The legendary Billy Bragg will visit Leeds’ Hyde Park Picture House this July with an inspiring documentary about a scheme that brings musicians and instruments to prisons in the UK. Breaking Rocks tells the story of Bragg’s independent initiative Jail Guitar Doors, which aims to provide instruments to those who are using music as a means of achieving the rehabilitation of prison inmates. Bragg will answer questions about the film and the initiative alongside director Alan Miles, after which audiences will be treated to performances from Bragg and Jail Guitar Doors artists including Jonny Neesom and Leon Walker.
Bragg, who says his life was changed after seeing The Clash play live at Victoria Park in 1978, inspiring him to write about social and political issues, explains: “Prison has to be about much more than just locking people up. We want people to be able to move on from their situation and reconnect with the outside world, and my hunch was that playing an instrument – particularly a guitar – could help that.”
In early 2007, documentary filmmaker Alan Miles received a phone call from Billy Bragg with a proposition – he wanted Miles to shoot footage of a visit he was making to Guys Marsh prison in Dorset. The songwriter and man once dubbed a “one-man Clash” was delivering the gift of some acoustic guitars to a prison worker so inmates in his music class could practice the instrument between lessons. The visit marked the beginning of Bragg’s ‘Jail Guitar Doors’ campaign, the extraordinary story of which is told in Miles’ gritty and uplifting new film, Breaking Rocks.
The film features performances by ‘graduates’ from Jail Guitar Doors as well as from many of the artists that have supported the programme including Mick Jones (The Clash) Chris Shiflett (Foo Fighters) Sam Duckworth (Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly), and Billy Bragg himself.
The project takes its name from the b-side of the Clash’s 1978 single ‘Clash City Rockers’ and initially stemmed from Bragg’s desire to mark the fifth anniversary of Clash frontman Joe Strummer’s death in a positive way. Bragg received a request from a local jail, where Malcolm Dudley, a drug and alcohol counsellor, was utilising his skills as a musician to set up a guitar class as a means of engaging prisoners in the process of rehabilitation. Borrowing a guitar from the prison chaplain and repairing an old nylon-strung instrument found in a prison cupboard, Malcolm began to make progress with the inmates but was aware that their development was being held back by the lack of instruments to practise on between sessions. Bragg says:
I immediately grasped the potential of Malcolm’s work, knowing from my own experience how playing guitar and writing songs can help an individual to process problems in a non-confrontational way. I bought half a dozen acoustic guitars and, just as Joe Strummer had painted slogans on his guitar, had them spray-painted with the titles of Clash songs – ‘Clash City Rocker’, ‘Stay Free’ and, of course, ‘Jail Guitar Doors’.
The positive effects these guitars had on the inmates spurred Bragg on to find support for the project to be developed in prisons across the country. Clash guitarist Mick Jones was the first to offer his cooperation and since then Jail Guitar Doors, with sponsorship from Gibson Musical Instruments, has donated instruments to more than 20 prisons.
Miles admits that filming the footage of Bragg’s prison visits to talk with prison workers, officials and to see donated JGD instruments in use was his biggest challenge. “I’ve always been very careful,” he explains:
“There are some people in prison you can’t film for legal reasons but, also, you have to be aware that some of the inmates might be embarrassed to be inside, or perhaps someone in the audience who doesn’t understand the bigger picture of what we’re trying to achieve.”
Jail Guitar Doors documentary Breaking Rocks. Q&A screenings with Billy Bragg, Alan Miles, & JGD graduates Jonny Neesom & Leon Walker, Saturday 24th July, 7.30pm, £12.50/£11concs/£10members
Hyde Park Picture House, Brudenell Road, Leeds, LS6 1JD, 0113 275 2045