On 16th November 2021, me and my producer and partner in crime, Aaron Tatham - DJ Azza - had the privilege of seeing Billy Bragg - one of my favourite singer/songwriters and poets of all time - at G Live in Guildford, whose song"To Have And To Have Not" - the fourth track from his classic debut 1983 album Life's A Riot With Spy vs. Spy - we recorded a cover of as the b-side to my - or rather, our - single, "She's My Girl", released earlier this year in April. Bragg was currently touring the UK and Ireland in promotion of his eleventh studio album, The Million Things That Never Happened, released 29th October.
"We're in Guildford, I just read it on the wall". - Billy Bragg
I was first introduced to Billy Bragg back at MidKent College in 2017, when my teacher Stephen played the class a clip of the man himself performing his 1986 single "Levi Stubbs' Tears" (from the Talking With The Taxman About Poetry album). I was 18 - going on 19 - at the time, and was heavily into both folk and punk music, so I was instantly hooked by Bragg's folk-orientated storytelling, Paul Weller and Joe Strummer-esque vocal style - resonating the same aggression, raw emotion, and punk rock attitude - and rough distorted guitar playing. This was more anti-folk than Bob Dylan's electric guitar performance at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in 1966. But if Dylan came out on stage that night and played and sung like Bragg the audience members who called him "Judas" would have probably been scared shitless! Astonishing how one man can hold a whole audience with just an electric guitar and voice like that and sound like The Clash and The Jam all in one, without a backing band or a loop station like Ed Sheeran. Bragg was up and kicking long before Ed was selling out Wembley!
Intrigued to check out more Billy Bragg, I went back and listened to his entire catalogue, starting with his debut 1983 album Life's A Riot With Spy vs. Spy, which as of today is one of my favourite albums of all time - so simplistic, yet inspiring and lyrically empowering. Hearing it for the first time reminded me of the first I heard The Times They Are A-Changin' album by Bob Dylan or Dust Bowl Ballads by Woody Guthrie, it was so captivating and emotional, yet raw and aggressive, which reminded me of the first time I heard Never Mind The Bollocks or the first Clash album; I didn't know whether to love and embrace the world or tell it to fuck off! While there were a lot of great tracks on the album - such as "Richard", "The Milkman Of Human Kindness", "Lovers Town Revisited" and arguably his most signature song, "A New England" - the one that stood out to me the most lyrically was the second track, "To Have And To Have Not". As someone who failed all their GCSEs at school, but was now at college achieving Distinctions in all my Music Performance assignments (and subsequently a Distinction* in my Level 3 Music Performance diploma two years later), I really admired how Bragg criticised the education system in the song - dismissing qualifications as "just pieces of paper"- and put across the message that failing in school doesn't mean failing in life ("All they taught you at school was how to be a good worker, the system has failed you, don't fail yourself"), and that anyone can achieve what they want to achieve if they put their mind to it. The song is likely about Bragg's own personal experience going from school to a career in music. He attended Park Modern Secondary School (Barking Abbey School) and left in 1974 at the age of 16, after failing his eleven-plus exam, which prevented him from progressing on to university [Collins, 2018]. He then did "a number of boring old jobs" and army service - which would explain the lyrics "If you look the part you'll get the job, in last year's trousers and your old school shoes" and "The factories are closing and the army's full" - before buying an electric guitar, and starting to gig and write songs [BBC Radio 6 Music, 2012].
I connected with the song so much that I just had to learn it and cover it for myself (click to watch my very first attempt). It was so much fun to play that it ended up becoming a regular song in my live repertoire, whenever I gigged at local Kent pubs - such as The Old House At Home in Maidstone and Leo's The Red Lion in Gravesend - throughout 2018. I tried to make it my own and be creative with it as possible, by adjusting it to a higher key - from G major to A major - with the capo on the second fret of the guitar to suit my voice, adopting a slightly different strumming pattern and faster tempo, using a Cadd9 chord - a personal favourite chord of mine; used in such songs as "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)" by Green Day, another song I would play regularly at my local acoustic gigs; such as The Flowerpot in Maidstone - instead of C major to add a more brighter flavour and emphasis to the harmony, and generally making it more pop-oriented, somewhat like the 1985 cover of Bragg's "A New England" by the late Kirsty MacColl - famously known for featuring on the 1987 Christmas classic "Fairytale of New York" with The Pogues - the daughter of folk singer-songwriter Ewan MacColl - one of Bragg's musical influences - who wrote "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", first recorded by MacColl's former spouse Peggy Seeger, and later popularised by Roberta Flack. But I also tried to do the original justice as much as myself, by maintaining an emphasised British punk attitude, and trying my best to refrain from my natural habit of going into an American accent at times - though sometimes I just can't help it; and neither can Billy himself, so it seems, due to his mutual love for American folk music!
I also performed the song at the 2018 annual summer fair of my old school, Bower Grove, which looking back, was probably one of the most punk rock things I could ever do - to stand there and basically say "I didn't need school GCSEs, I'm now top of the class at college with Distinctions in everything" (in other words, basically imply that I was getting a better education at college than I ever got at school) in front of all my former teachers - many of whom taught me during my GCSE period throughout Year 10 and Year 11 - and all the parents of the current students who attended the fair that day. However, should any of those parents be reading this right now, I should clarify on that note - not just for legal reasons, but out of general respect for the school and staff - that me failing was by no means on account of any of the staff's teaching, merely my ADHD and anxiety, and I don't hold any grudges; although when taking my GCSE Maths exam, I was put in a room next to the PE changing rooms where the Year 8 students were changing at the time and being disruptive, which my invigilator - who doesn't work at the school anymore, but I still won't say his name - did little about, other than just popping his head outside the door and saying fuck all to them! Not to mention, the Year 8s carried on making noise after that! Still, while my grades weren't by any means great, they were just enough to get me enrolled at college regardless, and for that I am forever thankful to the school and all the staff for. They did more than enough for me!
"This song ['To Have And To Have Not'] has taught me a lesson in life, because I came out of [Bower Grove School] with, not terrible grades, but not the best grades. But it's taught me that just because you failed at school, doesn't mean you've failed in life" - Michael Mikey Brennan, 2018
I first introduced Aaron to the song when suggesting it as being part of the setlist for our first post-lockdown live comeback gig at The Holroyd Arms in August 2020 (click to watch our Zoom rehearsal of the song). Aaron had never heard of Billy Bragg or the song before, but upon me playing it to him, he was instantly hooked, and agreed it would fit into the set nicely, as we already had a wide range of original material in our repertoire - which is to be released on on our upcoming album, coming out next year - some of which incorporates folk and punk influences, which should definitely showcase just how much Bragg has influenced my songwriting since 2018. We also performed the song as part of one of our university performance modules - Stagecraft and Presentation - which we shot in October 2020 at Stoke Recreation Ground in Guildford, where we also shot the "Without You" music video - the fourth single from my 2019 album Dreamer - that same month, which Aaron co-starred in.
In March 2021, it was announced - with the news of live music possibility returning in the Summer (having previously been postponed due to the pandemic), as set out by the governments' road map out of lockdown - that Billy Bragg would be doing a two month UK and Ireland tour, and would be performing at G Live in Guildford in November. Conveniently, this was around the time when Aaron and I were recording a studio cover of our rendition of "To Have And To Have Not" - as the b-side to "She's My Girl" - which would be released the following month. Excitedly, we booked tickets, but cautiously with the knowledge that it could likely end up being postponed or cancelled should COVID rates increase again, but even so, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity we just couldn't pass on, and buying tickets was a risk well worth taking. My former GCSE English tutor from MidKent College saw Billy Bragg live in November 2016 - where he performed "To Have And To Have Not" - with Joe Henry, when they were touring their folk album, Shine A Light - which featured a range of originals and covers of folk and country icons, such as Woody Guthrie ("Hobo's Lullaby"), Hank Williams ("Lonesome Whistle") and Jimmie Rodgers ("Waiting For A Train") - on the day Donald Trump had been elected president, which they both - and especially Henry, as an American citizen - were very annoyed about (unsurprisingly!)
Despite the next stressful eight months that followed as COVID progressed further, November eventually came and Aaron and I were finally sitting in our seats in the audience at G Live watching the man himself on stage. He performed a number of songs from his recent album, The Million Things That Never Happened, written about the events of the pandemic; including, a personal favourite of mine, "Ten Mysterious Photos That Can't Be Explained", co-written by Bragg's son and fellow singer-songwriter Jack Valero, whom has worked with B Side Recording, who directed my "She's My Girl" and "Falling In Love" music videos. He told great stories and made great jokes; slagging off the Tory Party and Boris Johnson and jokingly claiming that Adele - whose fourth studio album, 30, was about to be released - had ripped off his piano-ballad "I Will Be Your Shield", with her single "Go Easy On Me", released three months later than the former. He didn't perform "To Have And To Have Not" - but then, Ed Sheeran didn't perform "Lego House" (which I also recorded a cover of in 2012), when I saw him on the Divide Tour in August 2019 - or his classic audience sing-along song "A New England", but he did perform other classics; such as the opening track to Life's A Riot With Spy vs. Spy, "The Milkman of Human Kindness"; "Levi Stubbs' Tears"; and a now re-written version of his hit single, "Sexuality" - written in 1991 with The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr - originally an anti-homophobic song, promoting sexual freedom, was now given new lyrics to reflect towards the transgender and non-binary community, in honour of Trans Awareness Week. Bragg has always been an activist for social change. Ever since seeing The Clash live in 1978 at the Rock Against Racism carnival in Hackney, his songwriting became focused on themes of racial equality; mirroring the work of his American folk heroes, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, and their support for the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, and has since gone on to tackle other social themes such as politics, gay rights and now trans and non-binary rights. Aaron and I left G Live that night with a whole new perspective of the world, just as Bragg had after seeing The Clash.
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