I came into this whole business by going to see Rock Against Racism gigs with the Clash.
From Billy Bragg
I try and write honestly about what I see around me now.
I was in a little punk band and we put out a few punk records that weren't very political, at all.
I'm still batting away on my politics for the Labour Party. I'm much further to the left of them than I used to be, but that's because they've moved, not me.
I've had songs written during the Falklands war, and during the first Gulf war I got letters from soldiers saying they were listening to these songs, like Island of no return.
In that sense, I became politicized because the people in the coal mining villages who were involved in the struggle knew why they were there. But they couldn't understand why some pop star from London would want to be there.
It's not a very popular subject amongst my audience, who are by nature more internationalist, but I don't choose what to write about, I don't choose my subjects, they kind of choose me.
Most of the people that I went to school with - I went to secondary school - we were educated to go and work in the line at Ford's, and if we were lucky, technical skilled labor. I sort of rejected that, and thought I wanted to do something else.
My theory is this; I'm not a political songwriter. I'm an honest songwriter.
My upbringing was very straightforward suburban working class upbringing.
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