It was thirty-seven years ago when the Saturday boy from Essex became the UK’s foremost political singer-songwriter. He released his first record, Life’s a Riot with Spy Vs Spy, bashed out on a punk rock electric guitar. It charted at number 30. Billy Bragg had arrived.
The intervening three-and-a-half decades have been marked by numerous milestones and waystations, political and personal, topping the singles chart, having a street named after him, being mentioned in Dylan’s memoir, being invited to deliver a seminar on accountability at the Bank of England and meeting the Queen.
Lockdown couldn’t keep him down. Instead, he looked inwardly as well as outwardly, and joined the two together, stronger. A new set, "The Million Things That Never Happened" emerged. Billy Bragg will be performing at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall at 7:30 p.m. on October 11.