Billy Bragg Brings Spirit of Activism to The Suffolk

Music has long been used as a medium to discuss social and political issues, especially in the United States. From the anti-Vietnam War anthems of the late 1960s to 2010s songs about police brutality and race relations, protest songs have been used as a way to combine music and activism.

But this combination of music and activism isn’t just limited to the boundaries of this country. The United Kingdom, in particular, has also seen a great deal of protest songs and musicians who are also activists.

And there’s none that stand out more than Billy Bragg.

Bragg is an English singer-songwriter who has dedicated most of his career to writing about a variety of social and political issues. His music combines folk, punk and alternative rock stylings with his brand of unabashedly left-wing activism that shines through in the lyrics of songs like “Sexuality,” “A New England” and “Between the Wars.”

Now, he’ll be bringing his talents stateside for a concert at The Suffolk in Riverhead on Thursday, July 18, at 8 p.m. where there will be music at night and revolution in the air.

Bragg started playing guitar at shows in the late 1970s. After becoming increasingly frustrated with his musical career at that point, he joined the British Army for basic training in 1981, which he viewed as a “sabbatical” from his career.

“I had been in a punk band, it had come to nothing and I was looking for a way to press the eject button on that existence,” said Bragg. “It seemed ultimately to have been a frustrating experience and I wanted to get away from it.”

The experience inspired Bragg to write more songs and also helped his self-confidence. He said that “I wouldn’t recommend [joining the army] to anybody, but it certainly had a positive effect on my career prospects.”

Bragg became further inspired to write songs about political and social issues in the mid-1980s during the premiership of the staunchly conservative prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. The 1984-1985 U.K. miners’ strike, in particular, inspired him, as he said that as someone who identified with the working class and those on strike, he wanted to do what he could to support them.

Since then, he’s written songs and spoken out about a variety of issues and topics, including the Iraq War, LGBTQIA+ rights and racism in the United Kingdom. But one of the most important topics to him has been labor unions, specifically the community aspect related to them.

“The issues that labor unions address aren’t just wages and safety in the workplace, there’s also a strong connection with the community,” said Bragg. “And that hasn’t changed since the miners’ strike.”

He added that “when writing about unions, you more often find yourself connecting with an audience” than on other issues.

When Bragg first started playing shows in the United States in the 1980s, he said that the language difference between American and British English led to some interesting moments when he would talk to the audience. One term he noted as the “most problematic” is the word socialism, as he quipped that “in the United States, if you spoke about that word, you were like the antichrist during the Reagan years.”

But still, he was able to connect with American audiences by learning about the parallels between the U.S. and the U.K. at the time by talking to audience members, as well as explaining what was happening across the pond, which many American audience members weren’t aware of.

“When I first came over, I was explaining to American audiences to give some context of my songs about what was happening in our domestic politics,” said Bragg. “And then after the show, talking to people, they would tell me things that were similar about their area. So I was able to take that information back to the U.K. and tell it to audiences there.”

Since then, Bragg has been back to the States plenty of times over the past 40 years. But the visit that stands out the most to him is a 2016 cross-country trip he took with Joe Henry, an American singer-songwriter and producer, where they traveled from Chicago to Los Angeles by train. He got the idea to take this trip while writing a book about skiffle, a rock and roll precursor popular during the 1950s, and noticed something about the songs.

“One of the interesting things while I was writing was, I realized that almost all the songs were about trains,” he said. “And it got me thinking about the significance of the railroad and the difference it made to the human experience, perhaps greater than any other technology we’ve ever experienced.”

While on their trek, Bragg and Henry noticed the long layovers they had between stops at times. To fill that time, they would find places in train stations with good acoustics and record songs there. This resulted in the album “Shine a Light: Field Recordings From the Great American Railroad,” a memento of their cross-country trip.

Bragg noted that going through the American heartland by train allowed him to see the country from a different, more intimate angle than ever before.

“You get to see a different America on a train, especially as it slows down towards a major crossing,” he said. “As you slow down, you’re literally looking into people’s backyards, seeing them sitting in their kitchen having supper and you’re looking at them in a way that you never do when you come in on a freeway.”

Back in the U.K., another project that Bragg has kept busy with is Left Field, a section of the annual Glastonbury Festival that’s specifically dedicated to activism. Left Field features politically-minded performers and panel discussions about contemporary political issues. Bragg said that the goal of Left Field is to “try to keep that domestic politics aspect alive” that the Glastonbury Festival had in the 1980s, as Bragg described the festival back then as “by definition, anti-Thatcher and anti-Reagan.” This history, Bragg said, is what allows Left Field to keep going.

“I don’t think it would work at any other festival,” said Bragg. “I think there’s something about Glastonbury’s tradition that allows something like Left Field to thrive and be supported. Not just by the festival itself, but by the people who go there because they know they’re going to a festival with a radical tradition.”

Left Field also shows that a spirit of activism still exists among young musicians and songwriters today. Bragg said that the role of music as a vessel of activism has changed from when he first started. It still exists as a way to unite people under different causes and will continue to do so.

“In youth culture, I think it no longer has the vanguard role it once did. But it clearly does have a role to play,” said Bragg. “And that role is bringing people together, letting them know that they’re not alone and allowing them to express their views. I think music has that role to play still.”

Billy Bragg performs in concert at The Suffolk on Thursday, July 18, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $70 to $90 at thesuffolk.org. The Suffolk is at 118 East Main Street in Riverhead.