My tiff I had with Billy Bragg

Have you ever had a relationship where things ended on a pretty bad note. There was an incident and it was the deal breaker for you. They cheated, you cheated, they thought Star Wars Episode I was an ok movie. You know, stuff that you couldn't find your way back from. You split up and go your separate ways and life seems to move on. But then you both find your self at some social gathering and things seem really good again and you're flooded with all those amazing memories of the good times and suddenly you can't quite remember why you were ever so angry with them, they smile at you and suddenly you wish you were on the best of terms again. But things can't be the same and even if you think you might be able to forgive you can never quite forget.

So where do you go from there?

This is the situation I have created inside my head with Billy Bragg. Of course he has no idea about this, or who I am asides from another random goon in a crowd who he smiled at. But this has been a raging issue for me since yesterday lunchtime. For the sake of writing a blog I'll start at the beginning and the good times.

Billy Bragg has been an idol and an inspiration to me for the best part of 10 years. Tazz and I used to listen to him whilst recovering from whatever shenanigans the preceding days had thrown at us and he gave us both the idea of picking up acoustic guitars, renaming CJD to Red Rag Front and doing it acoustic style. To Have Or To Have Not has been one of our regular renditions (as much from loving the Lars Frederikson and the Bastards cover as the original) and one of the last videos of Tazz and I together is us walking down a street in Shoreham singing that song. Billy Bragg has always been a part of that side of my life and he is one of the people that I looked to when I thought that I couldn't pick up an guitar and do this whole band thing again. So all in all he is a pretty big deal in my life.

But then the deal breaker came. He writes articles these days for The Guardian and the breakup article in particular was about the South Bank undercroft. Writing pro demolition of the spot, Billy Bragg took

something I hold dear to my heart and took an awful (in my eyes) view on the situation. Saying that catering to up and coming (mostly rich) entrepreneurs rather than saving 40 years of British counter-culture history was the right thing to do. WHAT! How could someone I look up to so much have such a jarringly "wrong" opinion on something I have an opinion on too!! What an arse
hole. He clearly doesn't deserve my admiration or respect for being just so wrong about this! etc etc. Basically this is how I felt (feel) about what he wrote, and I'm not the only one. So there you have it. How totally irreparably damaged is that? Billy Bragg was unliked on Facebook (SHOCK!) removed from my Spotify playlists (TERROR!) and spoken of badly to all within earshot when discussing the South Bank situation (ERMARGERD!)

Which brings us to the present (or very near past since I'm talking about yesterday). So I'm reading stuff on
Frank Turners profile and it just so happens that he's been hanging out with Billy Bragg. Not only that but they are both campaigning on behalf of Shelter UK. So here is another folk/punk idol of mine and he's hanging around with this celebrity I totally despise right now. but they are both getting involved with another cause that I care about, and this time on the same side as me. Not only that but they were doing a spontaneous busking session in Kings Cross just fifteen minutes from my office at lunchtime. A quick trip to Franks twitter for the location and I was set on going. Let's face it, these are two artists that sell out arenas and they were about to play totally unplugged on a street corner, I'd be mad to miss it.

I got there a little late because of work commitments and only got to see them perform about four songs but goddamn it was awesome. Frank taking a bit of a reverent back seat to Billy whilst belting their own songs and some more generic covers for the hundred or so crowd to sing along to. Watching Billy up on the crudely erected stage singing away brought back all those great memories of when I thought he was the greatest and watching him and Frank being such genuinely good friends, laughing at each other and the
oddness of their current situation made my brain think that Billy wasn't actually the total waste of space clunge trumpet I thought he was a day before. The clincher came when I was about to walk away whilst Frank was singing one of his hits off Tape Deck Heart. Billy had snuck away to have a little strum away from the crowd and I looked over at him and he at me. He gave me a nod, wink and smile and carried on playing away to himself and in that moment I was the ultimate Billy Bragg fanboy all over again. Forgetting whatever trivial thing I might have been annoyed about and just wanting him to autograph my forehead so I could go get it tattooed on me.

And so here I am, the morning after. I don't really know what to do about the fact that actually I'm still pretty mad about the whole south bank thing but also pleased to have seen him perform in real life in such an awesome capacity and more than that for a billiant cause that I can totally get behind. Watching him have fun with Frank Turner and wow a crowd thirty years after his heyday makes me feel like maybe I was the one who was an arse hole for judging him so harshly on one topic we disagree on without taking into account the ten years of history we have had together. and so once again I liken it to a relationship. I think I may just forgive him and put New England back on my folk/punk playlist. Does that make me a bad person? maybe. Will people look down on me for once again being a Billy Bragg fan? probably. But I don't care as long as it make me happy. Every one deserves a second chance.

Once again for clarity this whole situation is entirely in my mind and Billy Bragg has no idea whatsoever who I am or the way I feel or ever will know me other than as a generic fan he nodded at one time.