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Nipper Last night the 13th Jane took me to Portsmouth, The Pyramids to be precise to see Billy Bragg and the Blokes. It was my birthday. We all trundled over, me, Jane, Joe, and Jess and apart from a few minor problems had a brilliant evening.
THE PYRAMIDS, PORTSMOUTH, NOVEMBER 13TH, 1998
Billy Bragg and the Blokes
on Mermaid AvenueThe support band were a band called Hefner a three piece spilling out stuff that reminded me of the Velvet Underground, a tight little band who share the support with Eliza Carthy on this Rage over Wage Tour.
Billy Bragg enters the stage with his cup of tea and his Essex swagger. Guitar hung around his neck he's launching into a set which consists of old standards such as The Milkman of Human Kindness and Everybody Loves You Babe.
But this tour is primarily to show case the Mermaid Avenue project which he recorded with the American band Wilco. It's a neat well constructed set and the Blokes are a tight organisation who allow Bragg the freeedom to deliver the message contained in Woody Guthrie's lyrics.
In between songs we get the typical Billy Bragg banter which the Labour Party could do with now. It just seems to me that if Billy was stand in the next General Election he would get elected on the ticket that once made Arthur Scargill the scourge of the Tory classes.
The set was enhanced by some stunning, yes, stunning keyboards from Ian McLagan. He was unbelievable and I kept saying to Joe that it reminded me so much of the Bob Andrews sound which made the Brinslies so good. The set included not in the running order, California Stars, Way Over In the Minor Key, Hoodoo Voodoo, Christ For President, Eisler on the Go.
I've never seen an encore like the one that Billy Bragg did. He left the stage with the band and was back on with in seconds a thing he repeated about five times. This got the audience really going, but then when he finaly took the Blokes off for the last time we were heading for the door and a wet Portsmouth night. Billy Bragg and the Blokes just my cup of tea.
Happiness Stan
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