at Home, it was a simpler record, musically, more personal and even spiritual, lyrically (its title a pun on the name of 18th-century English poetWilliam Blake, who is referenced in the song "Upfield").[33]
Around that time,Nora Guthrie (daughter of American folk artistWoody Guthrie) asked Bragg to set some of her father's unrecorded lyrics to music. The result was a collaboration with the bandWilco andNatalie Merchant (with whom Bragg had worked previously). They released the albumMermaid Avenue in 1998,[34] andMermaid Avenue Vol. II in 2000.[35] The first album was nominated for aGrammy Award in the Best Contemporary Folk Album category. A third batch,Mermaid Avenue Vol III, andThe Complete Sessions followed in 2012 to mark Woody Guthrie's centennial.[36] A rift with Wilco over mixing and sequencing the first album led to Bragg recruiting his own band, The Blokes, to promote the album live. The Blokes included keyboardistIan McLagan, who had been a member of Bragg's boyhood heroesthe Faces. The documentary filmMan in the Sand depicted the roles of Nora Guthrie, Bragg, and Wilco in the creation of theMermaid Avenue albums.[37]
A developing interest inEnglish national identity, driven by the rise of theBNP and his own move from London to ruralDorset in 1999, informed his 2002 albumEngland, Half-English (whose single, "Take Down The Union Jack" put him back onTop of the Pops in the Queen's Golden Jubilee year[38]) and his 2006 bookThe Progressive Patriot. The book expressed his view that English socialists can reclaim patriotism from the right wing. He draws on Victorian poetRudyard Kipling for an inclusive sense of Englishness.[39] In 2007 Bragg moved closer to his English folk music roots by joining theWOMAD-inspired collectiveThe Imagined Village, who recorded an album of updated versions of traditional English songs and dances and toured through that autumn.[40]
In December, Bragg previewed tracks from his forthcoming albumMr. Love & Justice at a one-off evening of music and conversation to mark his 50th birthday at London'sSouth Bank.[41] The album was released in March 2008, the second Bragg album to be named after a book byColin MacInnes afterEngland, Half-English.[42][43] The same year, during theNME Awards ceremony, Bragg sang a duet with British solo actKate Nash. They mixed up two of their greatest hits, Nash playing "Foundations", and Bragg redoing "A New England".[44] Also in 2008, Bragg played a small role in Stuart Bamforth's filmA13: Road Movie.[45]
In 2009, Bragg was invited by London'sSouth Bank to write new lyrics for "Ode to Joy", the final movement ofBeethoven'sNinth Symphony (original libretto byFriedrich Schiller), since adopted as an international anthem of unity. The London Philharmonic Orchestra performed it at the Royal Festival Hall in front ofQueen Elizabeth II, whom Bragg met afterwards to earn "brownie points" with his mother, who was also in attendance.[46]
Bragg was involved in the playPressure Drop at theWellcome Collection in London in April and May 2010. The production, written by Mick Gorden, and billed as "part play, part gig, part installation", featured new songs by Bragg. He performed during the play with his band, and acted ascompere.[47]
Bragg was invited byMichael Eavis to curate the Leftfield stage atGlastonbury Festival in 2010,[48] which he has continued to do in subsequent years.[49] He also took part in theBush Theatre's 2011 projectSixty-Six Books, where he wrote a piece based upon a book of theKing James Bible.[50] Bragg performed a set of the Guthrie songs that he had set to music forMermaid Avenue during theHay Literary Festival in June 2012,[51] he also performed the same set on the Friday night of the 2012 Cambridge Folk Festival.[52]
On 18 March 2013, five years afterMr. Love & Justice, Bragg released the studio albumTooth & Nail. Recorded in five days at the home studio of musician/producerJoe Henry inSouth Pasadena it featured 11 original songs, including one written for the Bush Theatre and a Woody Guthrie cover. Stylistically, it continued to explore genres ofAmericana andalternative country, a natural progression sinceMermaid Avenue.[53][54] The album was a commercial success, becoming his best charting record since 1991'sDon't Try This at Home.[55]
In February 2014, Bragg started a series of "radio shows" onSpotify, in which he talked listeners through self-curated playlists of "his favourite tracks and artists, and uncovering some little-known musical gems".[56] On 14 April 2014, Bragg put outLive at the Union Chapel, a souvenir album and DVD of a show he played on 5 June 2013 at theUnion Chapel in London, featuring songs fromTooth & Nail as well as favourites from his back catalogue.[57]
In February 2016, Bragg was given the Trailblazer Award at the inaugural Americana Music Association UK Awards in London.[58] Following that, in September he was given the Spirit of Americana Free Speech Award at the Americana Music Association US Awards in Nashville.[59]
In August 2016, Bragg released his eleventh album, a collaboration with Joe Henry,Shine a Light: Field Recordings from the Great American Railroad, recorded at various points on a journey betweenChicago andLos Angeles by train in March. It reached number 28 in the UK Albums Chart[60] and number one in the UK Americana album chart.[61] The pair started a dualShine a Light tour at theAmericana Music Festival inNashville in September 2016, and taking them across the States and Canada, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. In April 2017, they played in Australia.
Faber published Bragg's second nonfiction book (after 2006'sThe Progressive Patriot),Roots, Radicals and Rockers in June 2016, a history of the Britishskiffle movement, tracing the form from its 1950s boom back toragtime,blues,jazz and Americanfolk music. OnBBC Music Day 2017, he helped unveil a blue plaque marking the studio (Trident) where the lateDavid Bowie recorded two classic albums and the single "Space Oddity", inSoho; he joined album sleeve designer George Underwood andBBC Radio London'sRobert Elms.[62] In November, he released all six tracks from themini-albumBridges Not Walls as downloads through the Billy Bragg website,[63] followed by the single, "Full English Brexit" through Cooking Vinyl.
In April 2018, Bragg was invited to deliver aBank of England Flagship Seminar; his presentation was titledAccountability: the Antidote to Authoritarianism. The speech was made available on the Bank of England's website.[64] At theIvor Novello Awards (the Ivors) in May, he accepted thePRS Outstanding Contribution to British Music award.[65] Also in May, his official biographyStill Suitable for Miners was published in a new, 20th anniversary updated edition.[66]
Bragg ended 2018 touring New Zealand and Australia. During his shows inAuckland, Bragg road-tested a new live format for 2019 that he had first tried out inToronto, which became theOne Step Forward, Two Steps Back tour. On the tour, Bragg would play three consecutive shows over three nights at each venue: the first night a current, mixed Bragg set; the second from his first three albums; the third from his second three albums. "It's a way of keeping things interesting", he said of the format.[67] The tour covered the United States and the UK and Ireland throughout 2019. It was intended to continue onto Australia and New Zealand in 2020, but was rescheduled and delayed multiple times due to the ongoingCOVID-19 pandemic. The shows ultimately took place in February and March 2023.[68]
In May 2019,Faber and Faber publishedThe Three Dimensions of Freedom, a short polemic by Bragg intended, according to the publisher's blurb, to "protect ourselves from encroaching tyranny". The author urges readers to "look beyond [the] one-dimensional notion of what it means to be free" and "by reconnecting liberty to equality and accountability, restore... the three dimensions of freedom".[69]
While unable to tour over the pandemic years, Bragg began working on new material. This resulted in his thirteenth studio album,The Million Things That Never Happened, which was released in October 2021. Four singles were released from the album: "I Will Be Your Shield", "Ten Mysterious Photos That Can't Be Explained", "Pass It On" and "Mid-Century Modern".[70]
In February 2023, Bragg announced a compilation series entitledThe Roaring Forty (1983–2023) to commemorate 40 years of performing music.[1] These included a single LP compilation of 13 tracks, a triple-LP/double-CD of 40 tracks and a 14-disc CD box set of some 300 songs.[71] He later announced theRoaring Forty tour, which took place across the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe from September to December 2023.[72]
In August 2023, Bragg shared a new single entitled "Rich Men Earning North of a Million". The solo track was quickly written and recorded as ananswer song to American country musicianOliver Anthony's song "Rich Men North of Richmond".[73]
Bragg appears on a cover of theEwan MacColl song "School Days Are Over" on the 2025Dropkick Murphys albumFor the People. According to singerKen Casey, the song is a favourite of Bragg's and said of Bragg that "Billy’s become a great friend. It’s inspiring how he’s carried on the protest singer legacy. He really walks the walk."[74]
For all of Bragg's 30-year-plus recording career, he has been involved with grassroots, broadly leftist, political movements, and this is often reflected in his lyrics. He has also recorded and performed cover versions of socialist anthems such as "The Internationale" and "The Red Flag". Bragg said in an interview: "I don't mind being labelled a political songwriter. The thing that troubles me is being dismissed as a political songwriter".[75] Bragg has citedthe Clash as a strong influence on his politically themed material and activism:
It wasn't so much their lyrics as what they stood for and the actions they took. That became really important to me.Phil Collins might writea song about the homeless, but if he doesn't have the action to go with it he's just exploiting that for a subject. I got that from the Clash, and I try to remain true to that tradition as best I can.[76]
Bragg's politics were focused by theConservative Party's 144-seat majority landslide at the1983 general election. He told his biographer, "By 1983, the scales had fallen from my eyes".[77] His record label boss Andy Macdonald observed that "his presence onstage took on more of the avenging angel".[78] Bragg was at the forefront of music's influence on the1984 miners' strike, and played many benefit gigs in towns close to coalfields such as Newport and Sunderland.[79] He also released an EP during this year titled "Between the Wars", which connected struggles of class solidarity to the present issue. This single was his most successful up until this point, reaching number 15 on the UK Singles Chart.[80] The following year, after playing a shortLabour Party-sponsored Jobs For Youth tour, he joined other like-minded activists in the public eye to form the musicians' allianceRed Wedge, which promoted Labour's cause – and in turn lobbied the party on youth issues – in the run-up to the1987 general election,[81] with a national tour in 1986 alongsidethe Style Council,Jerry Dammers andthe Communards.
Bragg travelled twice to the Soviet Union in 1986, the yearMikhail Gorbachev started to promote the policies ofperestroika andglasnost. He played a gig inLeningrad, and the Festival of Song in the Struggle for Peace inKyiv.[82]
On 12 June 1987, the night after Labour lost that year's general election, Bragg appeared on anotable edition of theChannel 4 discussion programmeAfter Dark, alongsideDavid Selbourne,Teresa Gorman andHilary Hook among others.The Independent wrote "A show calledIs Britain Working? brought together victorious Tory MP Teresa Gorman; ... Helen from the StonehengeConvoy; old colonialist Colonel Hilary Hook... and Adrian, one of the jobless. It was a perfect example of the chemistry you can get. There were unlikely alliances (Bragg and Hook)".[83] Later Gorman "stormed off the set, claiming she had been misled about the nature of the programme"[84] "She told... Bragg: 'You and your kind are finished. We are the future now.'"[85] Bragg said "I sing in smokey rooms every night and I can keep talking for far longer than you can Teresa".[86] Bragg explained later: "She was so smug. And because she was Essex I took it personally. Then she accused me of being a fine example of Thatcherism".[87]
In 1999, he was invited to appear before a commission that debated possiblereform of the House of Lords,[88] at which he put forward what became known as "the Bragg Method": the arrangement of the Upper House to proportionally reflect the results of a general election. "Trying to make it sexy is impossible," he said.[89]
At the time of the2001 general election, Bragg promotedtactical voting in an attempt to unseat Conservative Party candidates in his adopted home countyDorset, particularly inSouth Dorset andWest Dorset.[90] The Conservatives did narrowly lose South Dorset to the Labour Party.
Bragg has been an opponent of fascism, racism,[11]bigotry,sexism andhomophobia, and is a supporter of a multi-racial Britain. As a result, he has conflicted with far-right groups such as theBritish National Party (BNP). In a 2004The Guardian article, Bragg was quoted as saying:
The British National Party would probably make it into a parliament elected byproportional representation, too. It would shine a torch into the dirty little corner where the BNP defecate on our democracy, and that would be much more powerful than duffing them up in the street – which I'm also in favour of.[91]
During the2005 general election campaign in theBethnal Green and Bow constituency, Bragg endorsedOona King, the Labour Party's pro-Iraq War candidate, overGeorge Galloway, the left-wing socialist anti-war candidate from theRespect Party; due to a belief that splitting the left-wing vote would allow the Conservatives to win the seat.[92] Galloway overturned King's 10,000-strong majority to become the Respect Party's only MP.[93]
At theNME Awards in 2007, on the fifth anniversary ofJoe Strummer's death, Bragg founded Jail Guitar Doors (taking its name from asong by the Clash), an organisation aimed at supplying instruments to prisons and encouraging prisoners to address problems in a non-confrontational way.[94] An American chapter of the organisation was launched in 2009 byMC5'sWayne Kramer.[95]
In January 2010, Bragg stated his intention to withhold his income tax as a protest against theRoyal Bank of Scotland's plan to pay bonuses of approximately £1.5 billion to staff in its investment banking business. Bragg set up a Facebook group, made appearances on radio and television news programmes, and made a speech atSpeakers' Corner in London'sHyde Park saying, "Millions are already facing stark choices: are they willing to work longer hours for less money, or would they rather be unemployed? I don't see why the bankers at RBS shouldn't be asked the same".[96]
In the2010 general election, Bragg supported theLiberal Democrats because "they've got the best manifesto".[97]
Bragg was also very active in his hometown ofBarking as part ofSearchlight magazine'sHope not Hate campaign, where the BNP's leaderNick Griffin was standing for election. At one point during the campaign Bragg squared up to BNPLondon Assembly MemberRichard Barnbrook, calling him a "Fascist racist" and saying "when you're gone from this borough, we will rebuild this community". The BNP came third on election day.[98]
In January 2011, news sources reported that 20 to 30 residents of Bragg's Dorset village,Burton Bradstock, had received anonymous letters viciously attacking him and his politics, and urging residents to oppose him in the village. He claimed that a BNP supporter was behind the letters, which argued that Bragg is a hypocrite for advocating socialism while living a wealthy lifestyle, and referred to him as anti-British and pro-immigration.[99]
In July 2011 Bragg joined the growing protests over theNews of the World phone hacking affair with the release of his "Never Buy the Sun" single, which references many of the scandal's key points including the Milly Dowler case, police bribes and associated political fallout. It also draws on the 22-year Liverpool boycott ofThe Sun for theircoverage of the Hillsborough disaster.[100]
In October 2011, Bragg joined theOccupy Movement protests in theCity of London.[101] In 2013, despite his scathing criticism ofMargaret Thatcher, he urged people not to celebrate the death of the former Conservative Prime Minister:
The death ofMargaret Thatcher is nothing more than a salient reminder of how Britain got into the mess that we are in today. Of why ordinary working people are no longer able to earn enough from one job to support a family; of why there is a shortage of decent affordable housing... of why cynicism and greed became the hallmarks of our society. Raising a glass to the death of an infirm old lady changes none of this. The only real antidote to cynicism is activism. Don't celebrate – organise![102]
In 2014, Bragg joined theMarch in March anti-government protests[103] in Sydney, Australia.
In June 2014, Bragg joined other musicians (includingRadiohead'sEd O'Brien) in backing a call for the EU to intervene in a dispute between YouTube and independent labels. According to a BBC News report, the video-streaming site was offering "non-negotiable contracts" to its planned,Spotify-like music-subscription service to labels such asXL Recordings,4AD,Cooking Vinyl andDomino "accompanied by the threat that music videos they have posted to their YouTube channels will be blocked from site altogether if they do not agree to the terms".[104]
Bragg supports bothScottish andWelsh independence.[105] In 2014, afterDavid Bowie spoke in favour of Scotland remaining part of the UK, Bragg said, "Bowie's intervention encourages people in England to discuss the issues of the independence referendum, and I think English people should be discussing it, so I welcome his intervention".[106] Bragg was a vocal supporter of Scottish independence during the campaign prior tothe referendum on 18 September 2014. Bragg wrote an article forThe Guardian newspaper on 16 September, in which he addressed the objections he had previously received from people who conflated Scottish nationalism with the far-right ethos of the BNP. He described the independence campaign as "civic nationalism" and his opinion piece concluded:
Support for Scottish self-determination might not fit neatly into any leftwing pigeonhole, but it does chime with an older progressive tradition that runs deep in English history – a dogged determination to hold the over-mighty to account. If, during the constitutional settlement that will follow the referendum, we in England can rediscover our Roundhead tradition, we might yet counter our historic weakness for ethnic nationalism with an outpouring of civic engagement that creates a fairer society for all.[107]
Bragg was one of several celebrities who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of theGreen Party'sCaroline Lucas at the2015 general election.[108] In August 2015, Bragg endorsedJeremy Corbyn's campaign in theLabour Party leadership election. He said: "His [Corbyn's] success so far shows you how bland our politics have become, in the aim of winning those swing voters inmiddle England theLabour Party has lost touch with its roots. We live in a time of austerity and what you want from that is not more austerity, you want compassion".[109] On an edition ofQuestion Time in October 2015, he said that Corbyn represents a political "urge for change" and thatEd Miliband had failed to win the2015 general election because Miliband and the party followed "the old way of doing things".[110] In 2016, Bragg, along with numerous other celebrities, toured the UK to support Corbyn's bid to becomePrime Minister.[111][112] He also voiced his support for Remain in the2016 EU referendum.[113]
In August 2016,The Times reported that at theEdinburgh Book Festival, Bragg had said: "I worry about Jeremy that he's a kind of twentieth century Labour man", and that "we need to be reaching out to people". Described as a "previously loyal supporter", who has "lent his support to Mr Corbyn on numerous occasions since he became Labour leader",The Times quoted Bragg: "I don't have a simple answer. My hope is that the party does not split and that we resolve this stalemate". Corbyn at the time was campaigning in an enforcedsecond leadership election in the summer of 2016.[114]
AfterThe Times article appeared, the singer tweeted that he had "joined the long list of people stitched up by theMurdoch papers"[115] and accused theTimes of "twisting my words to attack Corbyn", urging "don't let Murdoch sow discord".[116]The Guardian reproduced a quote from a recording of the event absent fromThe Times article: "It's a challenge. Labour has fires to fight on different fronts. This would be happening even without Corbyn if any of the other candidates had won last year, these problems would still be there".[115] In August 2016, Bragg also endorsedJeremy Corbyn's campaign in theLabour Party leadership election.[115]
During thegeneral election campaign in May 2017, Bragg added his signature to a letter published inThe Guardian calling for Labour to withdraw its candidates in two constituencies;Brighton Pavilion and theIsle of Wight and potentially allowing theGreen Party to defeat theTories in both, where Labour were running second. The letter was also signed by Labour MPClive Lewis, former policy chiefJon Cruddas, former shadow children's ministerTulip Siddiq and journalistsPaul Mason andOwen Jones. The initiative was shut down by Jeremy Corbyn.[117]
In June 2019, Bragg publicly criticised fellow singer-songwriterMorrissey for his recent political comments and endorsement of afar-right political party, and accused him of dragging the legacy ofJohnny Marr andthe Smiths "through the dirt".[118][119]
In November 2019, Bragg endorsed the Labour Party in the2019 general election.[120]
On January 28, 2026, Bragg released "City of Heroes", aprotest song againstUnited States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the aftermath of the fatal shootings ofRenée Good andAlex Pretti by federal agents inMinneapolis. The song was released just hours after the release ofBruce Springsteen's "Streets of Minneapolis", another protest song against ICE.[121]
With his partner Juliet, Bragg has an adult son, singer-songwriter Jack Valero.[122][123]
Bragg supportsWest Ham United F.C.[124]
"But now he's betraying those fans, betraying his legacy and empowering the very people Smiths fans were brought into being to oppose. He's become the Oswald Mosley of pop"
