Tonight, Australia Day 2008, Billy Bragg made a number of points. One of them was something that happened to him after he had left the SXSW Festival in Austin and headed to Minneapolis. As he said, he had lost some of the range in his not so wide ranging vocals. As he was doing the sound check up there in Minnesota, he said to one of his cohorts, he was quite distressed that the people were coming to hear him do his songs on that night, and he was not going to be able to sing them properly.
His mate put his arm around him and told him, “Billy, don’t worry they don’t come to hear you sing.”

Well, sometimes that can be true, and tonight with Mr. Bragg in fine form and fine voice, the added vocals of the faithful at the Metro were like a choir as they added strong support and sang many of the tunes when he stepped away from the microphone. Yes, it was a bit of a love-fest and the packed venue was full of blokes and sheilas who knew all of the lyrics. The room was vibing with good cheer and humour and Billy did not let us down with his stories and his songs.

Prior to singing A Pict Song by “his mate” Rudyard Kipling, Billy gave us his take on also coming from a country that was invaded. Yes, a song for indigenous people everywhere, he spoke about how after Julius Caesar had invaded England in 55BC that they used to re-enact the invasion every year thereafter as you do Cook’s invasion each Australia Day here in Sydney. Which he thought was amazing, especially during the yeas of suffering through the plague and they still came to watch!

He also talked about being at the Big Day Out dressed as Captain Hook, because he had mis-heard Captain Cook. He declared Australia Neverland, instead of Terra Australia. And was then eaten by a crocodile in Darwin. This was all about how he felt what occurs to your brain when you go the BDO, some drug induced state sets in. Billy was getting to be more and more like Crystal then Bragg at times!

We were treated to more hilarious antics during the NPWA song where he forgot the first verse and started with the second verse and said this was the trouble of being a pop star in his 50’s! One of his fans, who he said wrote the set list in the front, attempted to help find the lyrics on his blackberry, but Billy told him to put it away. He said it was so easy for us being the audience and all we had to do was remember the titles and he had to recall the lyrics, the chords, the melody, etc. Besides the crowd, he seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.

He gave us some new songs off his soon to be released new album and he also treated us to Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key and Another Man Done Gone from the collaboration he did with Wilco rekindling Woody Guthrie lyrics with their own tunes.
The latter song was sung by Jeff Tweedy on the release and he told us how he and Jay Bennet from Wilco were playing the tune in the studio and Jeff Tweedy awoke from behind a curtain and came out and ripped the song apart with his vocal version. Billy did it justice on the night!

Billy gave us politics and talked about how he was inspired by the audience at the Rock Against Racism concerts in 1978 in England, not so much by the Clash. Yes, The Clash were a big influence on the boy from Barking, but he said it was the power of 100,000 people who believed what he did about discrimination and injustice that gave him the power. The power to speak up and make a noise! He advised the crowd that the music and enjoyment we had tonight was valuable, but what was more important was what we did in our own lives and how we lived them.

Shirley and Waiting For The Great Leap Forward were well received as was just about everything he sang. Billy fills you with optimism and words of motivation and tells us all to avoid cynicism as we head into the new world of a new Labour Government. Speaking, as I have heard others say, is that in a year people will tell you that the Rudd Government is no different then the Howard regime. He yelled and said don’t let them kill you with cynicism and stop you from taking part in an opportunity to generate change. He spoke to the converted. But as the converted, we have to hold onto his words and move with determination and a positive attitude into the future.

On a night when it was Billy without the Blokes, it was more then evident that his guitar still took a page out of Woody’s book, in an attempt to keep fascism in its place.

Happy Australia Day, All!!