In the following two years, it attracted the support of well-known, successful artists such as the Communards, Lloyd Cole and the Smiths. In 1985, Billy Bragg and Paul Weller participated in the creation of Red Wedge, a movement which aimed at interesting young people in politics and encouraging them to support the Labour Party. The Redskins, Billy Bragg and the Style Council played at benefit concerts to raise money for striking miners.

1 The Specials sang about youth unemployment in “Ghost Town”, the Beat called for the Prime Minister’s resignation in “Stand Down, Margaret', and Kirsty MacColl criticised her policies in “Free world”. 8 Red Wedge’s archives are held at the Modern Records Centre of the University of Warwick, while the (.)ġ Many British popular musicians protested against the Thatcher governments in the 1980s.7 For example, in Martin Westlake’s biography of Neil Kinnock, a single paragraph is given over to Re (.).Billy Bragg: The Official Biography, London, Virgin, 198 (.) 6 Andrew COLLINS, Still Suitable for Miners.The Story Of Political Pop, London, Faber and Faber, 1989, (.) 5 Robin DENSELOWE, When The Music’s Over.4 Yasmine CARLET, Stand Down Margaret, Clermont-Ferrand: Editions Mélanie Séteun, 2004, pp.3 Simon FRITH and John STREET, “Rock Against Racism and Red Wedge: from Music to politics, from Polit (.).Red Wedge was unable to prevent Labour from losing a (.) 2 This can be explained by a variety of factors.1 In this article, Roy Shuker’s brief definition of popular music will be adopted: “commercially mass (.).

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