SOUTHAMPTON music lover Christine Valentine has revealed how Billy Bragg gave an impromptu performance outside her pop up tent after she tweeted him saying "Need a knees up! My tiny tent or on stage.. your choice!!"

In fact the singer-songwriter and left-wing political activist whose music blends elements of folk, punk and protest songs, with lyrics that often span political themes, proved a total gentleman after tracking down her camp site on Google maps.

Christine and partner Ricky Valentine were camped at Tumbridge Wells waiting for a Paul Heaton/Jacqui Abbott gig when they were told it had been cancelled after Jacqui Abbot hurt her back.

Ricky is part of Southampton band The BC Experiment which Christine manages. She told the Echo:"When I heard it had been cancelled I sent a cheeky little Twitter to Billy Bragg and Paul Heaton asking them to join us for some sausage at our tent or, as I had half of the BC Experiment, Rikki Valentine, with me he could join them on stage. Years ago Rikki’s old band, Black Couch supported Billy at a gig. "

She also sent Billy a tweet via The BC Experiment twitter account saying: "Join us 4 a beer. Travelled this far, no gig in a field that doesn’t allow radios!! Give us a break - u 2 novices could put something together with a little help from us. Our place or yours?"

Christine says: "I forgot all about it but one hour later while sitting at the campfire, a black van pulls up at my Barbie doll sized tent, and Billy Bragg jumps out with his manager Dominic! He said he was sat in his hotel watching garbage on tv, saw the twitters and thought why the hell not!"

And so the couple gathered up the rest of the campers - about 50 in total for a very special one-off performance there in the field!

Billy was even happy to pose for selfies.

"Billy then proceeded to give around 50 campers a personal performance. Such a great great guy who doubled up as a stand up comedian. It was a totally surreal evening but nothing less than I’d expect of Billy Bragg - he is old school!Not only can he sing and write but he is a top entertainer too.

"Billy Bragg gets pulled down for his political views but both him and Dominic are great people, who actually couldn’t stop thanking us for getting in touch and gathering the crowd ! We heard nothing back from Paul Heaton.

"After he left the atmosphere was buzzing- we felt blessed. This was a good example of modern technology and media making great things happen . We felt so grateful to him and he was so humble."

* Christine is organising a music festival at The Victoria pub in Woolston on July 14 to raise money for Southampton Doing it For the Kids. She asked Billy if he fancied coming down and due to other commitments he said he couldn’t, but would try to arrange a personal video clip to play on the day.

Watch Billy Bragg performing for Christine here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1469748316463812/?ti=ia