Billy Bragg To Stage Welsh Miners Strike Tour

Billy Bragg has announced details of a tour of Wales which will commemorate the miners strike in the mid-80s.

The nine-date tour will begin in Blaenavon on June 5th and will also include shows in Brecon, Caernarfon and Cardigan.

Bragg, who was just emerging as a musician when the strikes began in 1984, said the stand off had introduced him to politics.

He also said it was important to show children how the strikes were relevant to the current financial crisis.

"My political education really was the twelve months of that strike," he said.

"Once you go out into the coalfields and do these gigs and then go back and kip on someone's sofa, they rightly want to know if you're just some pop star from London who's come up to sell more records or if you can actually walk the walk as well as talk the talk."

He added: "If we look again at our history we'll understand there are other ways to respond to this economic situation other than passively.

"Once, people resisted the layoffs and the cutbacks by organising. That message needs to be restated - it's a painful lesson to learn and each generation needs to be reminded of that," he added.

The opening show in Blaenavon's Workmen's Hall will see Bragg play songs and also hold a discussion on the strikes and his career.