Not sure whether to post this under Todays Music, or Todays Movie ?? :confused:
Just got back from seeing a film called Breaking Rocks, a documentary about Billy Bragg's Jail Guitar Doors initiative to get prisoners playing guitars.
My initial reaction to this was my usual world weary cynical view of "Sod 'em, they're criminals and they don't deserve bread and water, let alone a guitar", but I guess this isn't costing the taxpayer anything and if does make even a small difference to re-offending levels then some good has come from it. Some of the statistics on prison population levels is pretty alarming, and numbers are rising. They didn't go into specifics of what crimes they had committed, but one of them, Leon Walker had been on heroin from the age of 15 - his parents were dealers so he didn't get much of a start in life. The other, Johnny Neesom is an incredibly talented guitarist, using a guitar as much more than just a guitar. After the film there were performance by two of the former inmates featured in the film, and a short set by Billy himself.
There's a few more dates left, mostly down south, if you get the chance to go then I'd recommend it.
