Billy Bragg has announced a Palestine benefit gig, ‘Days Like These’, featuring the likes of Jamie Webster, Antony Szmierek, Reverend & The Makers, Big Special – buy tickets here.
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The show, set to take place at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London on September 20, will involve music, film and spoken word. Also involved are actors Khalid Abdalla and Samuel West and writers Ahmed Masoud and Ahmed Alnaouq. More names are set to be announced.
The event will raise money for Amos Trust, which helps provide medical care, food and aid, therapeutic trauma support for women and children, and support for young writers in Palestine.
In an Instagram post, singer-songwriter and activist Bragg wrote: “The shocking images of starving families that are coming out of Gaza call on us to take action to help alleviate their plight. That these unarmed civilians are being targeted by the IDF while seeking aid makes the matter all the more urgent.
“By coming together in solidarity with the people of Palestine, we aim to raise funds for the crucial work that @Amos_Trust is doing to help end the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
Tickets will go on sale at 5pm tomorrow (July 30) here, and you can also find them on Bragg’s website.
In May, Bragg explained his support for Irish hip-hop group Kneecap – vocal supporters of Palestine – shortly after member Mo Chara was charged by the Metropolitan Police for allegedly displaying a flag in support of the proscribed terrorist organisation Hezbollah last year. For their part, Kneecap denied the offence and described it as a “carnival of distraction”, while Chara is set to appear in court again on August 20.
After Heavenly Recordings published an open letter defending the group’s “freedom of expression”, signed by artists including Pulp, IDLES and Fontaines D.C., Bragg first said that the letter “lacks any sense of nuance or understanding of why this whole furore kicked off” but that he was “glad to see that a number of artists have signed a letter defending Kneecap from attempts to remove them from various festival bills in the wake of comments made at shows over two years ago.”
Later on that month, he added: “I understand that it may have appeared to some that I was arguing semantics while atrocities were being committed, but my genuine concern is that the artists were taking a position that could undermine future efforts to hold the Israeli government to account, which is surely not their intent.
“While I believe that being an artist doesn’t absolve you from taking responsibility for your actions, I do not believe that creative expression should be subject to criminal charges.”
