My St George's Day
Apr. 24th, 2008 04:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annwfynSo, yesterday was St George's Day, which I don't usually celebrate, but last night was a little but different. I went to the Barbican, sang 'Jerusalem' and 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot', listened to some poetry by Rudyard Kipling, and waved the flag of St George.
What made it particularly peculiar was that I was at a Billy Bragg concert.
Billy Bragg, bless him, has decided that his new campaign is to 'redefine Englishness' and reclaim it from the far right. To be fair, that's a pretty good aim, although Evil Left Wing Progressive Sally did think 'if he's so keen on opening up 'Englishness' and making it a more inclusive identity, how come all his featured acts in this St George's Day concert are so very white?'. This aim also seems to involve him getting left wing Billy Bragg fans to wave the St George's Day flag, sing Jerusalem, and listen to a really odd, but quite cool mix of Northumbrian folk songs (Rachel Unthank & Winterset), a short but angry young man (Tom Clarke, who is normally the lead singer of the Enemy, and who reminded Ginnie and I ofragged_halo, and a rockabilly trio of teenagers (Kitty Daisy & Lewis).
There was, of course, also an extended period of Billy Bragg rambling cheerfully in between his songs, and also Billy Bragg playing around with music, culminating in his singing 'Pinball Wizard' to the tune of 'I Walk The Line' by Johnny Cash, which worked surprisingly well.
I enjoyed it. It was interesting, and livened up a huge amount by the presence ofksirafai who rapidly decided that Billy Bragg was an offense to the very core of her being. It started going wrong when he set Rudyard Kipling's Pict Song to music, and presented it as an anti-imperialist song, and said that Kipling 'knew it was wrong to invade other people's countries'. Ginnie nearly shot out of her seat, and starting hissing 'He's lying. That's from Rewards and Fairies. Kipling was never anti-imperialist'. It rather went downhill from then on, and culminated in Ginnie ranting at high volume afterwards, whilst my solid old style socialist brothers, inskauldrak and skinny_cartman, glowered at her with the face of outraged True Believers.
Next time I go to a Billy Bragg concert I'm takingdavywavy if I can. It would just make the evening perfect.
I bimbled home afterwards, with my assorted comrades (see what seeing Billy Bragg does for me?) and collapsed into bed. Today has been a quite nice day spent skiving off college and bimbling around Greenwich with Matt before he went back to Cambridge.
And that was my St George's Day.
How was it for you?
What made it particularly peculiar was that I was at a Billy Bragg concert.
Billy Bragg, bless him, has decided that his new campaign is to 'redefine Englishness' and reclaim it from the far right. To be fair, that's a pretty good aim, although Evil Left Wing Progressive Sally did think 'if he's so keen on opening up 'Englishness' and making it a more inclusive identity, how come all his featured acts in this St George's Day concert are so very white?'. This aim also seems to involve him getting left wing Billy Bragg fans to wave the St George's Day flag, sing Jerusalem, and listen to a really odd, but quite cool mix of Northumbrian folk songs (Rachel Unthank & Winterset), a short but angry young man (Tom Clarke, who is normally the lead singer of the Enemy, and who reminded Ginnie and I of
ragged_halo, and a rockabilly trio of teenagers (Kitty Daisy & Lewis).There was, of course, also an extended period of Billy Bragg rambling cheerfully in between his songs, and also Billy Bragg playing around with music, culminating in his singing 'Pinball Wizard' to the tune of 'I Walk The Line' by Johnny Cash, which worked surprisingly well.
I enjoyed it. It was interesting, and livened up a huge amount by the presence of
ksirafai who rapidly decided that Billy Bragg was an offense to the very core of her being. It started going wrong when he set Rudyard Kipling's Pict Song to music, and presented it as an anti-imperialist song, and said that Kipling 'knew it was wrong to invade other people's countries'. Ginnie nearly shot out of her seat, and starting hissing 'He's lying. That's from Rewards and Fairies. Kipling was never anti-imperialist'. It rather went downhill from then on, and culminated in Ginnie ranting at high volume afterwards, whilst my solid old style socialist brothers, inskauldrak and skinny_cartman, glowered at her with the face of outraged True Believers.Next time I go to a Billy Bragg concert I'm taking
davywavy if I can. It would just make the evening perfect.I bimbled home afterwards, with my assorted comrades (see what seeing Billy Bragg does for me?) and collapsed into bed. Today has been a quite nice day spent skiving off college and bimbling around Greenwich with Matt before he went back to Cambridge.
And that was my St George's Day.
How was it for you?
