Wisely, Billy Bragg ignored the advice of every record company mogul in London and, after a short spell of bashing his head against a table, proceeded on his chosen course of penning songs and performing them solo with a voice that would aggravate seals and a guitar style to set the teeth on edge.

Eventually a vaguely-interested Charisma released a seven-song set called 'Life's A Riot With Spy Versus Spy’. Later they thought better of it and allowed Billy to be snapped up by aspiring indie label legend Andy MacDonald of Go! Discs.

Billy recalls:

"Charisma said to MacDonald 'Billy is a Charisma artist, we believe in Billy and we're going to build his career up. MacDonald said 'I'll give you £1500' and they said ‘all right!’. Probably the best 1500 quid he's ever spent. I don't think he ever paid it either!"

To continue reading this article and to discover many more (over 140,000 words-worth!), purchase Mick Sinclair’s Adjusting the Stars: Music journalism from post-punk London.