Current Issue #488

Billy Bragg to play three Adelaide shows on marathon 2020 tour

Billy Bragg to play three Adelaide shows on marathon 2020 tour

Beloved UK songwriter and activist Billy Bragg will return to Australia in 2020 to spend some quality time with local audiences across a string of ‘three night stands’.

Each stop on the ‘One Step Forward, Two Steps Back’ tour will see Brag perform three distinct shows over three nights. While the first will see Bragg roam across his entire 35-year discography, the next will see Bragg take a closer look at his early years (Spy Vs Spy’s Life’s A Riot through 1986’s Talking With The Taxman About Poetry) before concluding with his late 80s/early 90s period from 1988’s Workers Playtime to 1996’s William Bloke.

“After more than three decades of travelling around the world in a van, or spending all day flying vast distances to play a gig, I’m looking forward to having some time to explore cities that I usually only get to see between the soundcheck and the show,” Bragg says of the tour. “And this three night stand format is a way of keeping things interesting, both for me and the audience. I tried it out in Auckland recently and had a lot of fun revisiting my back pages.”

Bragg last performed in Adelaide in a memorable one-off solo show at the Governor Hindmarsh. Sandwiched between theatre performances on a joint tour with Joe Henry, Bragg clearly relished the experience “to confront an all-standing audience in a big, dark boozer”, almost doubling his intended set length in a show that tackled Brexit, climate change, ageing and DIY home improvement. Read our review of the show here.

He later took to social media to confirm that it was, indeed, something quite special:

Bragg will return to the Governor Hindmarsh from April 30 to May 2 – one suspects he will also make a pilgrimage to Thebarton Theatre.

Billy Bragg 2020 Australian tour dates

Fremantle
Freo Social
April 24 – April 26
Tickets

Adelaide
The Governor Hindmarsh
April 30 – May 2
Tickets

Melbourne
Croxton Bandroom
May 6 – 8
Tickets

Sydney
Metro Theatre
May 12 – 14
Tickets

Brisbane
The Triffid
May 18 – 20
Tickets

Get the latest from The Adelaide Review in your inbox

Get the latest from The Adelaide Review in your inbox