Billy Bragg Glastonbury Initiative

In an extremely unusual new move Billy Bragg is set to present talent from the Jail Guitar Doors project at this year's Glastonbury festival.

Despite rarely playing the event, Joe Strummer was a Glastonbury legend. The Clash icon loved the event, and would annually pull up with his family to soak up some great music and good vibes.

Rejoicing in the eclectic line up, Joe Strummer would regularly erect enormous bonfires backstage and invite other performers to join him. Credited with creating a rare bonhomie between acts, Strummer is immortalised with a memorial stone at the Somerset site.

This year a very special new talent initiative is set to take place at Glastonbury which would surely have had the punk hero smiling in recognition. Jail Guitar Doors is a charity set up by Billy Bragg in order to give prison inmates instruments, and help them to do something different with their lives.

The folk singer has frequently played shows in prisons, helping inmates find a different path in life. This year Bragg is set to present performances by Jonny Neesom and Leon Walker, rising stars of the Jail Guitar Doors initiative.

Neesom has already supported the likes of Dirty Pretty Things, while Leon Walker recently stole the show on tour with Billy Bragg himself.

Billy Bragg says: "It's great that Strummerville are hosting a performance by Jonny and Leon. I named my music in prisons initiative Jail Guitar Doors in memory of Joe Strummer, and the people at Strummerville have been very supportive of our work since the off."

"Inviting the lads to play at Glastonbury Festival is very much in keeping with the work that Joe did. The voice of ex-prisoners is rarely heard in a society that locks more people up every year and both Jonny and Leon draw on their life experiences to write powerful songs."

To make the performances even more special the show is set to be filmed by Alan Miles as part of his forthcoming documentary 'Breaking Rocks' which details the work of the charity.

Alan Miles said in a statement: "Being an old Clash fan, I'm proud that Strummerville have funded the production of the Jail Guitar Doors documentary "Breaking Rocks', and I hope that the film will be an inspiring and thought provoking journey which challenges our perception of rehabilitation as well as being a bloody good music documentary!"

Of course, as we all know 'Jail Guitar Doors' is a classic track by The Clash. Written by Strummer's previous act The 101ers, the song was given a ferocious Clash re-working.

Click HERE to have a listen!

Jail Guitar Doors takes over Glastonbury at midnight on June 27th, near the Joe Strummer Memorial Stone.