Sean McGowan is a working class hero-style musician, following in the footsteps of Billy Bragg, and heading out on tour this spring.

Sean met the punk-tinged, political folk singer, when he appeared on Bragg's Left Field stage at Glastonbury Festival in 2013. Advice and opportunity followed in the shape of a support slot on tour with Billy.

"Billy gave me a voice, a direction and he has kept me out of trouble,'' said Sean. "It's been massive for me and touring with him was a dream come true.''

The singer/songwriter grew up in Southampton but has Irish family, even taking the roots of his name, which means Son of a Smith, as the title for his debut album, released in May last year.

As part of his UK tour, Sean will be coming to Swindon's Level 111 in Commercial Road, on February 21 at 8pm.

One of his best pals and regular producer of his records, Sam Duckworth aka Get Cape, Wear Cape. Fly. is also a mainstay for Sean. Sam has had Sean as support for his tours and helped him get opener slots with Grace Petrie and Recreations. Sean has also worked with The Rifles, Beans On Toast and Frank Turner. Frank even sang backing vocals for Sean, on his track called Come Unstuck.

Sean nearly became unstuck himself, through his own self doubt. He has been knocking at the door of the public consciousness since 2009, shouldering the label of new artist for most of those years.

"I'd been cracking away at this for so long and I wasn't sure if it was right for me anymore. It is tough to go away on tour. And, the having-no-money thing is an issue, when you want to exist. All my friends were moving out or going on holiday, so I got a bit down about that,'' he said.

He came through, with a little help from his friends, and in 2017 signed to Xtra Mile, who released Son of A Smith. Last year he toured the UK and Europe with folk giants The Levellers.

"Somewhat of a dream support slot,'' he said.

The punk poet also has an animated video for one of his tracks, Romance Ain't Dead. He and his full band will be singing that and other numbers from the album on their own headline tour.

"I’ve got so many different influences in my band: my drummer Mike who loves drum ‘n’ bass; Dean Paul, my guitarist, loves John Mayer bluesy stuff; and Jay, my bass player, loves fuzz and fat chunky bass riffs. This is a concoction of everyone’s style. For years I’ve written songs for me and an acoustic and a lead line, so it was cool considering everyone else for the album,” said Sean.

Tickets to see Sean in Swindon are £11 from https://level3swindon.com/ - Flicky Harrison