Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy

billy bragg, once-described as a 'one-man clash,' has spent the last two decades writing and performing passionate, witty, socially conscious music. finally cooking vinyl remasters and reissue his early catalouge. 'life's a riot with spy vs. spy' 1983's mini-lp that first introduced the world to billy's style - roughly strummed electric guitar and stark vocals belying a keen sense of melody and committed, deeply humane lyrics on topics ranging from life and love to social upheaval and the plight of the working class. recorded live to 2-track tape for free over the course of three afternoons in chappell music's tiny demo studio in the modest hope of selling the occasional copy at early gigs, it spent 12 weeks at number 1 in the indie chart and reached number 32 in the national lp chart and featured his first underground anthem - 'a new england.' this double cd reissue comes with a bonus cd of 11 extra tracks- 5 of which 'the cloth', 'love lives here', 'speedway hero', 'loving you too long' and 'the cloth (2)' are previously unreleased bragg originals. also included is a cover of john cale's 'fear is a man's best friend.' the bonus material stems from a variety of sources and all of it was handpicked by bragg with the help of producer grant showbiz (the smiths, the fall) and wiggy, a longtime cohort and guitarist on many bragg releases.