Billy Bragg: Still Suitable For Miners
by Andrew Collins

Updated reprint, as the Barking bard approaches 50

Despite having not released an album for five years, Bragg’s activism remains undiminished, although today he’s as likely to turn up on Newsnight or the leader pages of the quality press, as at a benefit concert with a guitar round his neck. Continuing from this book’s original conclusion when published in 1998, Collins revisits the selfstyled leftie firebrand as he settles further into middle-aged domestic bliss in Dorset, daubing more colour onto his affectionate portrait of one of music’s most likeable figures.

The author covers Bragg’s working life in detail, but a little more insight or contributions from the man himself would have been welcome. Billy co-operates fully with the project, but there’s not much personal input. Collins mentions how the singer wants to reclaim William Blake’s Jerusalem as a socialist anthem, and then adds “don’t get him started on it”. Surely an authorised biography would be just the place to get him started?

Nevertheless, Bragg’s enthusiasm and humanity shines through, his commitment to family and home at the heart of almost all he does. The back catalogue is analysed in full, the pivotal numbers correctly identified and celebrated, making the tome a worthy companion to some of the most palatable protest songs of the last quarter century.

ISBN 9780753512456

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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