ROCK star activist Billy Bragg fires a broadside at the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations with the release of a controversial new single.

The song, Take Down the Union Jack, hit the record shops yesterday as the West Dorset-based singer-songwriter began a week-long tour to promote the new single.

Labour supporter Mr Bragg, of Burton Bradstock, says he is attempting 'against all the odds' to top the UK charts during the week of the jubilee with the single, which was criticised even before its release.

Lord Digby, former Lord-Lieutenant of Dorset, said it was an act clearly aimed at 'sabotaging' the celebrations, while West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin said he sincerely hoped the single would not reach number one.

The Weymouth branch of the Royal British Legion believed the anti-royalist tone of the record would actually make people even more patriotic.

Mr Bragg's independent record label Cooking Vinyl has been flooded with complaints, while dozens of Dorset Echo readers have voiced their feelings about the single in recent weeks.

Staff at the Our Price record store in Dorchester said they were surprised at the amount of interest in the record, which is taken from Mr Bragg's new album England, Half-English.

Manager Dave Rand said: "There's been a renewed interest in Billy Bragg's music now he is living here in Dorset.

"We ordered about a dozen copies of Take Down the Union Jack for the release date because we always like to test the water and they were all sold out by the end of the morning, which I thought was surprising. We'll be ordering a lot more this week."

A spokesman for Cooking Vinyl said it was too early to say how many singles had been sold.

Meanwhile, Billy Bragg is this week playing in record shops from Dundee to Cheltenham to promote the record.

He said: "The single offers everyone a chance to register their opposition to the Golden Jubilee in a communal act of defiance."