Billy Bragg, De Montford Hall, Leicester, 04/05/06

I woke up this morning with a smile on my face. Not just because it's my birthday and Sonia was there beside me but because of the Bragg gig last night.

So why am I smiling about a gig? Let's start with a big thank you to Helen and Phil for doing the driving so I could have a pint, which meant I was relaxed when Bill came on stage at 9.

He opened up with The World Turned Upside Down and kept the volume and speed up for the next couple of songs before starting his characteristic "chats" between the songs. The 2 hour set was a mix of new songs such as I Keep Faith, old songs in a new way (with topical references thrown in such as - "how can you lay there and think of England when you don't even know who's the manager yet?") interspersed with explanations of what the Hope Not Hate Tour was about.

At one point we were given Bill's theory of how St George became the patron Saint of England which involved a jobbing Saint looking for work and coming here in the 14th Century. He moved on to produce a big cross of St George flag and talked about the need to reclaim it from the likes of the BNP, epecially as we are only a few weeks away from the World Cup Finals where a multiracial England will be represented by a multiracial England team. Personally, I'm not convinced that we need National Flags and Saints at all (says the "aging" socialist idealist in me).

The self proclaimed "soul/folk" singer gave us a few traditional tunes including John Barleycorn - that morphed into England, Half English. The music wasn't all "politics and shouting". Bill was joined on stage by Ian Mc Lagan, formerly of The Small Faces and The Faces, who provided keyboard support for several songs. A poignant section was their cover of a Ronnie Lane song about his father (the tune sounded like Witchita Linesman to me) which was followed by Bill singing the song he wrote about his - Tank Park Salute.

The first session ended with the "traditional" updating of The Great Leap Forward with Benjamin Wegg-Prosser getting a mention this time. The first encore was followed by a second "greatest oldies sing along" encore. A man on stage with an electric guitar singing most of the songs from his first 2 albums with an audience that knew the words was about as good as it gets. Bill seemed to be really enjoying himself, and so were we. I didn't feel cheated when he finaly finished the second encore at just after 11 and left the hall asking "how good was that then?"