English singer, songwriter and activist Billy Bragg heads to The Ritz as part of Manchester Folk Festival 2018.
Governments rise and fall, fashions come and go, pop stars are built up and knocked down by a fickle media, and Billy Bragg adapts to survive. His enemies remain essentially the same: craven politicians, inhumane corporations, plus assorted racists, fascists, bullies, reactionaries and people with floppy fringes.
Orator, entertainer, rabble-rouser, negotiator, pamphleteer, the fabled ‘big-nosed bard from Barking’, Billy Bragg is many things. A regular contributor to the national debate as TV pundit and newspaper columnist, he continues to sharpen his pen as a writer, and his first book, the considered, wide-ranging treatise on English identity The Progressive Patriot, opened up a whole new vista of possibility for a man who never stops engaging with all the trouble in the world. Whether it’s unionized workers, constitutional reform, bankers’ bonuses, illegal wars or the undemocratic commandeering of a portable toilet backstage at a festival, Billy Bragg will help fight your corner.
Support from: You Are Wolf
You Are Wolf is the alt-folk project of award-winning composer, performer and writer Kerry Andrew. Currently working as a trio with multi-instrumentalist Sam Hall and percussionist Peter Ashwell, KELD – an old Northern English word meaning “the deep, still, smooth part of a river” – is an album that explores and develops the theme of freshwater.
KELD includes traditional songs about waterfall banshees, killer female water sprites, drowning boys and powerful witches. Original songs are inspired by wild swimming, vengeful rivers, nymphs and naiads, and even an Anglo-Saxon charm. You Are Wolf brings these ancient songs and stories into the present, with bold arrangements inspired by leftfield pop, new classical music and electronica.
This event has sold out. Tickets may still be available from The Ritz Manchester.
This event is part of Manchester Folk Festival – an urban folk festival. It takes place over 18-21 October 2018, in an around HOME and the city centre. Over the autumn weekend, they present an exhilarating range of events, with the spotlight on English folk.
