Billy Bragg To Perform At Anti-Abbott Rally

Legendary British singer/songwriter and political activist Billy Bragg will speak and perform at the Sydney leg of the March In March protests this weekend.

The Sydney March In March rally will take place this Sunday 16 March at Belmore Park in Haymarket, and while having no specific aim will be a show of people who have “no confidence” with the current Tony Abbott-lead Liberal government.

Bragg – who has arguably written some of the best protest songs in contemporary music – has signed on to perform two songs at the event.

He'll be speaking alongside comedian and MC Mathew Wakefield as well as representatives from the Australian Fair trade Investment Network, Community Action Against Homophobia, Refugee Action Coalition and others. The rally starts at 1pm.

His involvement in March In March in the latest example of the music and arts scenes showing discontent with the current state of Australian politics, and particularly the Abbott government. And of course, GWAR took the sword to Abbott (literally) during their Soundwave dates.

Another artist who has expressed disapproval with the current administration, particularly over the Manus Island scandal, is rapper Urthboy.

“I'd been writing a song about the extreme mismatch of our navy facing off against asylum seekers in ramshackle boats,” he said recently.

“The official silence and militaristic language. The paranoid obsession Australia has with asylum seekers. The billions we spend so we can turn our back. Then Manus Island happened and it clarified the purpose of the song, giving us a tragic consequence to a hopeless situation.

“Somewhere along the way we mangled our perception of success to be measured by how many boats have landed. This is hysteria. So many miles from the myth of the 'fair go'. It's a call out to musicians and artists to put humanity back into focus.”

He recently released a re-working of the Jaytee remix of Sietta's Don't Let It Go to address Manus Island. Watch it below.

Bragg is currently touring Australia and played at WOMADelaide over the weekend, where he really didn't get along with Pokey LeFarge.

Watch Bragg's keynote from BIGSOUND in Brisbane last year here.