It has been 40 years since the artistic debut of Billy Bragg, the songwriter, poet, tireless political campaigner, larrikin, and icon. A lot has changed in 40 years, but some things never change.
"Time flies really fast," Billy confirms. "Things have changed incredibly. I feel like the same guy, but I don't look like the same guy."But I still feel fired up about the idea of making music and bringing news from one place to another.
"Looking back 40 years later, I was a guy who was trying to find a way to get his opinions heard.
"Strange though it may seem to young people today, back then the only medium available to me to do that, as a working class lad from East London, was to learn to play guitar, write songs, do gigs, make a record and then people would come and ask me questions and I'd be able to express my views.
"Music was our social medium back in those days. If I walked back from the bookshop holding an album under my sleeve, people would have looked at me, and that album would have defined who I was."
When defining the life and career of Bragg, a prominent characteristic is his relentless activism. The intersection of his art and activism is indistinguishable, as they flow seamlessly together throughout his catalogue.
However, Bragg is pragmatic about the perceived power of music. "Music has a role in making you feel that you're not alone.
"You come to a Billy Bragg show and everybody sings together, there's power in union. And then you go back to your workplace or your school or your home, where you feel isolated because of your views, and you think to yourself, 'well, at least there's a room full of people in this town taken by this stuff, because I saw them the other night'. It's all about empathy.
"Music makes you feel that you're part of something larger. And that's a really important thing.
"I don't think there's a lot of empathy out there in the world. It's certainly not something you can get off the Internet.
"Music cannot change the world, but it can make you believe that the world can be changed. Because you've seen those people in that room with their commitment and you can take some of that away with you.
"Sadly music has no agency. Only people have agency. So my job is to remind people of that."
It was the perception of an English teacher that led to an adolescent Bragg realising the functionality of words in opening doors.
"When I was 12, I wrote a poem in English, and my teacher sent a letter home to my parents to ask them if I copied it from somewhere. And then I got invited to read the poem out on a local radio station in Romford.
"It made me feel a bit special, I thought 'that's interesting'. And my parents recognised that music was very important to me, so they bought me a reel-to-reel tape machine when I was 12 to tape songs from the radio.
"I was drawn towards music that said something. By the time I was about 14, I was always listening to Bob Dylan and committed to the idea of changing the world through music."
With more still to do at the ripe age of 65, the bard of barking continues the relentless performing he is known for, currently touring Australia.
Read our review of Billy's recent Adelaide concert.
"I do think when I'm in Australia and I sell out three nights in the city like Brisbane, how fortunate I am that, after 40 years, people on the other side of the world are still interested enough in what I'm doing to hang on to their tickets for three years.
"I'm just happy to still be able to go to bat for things, still be part of the struggle and not be left behind and forgotten about."
Billy Bragg 2023 Tour Dates
10-13 Mar - Port Fairy Folk Festival15-17 Mar - Forum Melbourne
20-22 Mar - Enmore Theatre (Sydney)
26 Mar - The Northern (Byron Bay)
29-31 Mar - The Tivoli (Brisbane)
4-6 Apr - Freo.Social (Fremantle)
8-9 Apr - National Folk Festival (Canberra)
