| Name | BBC London 94.9 |
|---|---|
| Address | 2nd Floor, Egton Wing, Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London W1A 1AA |
| City | London |
| Area | Greater London |
| Airdate | 6 October 1970 |
| Frequency | 94.9 FM, DAB, Virgin Media, Sky |
| Share | 1.4% (Total Survey Area, quarter ending September 2010) |
| Format | Local news, talk and music |
| Language | English |
| Owner | BBC Local Radio, |
| Website | BBC London 94.9 |
BBC London 94.9 is London's BBC Local Radio station, and part of BBC London. Broadcasting across Greater London and beyond on 94.9 FM, DAB, Virgin Media Channel 930, Sky Channel 0152 (in London area only) and also online. Previously known as BBC London Live, GLR (Greater London Radio) and Radio London. BBC London 94.9's Managing Editor is David Robey.
Although the station is only on the Sky Digital EPG in London, it is still available on Sky, via manual tuning, to the rest of the UK in this format.
The station's output is broadly similar to other BBC local radio stations and aims at a general mainstream audience. Previous incarnations of the station had offered a more diverse range of programmes for London's various ethnic, religious, social and cultural communities. Some specialist programming remains and is mostly broadcast at the weekend.
Most programmes contain a lot of speech (including interviews, studio guests, banter between presenters and phone ins) but many also feature music to a greater or lesser degree. The varied styles of music played on the station is the key element which differentiates BBC London 94.9 from London's other major speech based radio station, LBC 97.3.
Saturday
Sunday
* Ray Khan - through the night - 2am till 6am
Reporters
Weather Presenters
During the cricket season, BBC London 94.9 also supports Internet-only streamed commentary of all games featuring Surrey County Cricket Club (with Mark Church as main commentator) and Middlesex County Cricket Club (with Kevin Hand as main commentator). The commentators give brief updates on the games' progress on the main BBC London 94.9 broadcast throughout the day.
The travel presenters also have a Twitter feed carrying the latest London traffic and travel information bbctravelalert
The earliest ever regular local radio broadcast dates as far back as the 1920s, with the launch of 2LO in 1922. The station, based at Marconi House on the Strand, Central London was opened by Guglielmo Marconi became the British Broadcasting Company's first radio station. The first-ever news bulletin was read by Arthur Burrows. "2LO Calling" was its call-sign and preceded all programmes on the air. In 1923 2LO moved to bigger premises with studios adjacent to the Savoy Hotel in London. Its transmission tower was located on the roof of department store Selfridges in the West End. In 1930 2LO evolved into two programming networks - the BBC National Programme and the BBC Regional Programme, 2LO being integrated into the latter.
Test transmissions for the new local radio station were carried out from Wrotham, Kent on 95.3 MHz in FM mono, relaying BBC Radio 1 (which was at the time only broadcast on medium wave), with several announcements informing listeners of the new service. On 6 October 1970 BBC Radio London was launched, three years before commercial radio for Greater London in the guise of LBC. An additional medium wave frequency was allocated on 1458 kHz (206 metres) from Brookman's Park. 95.3 soon changed to 94.9.
Radio London was the local station for the capital however in the early days it relied heavily on news reports from other stations in the BBC network and often shared programming with BBC Radio 2. It took on a fairly lively sound and featured (and still does to this day) extensive traffic reports, phone-in programmes - where it pioneered the daily phone-in in the UK - and lots of contemporary and middle-of-the-road music. For several months after lunch the station was not able to play commercial records as no agreement had been reached over so-called needle time, which led to London listeners becoming acquainted with broadcast library music from outside the UK (notably the Canadian Talent Library) and music from film soundtracks. A phone-in programme, Sounding Brass, was pioneered, devised and first presented by Owen Spencer-Thomas in 1977. Listeners were invited to choose a Christmas carol or hymn while a Salvation Army brass band stood by in the studio to play their request live. It later moved to BBC Radio 2 and was presented by Gloria Hunniford.
As soon as Independent Local Radio stations LBC and Capital Radio went on-air public attention to Radio London declined with the station attempting to copy both. Its to be noted that the name Radio London is not to be confused with Wonderful Radio London, an off-shore commercial pop music station which was silenced before the launch of BBC Radio 1.
BBC Radio London started regular broadcasts from Harewood House, Hanover Square, near Oxford Circus later moving to 35 Marylebone High Street - the former Radio Times warehouse, famously without windows and providing an enormous sub-basement studio.
Tests for FM stereo began in 1981 with Music on the Move a programme featuring non-stop music prior to full launch on 11 February. The FM transmitter was shortly moved to Crystal Palace. This coincided with the planned relaunch in 1981 which saw the station take on a style which was softer than BBC Radio 2 - a station predominantly playing 'easy listening' music, music ranged from softer contemporary pop, like The Carpenters, to light classical music. This was a move which was unpopular with employed staff, who thought it very un-hip, and politicians who would question the need for a local radio station to sound like the two music-based BBC national networks. However the relaunch lead to improved audience figures and a string of awards and accolades.
The 1981 on-air schedule looked like this:
* 0630-0900 Rush Hour with Susie Barnes and John Waite
One of its most influential programmes on the schedule was Black Londoners devised by Ray Criushank, a community relations officer for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and presented by Alex Pascall. The programme has helped to develop on-air talent from London's Afro-Caribbean community, namely Juliet Alexander, Syd Burke and Mike Phillips and was the pioneering programme on television or radio to regularly speak to Black Londoners. The programme changed title to 'Black London' shortly before Radio London closed (see below). It was recently revived for a short time in 2003 with Pascall returning as presenter. The forerunner to the BBC Asian Network was a hugely popular Asian programme, London Sounds Eastern presented by Vernon Corea who was appointed the BBC's Ethnic Minorities Adviser in the 1970s. Pandit Ravi Shankar, Indian pop star Usha Uthup, were among those interviewed for ' London Sounds Eastern' launched on BBC Radio London in 1976 and produced by Keith Yeomans. The programme introduced the Bollywood music of Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar to new London audiences.
A programming relaunch in 1984 saw Radio London adopt the tagline "The Heart and Soul of London" with more soul music being played during the day. Tony Blackburn from BBC Radio 1 moved up the schedule to host a morning show for housewives playing classic soul of the 1970s and presenting a show laced with cheeky jokes and double entendres, once daring to 'get out his 12-incher' - referring to an LP record. He was sacked in 1988 crossing the line of taste and decency, conveniently in time for the station's first relaunch. Regular Soul Night Outs were held initially in Kilburn but later in other venues, like Ilford. This was where Dave Pearce, later of BBC Radio 1 fame made his first regular appearances as a BBC DJ. Two of the station's producers Guy Hornsby (Tony Blackburn) and Mike Gray (Robbie Vincent Telephone Programme) later went on to create the ground-breaking commercial dance stations Kiss 102 and Kiss 105 which recaptured the somewhat anarchic spirit of BBC Radio London in its mid-1980s heyday to great audience and commercial success.
BBC Radio London closed on 7 October 1988, much to the dismay of regular listeners. The final programme, just before its 18th birthday, was presented by Mike Sparrow and Susie Barnes. Immediately after closedown at 7pm, test transmissions began for the next 17 days, preparing for a new radio station for London.
This was the irreverent announcement aired four days before launch:
''"This is Greater London Radio and as I'm sure you will have noticed by now we the BBC have been paying you the public to patronise [you]...
...sorry to say that this all changes at 6am Tuesday 25 October. Interruptions to the music will then be performed by a host of celebrities and stars...and also appearing will be Nick "who, he?" Abbot, Emma "Oh my God!"'' Freud, Johnnie "who him?" Walker, Timbo the Bimbo [Tim Lloyd] and Tommy "No seriously!" Vance. Sorry this is the best we could come up with, with the budget available and at least thank God you wont be forced to look at them!..."
"GLR: as heard but not seen in London starting 6am, Tuesday 25 October"''
Heading the new station were Managing Editor Matthew Bannister and Programme Organiser Trevor Dann. Bannister, from Capital Radio, favoured a young, racy, news and speech format, miles away from the typically stuffy BBC Local Radio sound. Dann came from Radio 1, via BBC TV's Whistle Test, and developed an album-oriented music policy. GLR was aimed at people who hate pop but love music, hate prattle (excessive on-air talk) but want to know what's what where in the world. The station was aimed at 25-45 year olds, who perhaps grew up with Radio 1, but now wanted to be intelligently informed about the city in which they live, and the world in general. Early promotions used the phrase "rock 'n' rolling news". The music mix was best described as Adult album alternative, a format programmed by Trevor Dann. It has been said this Triple-A format inspired the launch of BBC 6 Music years later.
The launch line-up looked like this:
* 0630-1000 Breakfast with Nick Abbot & Fiona Foster
Chris Evans took on a variety of roles on GLR, often presenting a weekend show, ending in 1993 as his media career took off. Danny Baker has had a long association with the station, presenting Weekend Breakfast from 1989-1990 & then returned to present a Sunday morning show from 1996-1998. Janice Long presented the Breakfast show on the station from 1989 - 1991 & Kevin Greening started as a producer in 1989, before becoming a presenter of the Breakfast show with Jeremy Nicholas in 1991. Bob Harris also presented shows for the station from 1994 - 1998 after leaving Radio 1.
Specialist speech programmes in the evening were aimed at London's communities – Asian, Afro-Caribbean, Jewish, Gay and Irish. Black London was replaced with Margaret Jones aka Ranking Miss P, who was dropped by Radio 1. "Lavender Lounge" - the programme for the Gay community, was presented by comedienne Amy Lamé. The Weekends featured extensive sports coverage, centreing on football and London's numerous clubs such as Arsenal, Tottenham and West Ham United.
In 1989 GLR set up a youth-based radio training facility at Vauxhall College, SW8, which was followed with a second course based at White City, W12. This was allocated funds from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and the British Parliament.
In 1991, Matthew Bannister left to spearhead the BBC's charter-renewal strategy called Extending Choice. He was replaced as Managing Editor by Trevor Dann. Kate Marsh was appointed News Editor. In 1992 GLR was forced to relinquish its 1458 kHz medium wave frequency, for a new commercial radio station which was eventually won by Sunrise Radio. Previously it had been simulcasting with 94.9 MHz FM with a few programmes which occasionally opted from FM. In 1993, Nigel Chapman, Head of BBC South & East, drove through a policy of "speech shoulders", forcing GLR to drop its music/speech mix at breakfast and drive times. Dann resigned in protest and left the BBC.
Steve Panton, formerly Managing Editor of BBC Radio Solent, took over and GLR limped on with a small listener base, but its music policy gained a cult following, particularly among its younger adult listeners. One of its noted DJs on-air at the time was Gary Crowley, who had a weekend show which regularly showcased new and unsigned bands, often not getting much airplay on commercial radio stations, and to a lesser extent, Radio 1. Other DJs, notably Bob Mills ("Millsie") had a loyal following of cab drivers and cockney phone-ins. With the launch of new specialist commercial stations Kiss 100, Jazz FM and XFM GLR remained distinct. Speech rather than music formed a higher percentage of airtime than most commercial stations.
In 1999, following a consultation exercise on local broadcasting in the South East, the BBC decided to rebrand GLR and substantially change the programming. A campaign to "Save GLR" was organised and a petition delivered to the BBC . The argument became acrimonious. In particular those opposed to the changes argued that the BBC never organised a public meeting in London as part of the consultation exercise and, when one was organised by supporters of the station, no one involved in the consultation exercise attended. Although the campaign was unsuccessful in saving GLR, and the rebranding went ahead the next year, it demonstrated the existence of a loyal audience for its format. GLR's music format, and several of its presenters, returned to the BBC with the launch of the national digital station BBC 6 Music in 2002.
Leading the relaunch was Station Director David Robey, who hired such personalities as Lisa I'Anson, Vanessa Feltz, Tom Watt and various Black presenters such as Eddie Nestor and Dotun Adebayo. Most notably another presenter, Henry Bonsu was controversially sacked, then re-hired in a baffling manner.
New recruits to BBC London 94.9 included award-winning presenter Jon Gaunt from BBC Three Counties Radio, former GLR presenter Danny Baker, and Sean Rowley. Danny Baker hosted a different style of breakfast show, with his alternative and quirky take on London life, which was co-hosted with American comedienne Amy Lamé. Jon Gaunt then hosted the mid-morning phone-in show, voicing his strong opinions on an unsuspecting public. Longtime GLR stalwart Robert Elms was kept at lunchtime, discovering London's deepest darkest secrets and revealing stories behind London's long and rich history. Vanessa Feltz took over Lisa I'Anson's afternoon slot with a lively and fun phone-in. Drivetime with Eddie Nestor and Kath Melandri guide Londoners home with news updates, sport, travel and debates with the public. Specialist programmes for the Black community emerged at the weekends along with extensive sports coverage and alternative music shows in the evening. (See full schedule here). BBC London also saw the return of Tony Blackburn on Saturdays, over 20 years since he first appeared on the station. His show was as before, playing classic soul music and chat.
Extra sport matches featuring football clubs such as Fulham and have received additional coverage on BBC London, through its DAB Digital Radio platform, on Sky channel 0152 and on 765 kHz medium wave (for coverage of West Ham United, normally BBC Essex's frequency).
BBC London 94.9 was the first BBC Local Radio to air a 24-hour live stream online, which coincided with the 2001 re-launch. It also aired on DAB Digital Radio in July 2000 and on Sky (channel 0152) in 2005 in the London area but it can be accessed within the UK and Ireland by manual tuning.
For a period, BBC London identified itself at the top of the hour as BBC London 94.9 and BBC Radio London on digital, doubtless as a result of the station name appearing as "BBC Radio London" on DAB receivers. Since the station is carried in gifted space on a commercial DAB multiplex, rather than a BBC-controlled multiplex, the situation had come about due to a combination of legislation, internal politics, and difficulty in actually changing the name on the DAB transmissions.
This had led to slight confusion as to the reference to its previous name of Radio London as there is very little difference in either output analogue or digital except football and special events and the Radio London name hasn't been mentioned in any other context. The situation was eventually resolved, and now the station is referred to exclusively as 'BBC London 94.9'.
Category:Radio stations established in 1970 London 94.9 Category:Radio stations in London
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| Name | Vanessa Feltz |
|---|---|
| Birthname | Vanessa Jane Feltz |
| Birth date | February 21, 1962 |
| Birth place | Islington, North London, England |
| Education | Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | Broadcaster, journalist |
| Nationality | British |
| Years active | 1980s–present |
| Spouse | (divorced) Her mother Valerie (née Ohrenstein) was a housewife who died from cancer at the age of 57 in 1995. She has one sister, three years younger. |
| Name | Feltz, Vanessa |
| Date of birth | 21 February 1962 |
| Place of birth | Islington, North London, England |
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| Name | Nick Abbot |
|---|---|
| Caption | Promotional photo taken in 2006 |
| Birth date | August 22, 1960 |
| Show | Nick Abbot |
| Station | LBC 97.3 |
| Timeslot | 10pm-1am GMT Saturday |
| Style | Talk radio/Phone-in |
| Country | England |
| Prevshow | 102.2 Smooth FM Real Radio talkSPORT (then Talk Radio) Virgin Radio (then Virgin 1215) BBC GLR Radio Luxembourg |
| Web | lbc.co.uk: Nick Abbot official nickabbot.com unofficial |
| Signature | Nick_Abbot_Signiture.jpg |
Nick Abbot is a British radio presenter, born 22 August 1960.
In early 1987, he joined Radio Luxembourg to present an overnight talk show. The show later became a phone in, and eventually a 'straight to air' format was settled upon, where calls would be taken unscreened. This format quickly became a hit with listeners. At the time, the absence of the delay system to supposedly 'dump' bad language resulted in callers saying swear words just before they were cut off. It is believed that Abbot was one of the first (if not the first) to take calls straight to air, and LBC colleague Iain Lee has often confessed that he stole some of his act from Nick (as well as Clive Bull and Tommy Boyd), perhaps hinting he got the inspiration for his "Triple M" show from Nick Abbot in addition to Boyd's "Human Zoo" show.
Later in October 1988, Abbot launched the new BBC service for London BBC GLR. He presented the breakfast show for a year, however his contract was not renewed. He then returned to VMR, where he stayed until 1993.
Following a negative newspaper review by the writer Robin Katz, Abbot's outbursts on air eventually led to censure from the Broadcasting Complaints Commission and the Radio Authority. Nick also called phone-in shows on other radio stations, speaking to the phone operators, and commenting on the usually elderly callers while listening to the programmes while on hold. Usually he failed to make it on air, but occasionally he did, including a memorable call to the Scottie McClue show. In June 1994 Abbot was then moved to the Weekday 7-10pm Evening show where he had to tone down his act, mainly taking music requests.
Then in January 1995, Abbot moved back to the weekday late night show, this time from 11 pm :– 2 am, where he remained until April the same year, where he was moved to the Drivetime show from 4–7 pm. He was eventually given the boot from the station in September that year, leaving Virgin Radio with a fine of £5,000 for a sexual reference about a fellow DJ and a further £20,000 for allowing a caller to graphically describe a sexual practice.
In early 1998, Abbot took over the weekday afternoon show on Virgin Radio from 1-4 pm, whilst still continuing with his Saturday evening show on Talk Radio.
In May 1998 as well as his daily show on Virgin Radio, Abbot took over the weekday evening show on Talk Radio UK from 7–9 pm, which meant he presented two shows a day.
Throughout the summer of 2000, Abbot presented a Sunday morning phone in show on Virgin, while continuing to host the daily afternoon show. Later in the year, he moved to the drive time slot until leaving Virgin once again in May 2001. He also acted as holiday cover for Chris Evans
In January 2002, Abbot moved to Real Radio (Scotland) where he again presented the late night phone in. Later in 2002, his show was networked across all three Real Radio stations (Scotland, Wales & Yorkshire).
Abbot presented his last Real Radio show on Thursday, 19 December 2002, subsequently deciding to take a break from radio for what was to be a number of years.
In addition to that, in 2006, Abbot returned to the FM airwaves on a brief stint sitting in for Caroline Feraday's weekend show (10 pm– 1 am, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights) on LBC 97.3, from 10–19 February. However, he lost his voice during his second February show, cutting the show short and being replaced by a recording of his friend and former Virgin and Talk colleague/sparring partner Wendy Lloyd. He was also unable to present the following evening's show, but returned on 17 February for the final three shows of his reappearance.
Abbot then took over a regular weekly slot on the station every Saturday night from 10pm-1am.
Abbot's show has a clear unique style amongst other LBC presenters. It becomes normal for an amusing summary of the week's news at the start of the show during his opening jingle, "Boogie Woogie" by Liberace, replacing the theme tune he had previously used - "The Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson. Throughout the show, Nick plays various amusing sound clips including amusing quotes from films such as The Terminator, and clips from his former co-presenter Carol McGiffin.
In late 2007, Abbot took over LBC's Weekday evening show from 7-10pm in the evening whilst still continuing with the Planet Rock weekend show, which ended in September 2008.
He has published a book, which is available as a digital download from the Amazon UK Kindle store. See http://www.amazon.co.uk/2010-wrapped-like-mmmm-chips/dp/B004FPZ6DM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s;=books&qid;=1292911672&sr;=8-1
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Dotun Adebayo MBE (born 25 August 1960) is a Nigerian-born, British-based radio presenter, writer and publisher. He is best known for his work on Up All Night on BBC Radio 5 Live, as well as the obituary programme Brief Lives.
As well as claiming to have been the first black teddy boy in London in his early teens, Adebayo also won a Rotary Club public speaking award as a teenager.
Adebayo studied literature at the University of Stockholm (Frescati) before going on to a further degree in philosophy at the University of Essex.
His columns and articles have been published in Pride Magazine and the New Nation, as well as broadsheet and tabloid newspapers such as The Guardian, The Independent, The Times, London Evening Standard and the News of the World. Some of these columns were compiled into Can I Have My Balls Back Please (2000) and its sequel Sperm Bandits (2002). He is working on his first novel, Promised Land, an epic saga spanning 50 years in the lives of Britain's richest black family.
His broadcasting work includes programmes on BBC London 94.9, such as the Saturday night reggae show. He also does television work, including writing and presenting the docudrama Sperm Bandits, the documentary White Girls Are Easy (both for Channel 4), and the weekly show Heavy TV. He has made one stage appearance as an adult, featuring in a revival of the Rocky Horror Picture Show in 2002.
Adebayo founded the publishing company X Press, which produces black fiction such as Baby Father; Yardie, which became the first black British bestseller when it was published in 1992; and Cop Killer, which gained instant notoriety when 200 bullets were sent out to press to promote the title. He is also responsible for the Nia imprint of literary black fiction, such as J.California Cooper's In Search of Satisfaction, and the 20/20 imprint for current generic fiction such as the bestseller Curvy Lovebox.
Adebayo is co-founder of Colourtelly, Britain's first general interest black internet television station. To save costs Adebayo uses his own house as the studio. When it launched on 1 August 2007, Adebayo had the aim of attracting 6000 subscribers in order to break even.
In October 1999, he was invited to Buckingham Palace to meet Queen Elizabeth II. Ten years later he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2009.
Adebayo is fluent in Yoruba, English, and Swedish; he has conversational French . He has lived in Nigeria, France, Sweden and the United States.
He supports Charlton Athletic and once shared a flat with the "shoebomber" Richard Reid.
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
He attended the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield and Trent Park College of Education, Barnet (now part of Middlesex University). He then worked in Tower Records London and for the London office of Beserkley Records, before becoming a freelance journalist.
After working at the music magazines NME and Sounds, he joined the newly-launched Smash Hits magazine in 1979, and two years later became its editor. In 1983 he started Just Seventeen, a perennially popular magazine for teenage girls, and in 1984 the magazine Looks. Since then he has launched several further magazines in the entertainment field including Q (1985), More (1987), Empire (1988), Mojo (1993), Heat (1999), and The Word (2003). He is currently director of the magazine publishing company Development Hell with Mark Ellen, a frequent collaborator.
He is the only person to have won both the Periodical Publishers Association's writer of the year and editor of the year award.
In the early 1980s he had a short period as presenter of the BBC music show Old Grey Whistle Test and was one of the presenters of the BBC's coverage of Live Aid. On both of these he worked with Mark Ellen.
David Hepworth is featured in a podcast promoting the "Top of the Pops" boxset alongside Mark Goodier , Miles Leonard and Malcolm McClaren.
Category:1950 births Category:Alumni of Middlesex University Category:Living people Category:People from Dewsbury Category:Old SaviliansThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Billy Bragg |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Stephen William Bragg |
| Born | December 20, 1957 Barking, England, UK |
| Instrument | Vocals, guitar |
| Genre | Folk punk Folk rock Alternative rock |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Associated acts | The Blokes Wilco |
| Url | www.billybragg.co.uk |
Bragg began performing frequent concerts and busking around London, playing solo with an electric guitar. His roadie at the time was Andy Kershaw, who became a BBC DJ (Bragg and Kershaw later, in 1989, appeared in an episode of the BBC TV programme, "Great Journeys", in which they travelled the Silver Road from Potosí, Bolivia, to the Pacific coast at Arica, Chile) .
Bragg's demo tape initially got no response from the record industry, but by pretending to be a television repair man, he got into the office of Charisma Records' A&R; man Peter Jenner. Jenner liked the tape, but the company was near bankruptcy and had no budget to sign new artists. Bragg got an offer to record more demos for a music publisher, so Jenner agreed to release them as a record. Life's a Riot with Spy Vs. Spy was released in July, 1983 by Charisma's new imprint, Utility. Hearing DJ John Peel mention on-air that he was hungry, Bragg rushed to the BBC with a mushroom biryani, so Peel played a song from Life's a Riot with Spy Vs. Spy although at the wrong speed (since the 12" LP was, unconventionally, cut to play at 45rpm). This was the second Bragg album to be named after a book by Colin MacInnes. In 2008, during the NME Awards ceremony, Bragg sang a duet with British solo act Kate Nash. They mixed up their two greatest hits, Nash playing "Foundations", and Bragg redoing his "A New England". Bragg also collaborated with the poet and playwright, Patrick Jones, who supported Bragg's Tour.
In 2008, Bragg played a small role in Stuart Bamforth's film "A13: Road Movie". Bragg is featured alongside union reps, vicars, burger van chefs and Members of Parliament
Bragg curated the Leftfield stage at Glastonbury Festival 2010
During the 2001 UK general election, Bragg attempted to combat voter apathy by promoting tactical voting in an attempt to unseat Conservative Party candidates in Dorset, particularly in South Dorset and West Dorset. In the 2001 election, the Labour Party won South Dorset with their smallest majority, and the Conservative majority in West Dorset was reduced.
Bragg has developed an interest in English national identity, apparent in his 2002 album England, Half-English and his 2006 book The Progressive Patriot. The book expressed his view that English socialists can reclaim patriotism from the right wing. Bragg has been involved in a series of debates with some socialists who disagree, notably the Socialist Workers Party. Bragg also supports Scottish independence.
Bragg has been an outspoken opponent of fascism, racism, bigotry, sexism and homophobia, and is a supporter of a multi-racial Britain. As a result, Bragg has come under attack by far right groups such as the British National Party. In a 2004 article in The Guardian, Bragg was quoted as saying:
The British National Party would probably make it into a parliament elected by proportional representation, too. It would shine a torch into the dirty little corner where the BNP defecate on our democracy, and that would be much more powerful than duffing them up in the street — which I'm also in favour of.Also in 2004, Bragg collaborated with American ska punk band Less Than Jake to record a song for the Rock Against Bush compilation album.
Bragg supported the pro-Iraq war candidate Oona King against the anti-war George Galloway in the 2005 general election in the constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow, due to a belief that splitting the left-wing vote would allow the Conservative Party to win the seat. Galloway went on to overturn King's 10,000-strong majority to become his party's only MP.
In March 2006, journalist Garry Bushell (a former Trotskyist who ran as a candidate for the English Democrats in 2005) accused Bragg of "pontificating on a South London council estate when we all know he lives in a lovely big house in West Dorset".
In January 2010 Bragg announced that he had decided to withhold his income tax as a protest against the prospective decision by Royal Bank of Scotland to pay bonuses in the region of £1.5 billion to staff working in its investment banking business. The protest was sparked by the appearance of Stephen Hester, the RBS Chief Executive, before the Treasury Select Committee on 12 January 2010. To publicise his protest Bragg set up a Facebook group, which attracted 30,000 members, made numerous appearances on radio and television news programmes and appeared in public at Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park. Amongst other things, Bragg said,“Millions are already facing stark choices: are they willing to work longer hours for less money, or would they rather be unemployed? I don’t see why the bankers at RBS shouldn’t be asked the same.”
On the eve of the 2010 General Election, Bragg announced that he would be voting for the Liberal Democrats because "they've got the best manifesto".He also backed the Lib Dems for tactical voting reasons. Despite sounding 'interested'about the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, despite wanting a Lib-Lab coalition, he then went back to the Labour Party saying 'the Lib Dems had failed democracy'.
However, regarding his music and politics, Bragg said in an interview: "My theory is this; I'm not a political songwriter. I'm an honest songwriter. I try and write honestly about what I see around me now." In another interview, Bragg said: "I don't mind being labeled a political songwriter. The thing that troubles me is being dismissed as a political songwriter." In an interview with Bullz-Eye, Bragg said:
I would then say that I am Mr. Love and Justice, and to check out the love songs. That’s how I capture people. People do say to me, “I love your songs, but I just can’t stand your politics.” And I say, “Well, Republicans are always welcome. Come on over!” I would hate to stand at the door, saying to people, “Do you agree with these positions? If not, you can’t come in.”
Bragg is a board director and key spokesman for the Featured Artists Coalition, a body representing the rights of recording artists.
In January 2011, news broke that the residents of Bragg's Dorset hometown, Burton Bradstock, had received anonymous letters viciously attacking Bragg and his politics, urging the villagers to oppose him and his life in the settlement. Bragg claimed a supporter of the BNP was behind them.
*Life's a Riot with Spy Vs Spy (1983)
*
Category:1957 births Category:Alternative rock musicians Category:Anti-corporate activists Category:Anti-fascists Category:British socialists Category:English activists Category:English buskers Category:English-language singers Category:English male singers Category:English political writers Category:English singer-songwriters Category:English tax resisters Category:Living people Category:People associated with Oxford Brookes University Category:People from Barking Category:Folk punk musicians Category:English people of Italian descent
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