6. Billy BraggBrewing Up With Billy Bragg

In the 80s, I didn’t consider myself a song guy – I was just playing music with punk bands, not writing songs of my own. The time I started writing and playing my own music was just after I left Chicago, and one of the reasons I did was that I discovered Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy and Brewing Up…, which were packaged together into one record in the US. It changed my life – it revived my passion for music that was being made in UK. It was extremely personal and touching, and yet was powerful and aggressive, with a message that was true and not about bullshit. The fact that my first photo image of Mr Bragg was just of him on a street corner with a guitar on his back, I thought was incredible – here’s a guy taking his message to the people in such a direct way.