Current newsArchived News & Events
Comments
Billy Bragg on stage at the festival in 2000...
...and in 2001. Dick Gaughan & Brian McNeill.
Music
at the Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival 2002
The following musicians will be appearing at this year's event:
Billy Bragg became
a real supporter of the Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival when he and The Blokes
played there in 2000. He is the ideal performer for the event and lives
not far away in Dorset.
Billy is a singer songwriter who first came to prominence in 1983 with
his debut album, 'Life's a Riot'. Since then he has become one of the
country's best known and best loved popular musicians. Dubbed Britain's
finest rock poet by the British music paper, NME, Billy's high quality
songwriting shuns the glossy values traditionally associated with pop
music.
Billy
has toured extensively across the globe, much of the time as a solo performer.
He has had several Top Ten albums and numerous Top Twenty singles in many
territories. He has collaborated with The Smiths' Johnny Marr, 10,000
Maniacs' Natalie Merchant, Peter Seeger, REM, and Wilco. Those who have
recorded songs written by Billy include the late Kirsty MacColl ('A New
England'), Paul Young ('Man in the Iron Mask'), and Dubstar ('St Swithins
Day').
Apart from his music and his sense of humour, Billy is also well known
for his personal commitment to political and humanitarian issues. He says
he was politicised by Margaret Thatcher, and his experiences while actively
supporting the British mining communities during the Miners Strike of
1984/85 proved a strong early influence. This later led him to create
a coalition of musicians, Red Wedge, which offered critical support for
the UK's Labour Party during the 1987 General Election. He has been a
longstanding and vociferous campaigner against racism and has lent his
solidarity to many international issues in many ways, including performing
to raise funds. In 1993 Billy became a father and curtailed his rigorous
touring schedule in order to spend time with his family. Working mostly
in London, he wrote music and songs for several films, including 'Walking
and Talking' and the BBC's 'Safe' and the feature film 'Mad Love'.
While his musical career is the most important aspect of his work, he
manages to find time to work as a broadcaster and writer discussing social
and political issues which are close to his heart. He has written extensively
on such subjects as Englishness and the reform of the House of Lords,
for both broadsheet and broadcasting media.
In 1996, Billy was invited by Woody Guthrie's daughter, Nora, to visit
the Guthrie Archive in New York where she showed him thousands of unpublished
lyrics that her father had written. The songs had never been recorded,
as the original tunes, carried in Woody's head, had been lost when he
died. It was Nora's hope that Billy would take on the task of writing
new ones. The resulting album, 'Mermaid Avenue', was recorded in Dublin
with US alt-country rockers Wilco. Following its release to worldwide
acclaim in 1998, 'Mermaid Avenue' was nominated for a Grammy Award and
included in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the most influential albums
of the '90s. To date it has sold 600,000 copies worldwide. The follow-up,
'Mermaid Avenue Volume II', was released in the summer of 2000 and was
also Grammy nominated.
His latest album with The Blokes is England, Half English
www.billybragg.co.uk
Dick Gaughan
& Brian McNeill
This
year's Tolpuddle Martyr's Festival will have a rare chance to hear two
of Scotland's leading performers combine their energies. Unequivocally
of the political left, Dick and Brian bring together biting social comment
and musical synergy.
Dick Gaughan & Brian McNeill have more than 60 years as professional musicians
between them. Dick was born in Glasgow and raised in Leith, Brian was
born are raised in Falkirk. Both have made their mark in seminar bands:
Dick in the 70s as an early member of the Boys of The Lough and as a founder
member of Five Hand Reel, Brian as founder member of the Battlefield Band
in 1969. Both were part of the ground breaking Scottish ensemble Clan
Alba in the 90s.
www.dickalba.demon.co.uk
"These self-styled angry old farts don't play
together all that often . . . but when they do they enjoy themselves and
each other's music. As singer, songwriters and interpreters, they remain
vigorously committed to addressing current concerns."
The Herald
"This
is what folk music is about at its best."
Folk Tales Magazine USA
Back
to top
Archived News & Events