Songs of Struggle heads for successful night

The star-studded line-up of the Songs of Struggle concert taking place at Celtic Connections has meant the concert has now completely sold out! Those lucky people who have tickets are sure of a superb set, tonight (29 January) at the Mitchell Theatre.

Fraser Speirs blows up a storm at the
UCS Anniversary concert

Sheena Wellington

The hugely experienced and talented musician, Rab Noakes and harmonica virtuoso Fraser Speirs have added their names to a setlist that already boasts political and folk must-haves Sheena Wellington and Arthur Johnstone, folk legend Alastair McDonald and rock/blues performer Dave Anderson. New talent is also featured with singer Siobhan Miller and guitarist Stephen Wright.

Rab Noakes said

“I am delighted to have been invited to take part in this concert. It's important to keep these vital songs alive and to add new material to the repertoire. And it is good to be back playing with some of the key exponents of political song in Scotland.”

Arthur Johnstone is having a busy Celtic Connections. In addition  to the Tony Benn event and Songs of Struggle, he also featured in the Red Clydeside concert on the 25 January in which the songs of the late singer-songwriter and campaigner Alistair Hulett, especially his suite of songs featured on his 2002 Red Clydeside album with Dave Swarbrick, were performed by Arthur, rising star Ewan McLennan, and other special guests including singer-songwriter Karine Polwart and Gavin Livingstone. The great political song doyen Roy Bailey finished off the night.

Arthur Johnstone

Arthur Johnstone said 

“Jimmy Reid said during the UCS work-in that folk music has no meaning unless it expresses the lives and struggles of ordinary people. It is good that Celtic Connections is keeping that link prominent in the festival.”

Songs of Struggle continues what is fast becoming a tradition since the UCS Work-In 40 Anniversary concert in 2011, showcasing working and protest songs with a movable line-up of artists. It is part of the 'red thread' running through this year's Celtic Connections.

Put together by FairPley – a small company who organise events for the labour and non-profit-making sector – it follows Jimmy Reid's observation - folk music has no meaning unless it expresses the lives and struggles of ordinary people.

Tickets are available via the Celtic Connections website –http://www.celticconnections.com/Events/Pages/Event.aspx?ev=497&ty=Song

Celtic Connections - politics and herding cats

Celtic Connections is now over half way done, and it is looking like another successful year. The mix of folk, world, rock, blues and Americana is proving to attract wide audiences, and the off-the-wall events too, are bringing ‘em in.

Amongst the early events that I saw, was Shamrock City’a concert (on 18 Jan) built around a new music and film project about to be launched by well-known Irish-American band Solas. The project is based on the history of Irish immigrants to America, especially the large number of them who travelled to Butte, Montana to work in the booming copper mines at the turn of the 20^th century. 

Mines in Uptown Butte

Among them was the great- great-uncle of Seamus Egan, ‘Solas’ founder. Working together, the hugely talented group of musicians in the band have produced a superb history/celebration of the impact that the Irish had on Butte, and the impact that Butte had on them. It is surely no accident that Butte is one of the few cities in the USA which has had a Mayor elected (twice!) on a Socialist ticket! 

The concert itself was a great success. The projections complemented the mix of ballad, jig and political song that made up the musical side to the project, and the appearance of Dick Gaughan to sing the miner’s union song was well received by the large audience. 

The appearance of the Co-operative Funeralcare Brass Band was also an unexpected treat. Drafted in at short notice, they successfully added depth to some of the material. 

It was maybe even more appropriate to preview this album in Scotland just now. An unexpected, and very welcome addition to the debate over immigration, nationality, borders and working people, it added a further element to the political strand that forms a core part of Celtic Connections.

All together now!

Levon Helm. The Band's drummer

Another successful development that has distinguished Celtic Connections recently is the ‘Review Concert’. Best done around in tribute to a particular musician or style, one of this years successes was the Roamin’ Roots Review (20 January). 

Based on the contribution of Levon Helm (who died last year), and the Band, this was a fitting tribute to a seminal musician. Curated by Roddy Hart, with his band The Lonesome Fire producing a unifiying rock backing, the concert brought together, Levon’s daughter Amy; Scottish folk trio, Lau; Rachel Sermanni; Scott Hutchison (Frightened Rabbit); talented singer-songwriter Beerjacket; Admiral Fallow's Louis Abbott and Ben Knox Miller

of The Low Anthem. 

Two additional guests who both delivered cracking short sets, were Irish singer Gemma Hayes, and top English folkie, Beth Orton. Finishing off the evening with The Weight, and The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, this demonstrated how good it is when someone (in this case Roddy Hart) can successfully bring groups of diverse musicians together and park their egos at the stage door. Another Celtic Connections success story!

Tony Benn heads red thread through Celtic Connections

This is a copy of my article that was printed in the Morning Star on Saturday. Watch out for further comments on Celtic Connections events, as it is already shaping up to be rather a good Festival!

Last weekend saw the start of the Celtic Connections festival here in Glasgow. This innovative music festival with its roots firmly in the Scottish/Irish folk tradition is 20 this year! Since 1993 Celtic Connections has encompassed a huge range of material - Blues, Reggae, World, Jazz etc - mostly with an (occasionally tenuous) link to the Celtic diaspora.

There are often a number of events worth recommending to those of a left perspective. Tony Benn, Alastair McDonald, Arthur Johnstone, Sheena Wellington, Mark Thomas, Alistair Hulett and Dave Swarbrick are among those making the red thread glow through this year's festival.

Unusually, the music festival is throwing its schedule open to a film and Q&A session on Saturday 26 January, when former Minister and Labour MP,Tony Benn arrives to preview his film biography Will and Testament. 

Tony is back in Glasgow!

The hugely influential politician has been participating in the making of this film for the last two years (he is now 87). The preview will be followed by questions on his life, his politics and current issues in a session chaired by comedian Mark Thomas. Well-known singers Sheena Wellington, Arthur Johnstone and Alastair McDonald will also perform.

Tony Benn said 

“I am pleased to come back to Glasgow, the home of the UCS work-in, and many prominent trade union and socialist activists. It is great to be able to introduce this film at Celtic Connections. There is an affinity between folk and radical ideas, that I also see at Glastonbury.”

Sheena Wellington

Arthur Johnstone is having a busy Celtic Connections. In addition to the Tony Benn event both he, Alastair, and Sheena are appearing in Songs of Struggle on the 29 Jan. This concert celebrates solidarity through song. Along with Dave Anderson (ex- Wildcat) and new singer Siobhan Miller, it continues the collaboration started by 2011's UCS anniversary concert. It can also now be revealed that both folk-rock legend Rab Noakes, and harmonica virtuoso Fraser Speirs will guest!

Both these are organised by FairPley, who stage events particularly for not-for-profit groups. The Tony Benn event is backed by Unite the union, UNISONScotland and the STUC,

Arthur also features in the Red Clydeside concert on Friday 25 January. Songs of the late singer-songwriter and campaigner Alistair Hulett, whose suite revisiting Red Clydeside were featured on his 2002 album with Dave Swarbrick, are being performed by the political-song doyen Roy Bailey, Arthur, rising star Ewan McLennan, and other special guests, including Karine Polwart and Gavin Livingstone.

Arthur Johnstone said

Arthur Johnstone

“Jimmy Reid said during the UCS work-in that folk music has no meaning unless it expresses the lives and struggles of ordinary people. It is good that Celtic Connections is keeping that link prominent in the festival.”

Finally, the launch of the third volume of Songs by Robert Tannahill, the eighteenth-century Paisley weaver/poet takes place at the festival on January 31.

Links between folk music and people's struggle have been well-established over the years -especially in Scotland. Celtic Connections is one festival which is benefiting from the reignition of a spark linking new audiences to radical entertainment. Tickets for these events and many more can be obtained from http://www.celticconnections.com

Scottish Parliament has key opportunity to boost Freedom of Information

The Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland (CFoIS) is cranking up its campaigning this week to urge the Scottish Parliament to back a series of amendments to the Scottish Government’s Freedom of Information (Scotland) Amendment Bill. This Bill will have its Stage 3 debate in the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday 16 Jan and a series of amendments are proposed to ensure FOI rights extend to public services provided by private, voluntary and arms-length bodies. 

The CFoIS wants the Scottish Government to heed the concerns expressed by the Finance Committee’s Stage One report. The Campaign is taking part in a briefing meeting for MSPs on Tuesday 15 Jan, the day before the Parliamentary debate, and will be circulating a written briefing outlining the need to amend this bill to reinstate eroded rights to information. The meeting will be chaired by Paul Martin MSP, and addressed by Carole Ewart of the CFoIS, and Dave Moxham of the STUC.

Carole Ewart, Co-Convener of the CFoIS, said

Carole Ewart - co-convener, CFoIS

“A number of MSPs, including members of the Finance Committee, have submitted amendments to this Bill, as the Scottish Government appears unable or unwilling to accept our arguments in favour of protecting our information rights.”

The major reason why the Bill should be strengthened is to retrieve peoples’s information rights lost as increasing outsourcing of our public services removes services from coverage.  Neither the Scottish Government nor previous Scottish Executive Administrations have ever used their powers to add named bodies and categories of bodies to the list of organisations covered.

Amending the Bill is also necessary to meet the Scottish Government’s own FoI principles, 1 and 2: that “the public’s right to know remains an essential part of an open, democratic government and responsive public services” and FoISA “will be adjusted where it is necessary and sensible to do so”

You are all urged to get in touch with your MSP to lobby them to support the amendments (Amendments 1-9, 12 and 14) being backed by the Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland. There is  an email message available on the UNISONScotland website, that allows Campaign supporters to lobby their MSPs easily. 

Carole Ewart said  “At a time when Audit Scotland estimates over 130 arms-length bodies are involved in delivering public services, and when the Scottish Government is proposing bills like the Procurement, and Community Empowerment Bills that will bring more bodies into public service delivery, it is very concerning that they seem oblivious to the threats these pose to everyone’s right to know about how our cash is spent.”

An article on the need for a 'purpose clause' in the legislation written by the Captain is also published today's Scottish Review.

• a copy of the briefing sent to MSPs in advance of the debate will be available  from Monday on the CFoI website at http://www.cfoi.org.uk/scotland.htmlhttp://www.cfoi.org.uk/scotland.html

His humanity makes McCullin’s photos so iconic

Don McCullin in the biopic

To make a movie about a stills photographer sounds as though the producer has chosen an entirely inappropriate medium. But Jacqui and David Morris’ film about Don McCullin (McCullin, 2012 - see trailer here)  proves that not only can it be done, but it should be done.

The biography/showcase for the (now 77-year-old) creator of iconic imagery that focuses  on the horrors of war and violence, is a huge success. It interweaves the images themselves - many of which you will have seen - with (mainly) interviews with only two people; McCullin himself, and Harold Evans, his editor at the Sunday Times Magazine for 14 years. (Evans himself, is of course no slouch at identifying a good news photo, as he proved with his 1997 book, Pictures on a Page.

The Guv'nors of Seven Sisters' Road

What was the secret of the success of a photographer who was brought up in the impoverished surroundings of Finsbury Park, North London and who first came to attention with photos of his gang member mates? 

As most photographers who have concentrated on the horrors of war and conflict, McCullin has been criticised as a ‘voyeur’ - someone to whom the photograph is more important than the suffering.  While McCullin admits his propensity to become a ‘war junkie’ increased along with his travels, the reality is more complex than that. Starting in Berlin, the Congo and Cyprus in the early sixties, his journeys read like a history of the late twentieth century conflicts - Congo, Cyprus, Biafra, Vietnam (many times), Cambodia, Northern Ireland, and Lebanon, where he documented the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Perhaps Thatcher did him a kind of backhanded favour when her government refused him permission to travel to the Falklands.

One of McCullin's first assignments -
Cyprus

But plenty of war photographers have recorded the same problems - not one has had the same impact as McCullin. Partly this is because of his humanity. His best photos are of the innocent sufferers of war; the civilians caught in the cross fire, the children left to die, the wounded soldiers. He bears witness to their plight, and tells us again and again what a savage waste it is.

But it is not just that. It is - I think - because his roots, grounded in working class London, have given him an empathy with these sufferers. He himself points out that it is always the poor, who can’t get away from conflict, who provide these subjects.

And of course, his eye to frame the picture brings its key point - the humanity - to the viewer. 

Lebanon was his final war. He now lives quietly in Somerset trying to exorcise the ‘vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain.’ as fellow photographer Kevin Carter wrote in his suicide note. 

The film is a fitting record of his life and work, and balances the still and the moving image with particular skill. Anyone interested in news, photography or even the fight against war, should see it. It continues at the GFT until Thursday (10 Jan).