CENTERSTAGE
Red Wedge is the self-described “broad Left arts alliance” of pop stars and young people whose specific goal is a Labour Party victory in the U.K.’s next General Election. Formed in late ’85 to implement slogans such as The World of Arts—For a World of Difference, the Wedge boasts a suprising range of supporters, including Sade, Paul Weller, Bragg, Jerry Dammers, Lloyd Cole, Bananarama, Ray Davies, Heaven 17, Junior Giscombe, Jimmy Somerville, Helen Terry and Dave Stewart—plus groups like Everything But The Girl and Working Week.
CENTERSTAGE
SHOCKING PINKOS
BILLY BRAGG London Purcell Room March 31, 1986 TEST DEPARTMENT & ASSOCIATES London Bishopsbridge Maintenance Depot March 30, 1986
by Cynthia Rose
Red Wedge is the self-described “broad Left arts alliance” of pop stars and young people whose specific goal is a Labour Party victory in the U.K.’s next General Election. Formed in late ’85 to implement slogans such as The World of Arts—For a World of Difference, the Wedge boasts a suprising range of supporters, including Sade, Paul Weller, Bragg, Jerry Dammers, Lloyd Cole, Bananarama, Ray Davies, Heaven 17, Junior Giscombe, Jimmy Somerville, Helen Terry and Dave Stewart—plus groups like Everything But The Girl and Working Week.
Yet it is Billy Bragg—since the release of his stirring Between The Wars and Days Like These EPs, a virtual British Springsteen—who provides the movement’s rallying Face. And tonight this vet of gigs to aid the striking miners, the young unemployed and the Labour Party itself, headlines a Farewell Concert for the Greater London Council.