Billy Bragg gig, Wrecsam,
12 June 2009
In Wrecsam we take what culture we can get. Independent cinema is non-existent, the Stiwt theatre is sadly underused and it’s generally taken for granted that, with rare exceptions, big-name live performances take place out of town, necessitating a trip to Mold, Llandudno or Liverpool. Billy Bragg’s appearance on 12 June at Glyndwr University’s William Aston Hall was a very welcome change and the place was full
The gig was billed as a commemoration of the 1984/5 miners’ strike, and certainly the audience looked to be of an age, like the present writer, who would have had clear memories of that gallant struggle. In the event there wasn’t much mention of the strike itself, although, as you’d expect at a Bragg gig, there was no lack of political comment. Bragg was more concerned with the dismaying results of the elections which took place a week before.
I used to have a friend who categorically refused to listen to any recordings of Billy Bragg, on the grounds that he had energetically called for people to vote Labour, an attitude which at the time I thought silly. It seemed to me nonsensical to shun a singer of songs like “Diggers’ Song”, “The People’s Flag” and Woody Guthrie numbers on the grounds of his personal views. But at a live performance, I couldn’t help being struck by the irony of Bragg lamenting the change “from Red to Blue” to an audience overwhelmingly made up of people who’ve done very nicely out of New Labour policies over the last decade, and hearing their enthusiastic applause for his impassioned denunciations of the BNP, it was hard not to reflect on the overwhelming apathy with which efforts to organise meaningful anti-fascist action locally is generally greeted.
This is not to ignore the small band of anti-Nazi stalwarts who leafletted the gig, but it would be interesting to know how much genuine response they will have garnered. Nor is it to accuse Bragg of cynically participating in the spectacularisation of protest, but all the same, I caught a strong whiff of comfortable self-congratulation in the audience, as he praised the Welsh electorate for voting Tory in fewer numbers than last time, which I didn’t think was justified. Given that New Labour have pumped out a ceaseless stream of low-level racist incitement, mainly directed at asylum-seekers, throughout their time in government, which has done nothing but bolster the attitudes that underlie the BNP’s policies, there’s an awful hypocrisy in urging a Labour vote as the best way to counter them – as Bragg himself came close to recognising when he described the BNP’s presentation of its policies as “not so different from Labour”.
The songs? Oh, the songs were great, there were plenty of laughs, everyone sang along at the end, it was a good night out. If the society of the spectacle has rarely felt so cosy, well, after all, it was just entertainment. I was well enough entertained to feel that it was worth making the electricity bill wait another week.
Sue Fortune |