Reverend is on musical mission to save planet

One of whom is Colchester Arts Centre’s Anthony Roberts.

Billy reveals proudly: “Anthony is our UK producer, which means as well as all the other dates we do around the country, we can come and spend some time in your lovely town.”

Although the first time he came over he nearly didn’t make it at all.

“The last time I came over back in 2011 I was held at Heathrow for ten hours,” he tells me. “I think they may have found out about all the time I’ve spent in jail in the US,” he jokes.

“I would still be there in that basement with all those other poor people if it wasn’t for Anthony.

“He was like a preacher, telling the border guards why I was here an,d in some respects, I think Anthony shamed those guards. He made them realise the error of their ways and they released me from my captivity to preach the good work we were doing here.”

For all those who don’t know, Billy is a bit of a cultural icon in the US. He was the subject of a film by Supersize Me director Morgan Spurlock, called What Would Jesus Buy, and his stage show, which he brings to Colchester this week is a rallying sermon against big business and consumerism infused with gospel music.

Born Bill Talen, he was inspired to tackle consumerism in America after hitchhiking to New York only to find that Times Square was “becoming just a mall”.

Inspired by the sidewalk preachers around him, Bill bought a collar, bleached his hair and became the Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping.

He’s staged “retail interventions” inside chain stores across America, including Disney, Gap and Nike, where he rallies against consumerism.

Currently he is banned from every branch of Starbucks in the US.

“I’ve been detained quite a few times,” he says. “It’s an occupational hazard.”

While the Rev Billy has Anthony over here to get him out of authoritive scrapes, it’s Savitri Durkee, the director of Billy’s touring show, who also co-produced What Would Jesus Buy, that helps him out over there.

“She’s just like Anthony,” he says. “While I’m casting demons, she’s challenging their beliefs, and it works. I think the reason is they see a bit of themselves in her. “Whether it’s as a parent or a spouse, they see something that makes them think about what we are doing. It’s a rather wonderful thing.”

Rather than the devil in the retail, this time around Rev Billy is on a mission to save the planet.

Barring anymore problems at UK immigration, Rev Billy returns to Colchester with his Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, for his Golden Toad Resurrection tour.

Rev Billy says: “25 years ago the Golden Toad inhabited the cloud forests of Central America. Today it is extinct, but not forgotten.

“We’ve used the Golden Toad as a symbol of the destruction that is taking place right across our planet.”

Tackling serious environmental issues with humour and energy in a performance that is accessible to all, as well as taking the Golden Toad to festivals and concert halls all across the US and Europe, they’ve also continued the interventions they’ve perhaps become most famous for.

He says: “We’ve been to the banks because they are the ones funding these ecological disasters. We appeal to the staff there to take a good look at what their bank is doing. Their investments in mining and other projects which damage the earth. The damage they are doing to the rain forests, the fall in the fish population in our seas.

“It’s a serious message, my friend, which people need to take seriously.”

A bitter pill that perhaps is made slightly sweeter with some cracking music to listen to? “You’ll be surprised how many doors a lot of humour and great gospel music can open,” he says finally. “That and compassion usually do the trick.”

 Rev Billy and the Church of Stop
Shopping: Golden Toad Resurrection tour
The Bandstand,
Castle Park, Colchester.
July 24. 1pm.
Free. 01206 500900.
He also plays Latitude Festival, Henham Park, Southwold, on Saturday, July 20, at 7.15pm in the Film & Music Arena.