Photo: Instagram, The Royale
Billy Bragg played an impromptu show in Ferguson, Missouri on Tuesday (19 August), the city in which unarmed black teenager Michael Brown was shot dead by police officers.
The singer was playing in nearby St Louis when he made a trip to the city, and played for an hour to 200 people in the courtyard of a pub owned by protestor Steven Fitzpatrick Smith.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Bragg said: "A number of people said to me on Twitter, if you're going to go to St Lou, are you going to go to Ferguson? But we didn't want to just go there and walk through Ferguson and be tourists. We wanted to do something for the community."
Watch footage of Billy Bragg performing in Ferguson below
Amongst his set, which he performed alongside Joe Purdy, Bragg played Woody Guthrie's 'Hangknot, Slipknot', 'Cryin' In The Streets' and Bob Dylan's 'The Times They Are A-Changin''.
According to NME's reports, Bragg told the crowd: "The true enemy of all of us who want to make the world a better place is not capitalism or conservatism, it's cynicism. You have the opportunity to show the world that St Louis is not a cynical place."
Meanwhile, Lauryn Hill and rapper J Cole are amongst the artists to release music in protest of recent events in Ferguson.
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