Punked

Caught a ten minute item on BBC World earlier today featuring everyone's favourite politically committed, radical leftist, singer-songwriter Billy Bragg. Very interesting to hear about Billy's moment of epiphany as a youngster caught up in the heady days of 1970's punk undergone, as I'm sure many such moments were, watching the almost equally young The Clash in concert.

Our songster was, as were we all, a big fan of the Stones and he suddenly realised The Clash were doing what The Rolling Stones had done; in fact they were being the Stones, and there was nothing stopping anybody and everybody having a go too, if they were so inclined. Billy was (so inclined) and the rest is history, so to speak.

This was the essential lesson of punk, not the safety pins, the mohicans, the spitting and general cursing - as much fun as they were. Write the song yourself and play it yourself, preferably for an audience of more than one. And don't let anyone tell you you can't.