Billy Bragg

Honoured with the 'PRS Outstanding Contribution to British Music' award at the Ivor Novello awards in May 2018, the Essex folk punk rocker is regarded a valuable statesman and activist with his incredible career marked by numerous milestones, including a number one hit single (a cover of The Beatles' "She's Leaving Home"), his track "A New England" became a Top 10 hit for Kirsty MacColl, he had a street named after him in Dagenham, he met the Queen, was the subject of a South Bank Show, appeared onstage at Wembley Stadium, and curates Left Field at Glastonbury through thick and thin.

Earning a mention in Bob Dylan’s memoir, he is the author of three non-fiction books, the second of which - Roots, Radicals & Rockers - was shortlisted for the Penderyn Music Book award and was source material for a BBC 4 documentary about the skiffle classic Rock Island Line.

All of which proves that at their best, Billy’s songs present what the Guardian called "the perfect Venn diagram between the political and the personal".