The first time I heard I Keep Faith
in Dublin in June, 2006 I felt like it was written
just for me (as I'm sure countless BB fans did). God
knows I need to be reminded to keep the faith and
who better to do it than Billy
Bragg? The fact is, I'd love to have an excuse
to have Billy Bragg on my blog every single day.
Actually, Paddy and I got pretty damn
close to jetting off to London to catch his 50th birthday
event at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in December. If
you missed it too you can enjoy a bit of it here courtesy
of the magic of YouTube:
I often hear writers discuss the writers
who have been their own biggest inspirations but nobody
has been a bigger personal inspiration to me than
Billy Bragg. His great humanitarianism and social
consciousness is delivered with mile-deep charm, wit
and genuine warmth. In fact, I probably would've been
a Billy Bragg fan if he'd just written love songs
(because BB love songs are never just your standard
love songs anyway) but they wouldn't have helped me
keep the faith the way tunes like Waiting For The
Great Leap Fowards, The Price of Oil and
It Says Here have.
Thanks for helping us listeners keep
the faith over the past twenty-five years, Billy (would
it be too much to ask for another twenty-five??).
I can't wait to get my hands on the new album, Mr.
Love & Justice, in March.
To tide us over here's Billy performing
Old Fashioned Girl on the Mama's Boy soundtrack:
Keep
The Faith
