Interview Billy Bragg
We speak to the punk-folkster ahead of his visit to the Hyde Park Picture House with Breaking Rocks, a documentary about his Jail Guitar Doors campaign
Interview: Billy Bragg
Other Recent Interview Articles
Punk-folk musician and political activist Billy Bragg is a busy man. He’s just finished performing at Glastonbury and Latitude festivals, and this September, he’ll embark on a transatlantic tour stretching from Seattle, Washington to Washington, D.C. In the meantime, he’ll be appearing at screenings of Breaking Rocks, a documentary about his Jail Guitar Doors campaign to benefit the lives of prison inmates through rehabilitation and musical therapy. The Breaking Rocks tour will pass through Leeds at Hyde Park Picture House on Saturday, 24th July.
Director Alan Miles and Bragg worked together on the documentary to bring the Jail Guitar Doors story to life. Bragg’s Jail Guitar Doors initiative launched three years ago when he was contacted by Malcolm Dudley, a drug and alcohol counsellor at Guy’s Marsh HMP working to rehabilitate inmates through weekly guitar workshops. Dudley was dedicated in achieving his goal, but supplies were lacking. Bragg offered help in the form of half a dozen guitars and so began the campaign. Now, three years later, Jail Guitar Doors has expanded to aid approximately 33 prisons in the UK.
Bragg named the campaign after a b-side of ‘Clash City Rockers’ by The Clash. Having launched Jail Guitar Doors on the fifth anniversary of Joe Strummer’s death, Bragg wanted to do more than just a tribute gig in his honour. “I really wanted to do something proactive in his name and when that came along, I figured it would be quite a thing.”
The campaign has proven to be quite a success, as it has expanded to the USA, launched last year by Wayne Kramer. Jail Guitar Doors goes full circle in that Kramer, lead guitarist of MC5, is the subject of the song ‘Jail Guitar Doors’.
“It has great potential,” says Bragg, “but I wish I could do more. I wish I could spend more time doing this work.” He’s certainly putting the time in at the moment, making appearances at Breaking Rocks screenings, and even managing to find some time to speak with us at Leeds Guide. Bragg shows such dedication to Jail Guitar Doors because, he says, “as a musician, I understand how it can help you transcend your surroundings. That’s what music did for me when I was a kid,” and that’s what it’s doing for numerous inmates throughout the UK now.
“I have strong evidence that it does work,” Bragg said of his programme’s unique rehabilitation approach. Perhaps he’s referring to the figures which show that participants of his programme have a 10-15% re-conviction rate as opposed to the national average of 61%.
Some graduates even go on to become accomplished musicians, including Jonny Neesom and Leon Walker, who will be performing after the Leeds screening of Breaking Rocks. Bragg too will appear after the show for a Q&A session and is happy to have Neesom and Walker at his side. “Just seeing the audience respond to them and to see the validation they get from performing, I think it’s the best thing I get out of it.”
Since its release, Breaking Rocks has been an effective way to promote the Jail Guitar Doors campaign. “It’s a really helpful tool and a great film as well. As a tool for spreading the word about the project it really does the job,” says Bragg. The documentary truly is an eye-opener, “it represents a corner of life that very few people get to see,” Bragg says. “It’s a double-whammy, you see the documentary and you can’t help but have a bond for these guys because you first see them in their worst situation in prison, and then you see them on stage doing a show. That’s the thing that really captures the audience. It’s more than just a documentary. These are real people, real lives… They really are using music to turn their lives around.”
Log onto www.jailguitardoors.org.uk for more information about Bragg’s inspirational effort, or visit the Hyde Park Picture House for the one-off screening of Breaking Rocks to learn more. Bragg, Neesom and Walker will be available to answer all your burning questions and inspire you to do something more in aid of society’s outcasts.
24 July, Hyde Park Picture House, 7.30pm, £12.50 (£11.50 conc)
Posted on Wednesday 21st July 2010
Rebecca Shoemaker
Hyde Park Picture House
Brudenell Road, Hyde Park, Leeds, LS6 1JD
Sending you to Twitter, hold on... 
