Editing Billy Bragg (section)

===Early career===
In 1977, Bragg formed the [[punk rock]]/[[Pub rock (United Kingdom)|pub rock]] band Riff Raff with Wiggy. The band decamped to rural [[Oundle]] in [[Northamptonshire]] in 1978 to record a series of singles (the first on independent [[Chiswick Records]]), which did not receive wide exposure. After a period of gigging in Northamptonshire and London, they returned to Barking and split in 1980.{{sfn|Collins|2018|pp=67–69}} Taking a series of odd jobs including working at Guy Norris' record shop in Barking high street, Bragg became disillusioned with his stalled music career and in May 1981 joined the [[British Army]] as a recruit destined for the [[Queen's Royal Irish Hussars]] of the [[Royal Armoured Corps]]. After completing three months' [[basic training]], he bought himself out for £175 and returned home.{{sfn|Collins|2018|pp=69–79}}

Bragg peroxided his hair to mark a new phase in his life and began performing frequent concerts and [[busking]] around London, playing solo with an electric guitar under the name ''Spy vs Spy'' (after [[Spy vs. Spy|the strip]] in ''[[Mad (magazine)|Mad]]'' magazine).{{sfn|Collins|2018|p=84}}

[[File:Billy Bragg shot by Kris Krug.jpg|thumb|280px|Bragg performing at [[South by Southwest]] in 2008]]
His 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]].<ref name="Peel">{{cite web|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/johnpeel/artists/b/billybragg|work=Radio 1|title=Keeping It Peel|publisher=BBC|access-date=28 January 2010}}</ref> 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 music publisher [[Chappell & Co.]], so Jenner agreed to release them as a record. ''[[Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy]]'' (credited to Billy Bragg) 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 "The Milkman of Human Kindness"  from ''Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy'' albeit at the wrong speed (since the 12" LP was, unconventionally, cut to play at 45rpm). Peel insisted he would have played the song even without the biryani and later played it at the correct speed.<ref name="Peel"/>

Within months Charisma had been taken over by [[Virgin Records]] and Jenner, who had been made redundant, became Bragg's [[Music management|manager]]. [[Stiff Records]]' press officer Andy Macdonald – who was setting up his own record label, [[Go! Discs]] – received a copy of ''Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy''. He made Virgin an offer and the album was re-released on Go! Discs in November 1983, at the fixed low price of £2.99.{{sfn|Collins|2018|p=114}} Around this time, [[Andy Kershaw]], an early supporter at [[Radio Aire]] in [[Leeds]], was employed by Jenner as Bragg's tour manager. (He later became a [[BBC]] DJ and TV presenter, and he and Bragg appeared in an episode of the BBC TV programme ''Great Journeys'' in 1989, in which they travelled the Silver Road from [[Potosí]], Bolivia, to the Pacific coast at [[Arica]], Chile.){{sfn|Collins|2018|pp=209–211}}

Though never released as a Bragg single, album track and live favourite "[[A New England]]", with an additional verse, became a Top 10 hit in the UK for [[Kirsty MacColl]] in January 1985. Since MacColl's early death, Bragg always sings the extra verse live in her honour.<ref>{{cite web|title=Kirsty MacColl memorial page|url=http://www.gonetoosoon.org/memorials/kirsty-maccoll|work=Gone Too Soon|access-date=18 November 2014|archive-date=29 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129050329/http://www.gonetoosoon.org/memorials/kirsty-maccoll|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1984, Bragg toured the UK supporting [[the Style Council]].<ref>Steve Malins ''Paul Weller. The Unauthorized Biography'' Virgin Books, 1997, p.129</ref> Later the same year he released ''[[Brewing Up with Billy Bragg]]'', a mixture of political songs (e.g. "It Says Here") and songs of unrequited love (e.g. "The Saturday Boy"). This was followed in 1985 by ''[[Between the Wars (EP)|Between the Wars]]'', an EP of political songs that included a cover version of [[Leon Rosselson]]'s "The World Turned Upside Down". The EP made the Top 20 of the [[UK Singles Chart]] and earned Bragg an appearance on ''[[Top of the Pops]]'', singing the title track. Bragg later collaborated with Rosselson on the song "Ballad of a Spycatcher".<ref>{{cite web|title=Ballad of a Spycatcher|url=http://mainlynorfolk.info/leon.rosselson/records/balladofaspycatcher.html|work=Mainly Norfolk|access-date=18 November 2014}}</ref>

In the same year, he embarked on his first tour of North America, with Wiggy as tour manager, supporting [[Echo & the Bunnymen]].{{sfn|Collins|2018|pp=138–142}} The tour began in Washington, D.C., and ended in Los Angeles. On the same trip, in New York, Bragg unveiled his "Portastack",{{sfn|Collins|2018|pp=139–140}} a self-contained, mobile PA system weighing 35&nbsp;lbs (designed for £500 by engineer Kenny Jones), the wearing of which became an archetypal image of the singer at that time. With it, he was able to busk outside the [[New Music Seminar]], a record industry conference.{{sfn|Collins|2018|p=139}}