JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD - BRADFIELD: 'BILLY BRAGG SAVED ME FROM ARMY'

British singer JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD would have joined the army, had it not been for punk rocker BILLY BRAGG's protest music. The MANIC STREET PREACHERS rocker was a hot-headed teenager growing up in Wales during the Falklands War in the early 1980s, and was poised to sign up for duty with the British Army. But Bragg's impassioned music caused him to make a swift U-turn. He says, "I whooped when the Belgrano (Argentine Navy cruiser on 02MAY82) went down. I even nearly joined the army. Then I heard Billy Bragg and I realised how short-sighted I was being."