Returning to the roots of MayDay's Cabarets

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Glasgow Friends of MayDay (GFoMD) have announced another stellar line-up for the sixth annual Great May Day cabaret celebrating International Workers’ Day (May Day). This annual event at Oran Mor takes place this year on MayDay itself - Monday May 1 – this year’s public holiday.

The Cabaret returns to its roots after a couple of years inclusion of drama into the celebrations, and appropriately this year’s headliners are the acclaimed and award-winning Edinburgh-based roots collective Southern Tenant Folk Union. They are ably supported by Leicester singer-songwriter and activist Grace Petrie, the welcome return of Marxist magician Ian Saville (wonder what he's got to say about Jeremy?), folk legend Arthur Johnstone, godfather of Scottish stand-up Bruce Morton, Ayrshire’s second-best ever poet Jim Monagahan, plus Fraser Speirs, Stephen Wright, and Gavin Paterson.  All hosted by Dave Anderson and supported by Thompsons Solicitors. it promises to be a great night. Tickets available (£14) from the Bar in Oran Mor or (+bf) via the facebook page or website

It’s great that the cabaret has attracted major talents like Southern Tenant Folk Union, and that Grace Petrie can come up and spend some time letting Scotland hear her fresh new style. It is especially good that there are a number of cabarets across Scotland this year.

This year, Mayday cabarets are also taking place in Irvine (Celtic SC – Fr1 28/4), West Lothian (Loganlea Miners Welfare – Sat 29/4), and Blantyre (Miners Welfare – Sun 30/4). Playing all four cabarets are core acts Ian Saville, Bruce Morton, Jim Monaghan, Fraser Speirs and Stephen Wright. They will be joined by Grace Petrie in Glasgow, Blantyre and Loganlea, rising star Maeve Mackinnon in Irvine and Blantyre, Arthur Johnstone in Irvine, Loganlea and Glasgow, and talented singer Calum Baird in Loganlea

This year’s Mayday marches will take place on different days around Scotland, with the

largest on Sunday April 30 in Glasgow, forming at George Square at 11.00 and marching to Kelvingrove Park Bandstand. Others will be on Sat April 29 (Aberdeen, Dundee and Fife) and Sat May 6 (Edinburgh and Irvine). Both Glasgow and Edinburgh’s marches feature Paul Laverty, screenwriter of  I, Daniel Blake as a keynote speaker. Details here - http://www.stuc.org.uk/campaigns-and-external-events/mayday-2017.

Other events around the MayDay weekend also include events at the Tron as part of its Mayfesto season, and a short tour of a one-man play about the miners’ strike. Undermined by Danny Mellor, touring with the backing of Unite Community, will play Aberdeen (The Blue Lamp – 26 April); Dundee ( Arthurstone Comm Lib - 27); Edinburgh (Out of the Blue Drill Hall- 28); and Glasgow (STUC-29).

Rab Noakes

Women Hold up Half the Sky

Our old friend (and MU activist) Rab Noakes has a welcome concert in Cottiers Theatre on May 7. In his 70th year and 50 years since his first paid gig, the 'songwriter-performer on top of his game' will be joined by Kathleen MacInnes and Innes Watson.And there is the prospect of a fascinating exhibition in the Glasgow Women's Library (Landressy Street). Sisterhood is Powerful - posters from the GWL museum collection is on from 11 May - 17 June.

These and many other events will be featured in the programme which is available via the GFoMD website.

Experience of International Brigader sells out local venue

The revival of Willy and John Maley's play From the Calton to Catalonia has sold out its launch performance in the Calton Heritage Centre this Friday. The play, which deals with the experiences of their father as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War, is being produced as a rehearsed reading as part of the MayDay celebrations organised by Glasgow Friends of MayDay. After the launch it will go on a small tour.

The play was originally written in 1990 and first played at Glasgow's MayFest that year. It was notable for showcasing  a very early appearance of Gary Lewis, later known for Billy Elliot, Gangs of New York and currently starring in Outlander. Lewis has also been involved in the development of this performance.

The rehearsed reading is directed by Martin McCardie, and features Bruce Morton, Maureen Carr, Davie Mackay, Erin McCardie, Matthew Gallacher and Claire Gray.

Martin explained:  “This play was a product of community theatre that was vibrant in Glasgow in 1990 and through the Mayfest years. The subject matter is one that is rarely taught in schools but is part of Scottish history that should never be forgotten. Some younger members of the cast knew nothing about the Scottish involvement in the Spanish Civil War. They do now!”

The launch takes place in the new Calton Heritage Centre, this Friday (1 May). An entirely appropriate venue, both from the title of the play, and from the publishers, Calton Books, an independent radical bookshop in Glasgow's London Road.  Local residents have responded making this first performance a sell-out.

Tickets are still available for the rest of the small tour - Irvine on the 2 May, Glasgow's Oran Mor on the 3, Bo'ness on the 8, and Greenock on the 10. Details of booking from http://www.fairpley.com.

Rent strikers' centenary marks MayDay celebrations

100 years after the success of the Glasgow Rent strikers' in changing the law, their struggles are taking centre stage amongst the range of events announced around this year's MayDay celebrations. 

The First World War women's fight against the exploitative attempts by private landlords to hike up rents came to an end after court cases against 18 rent strikers were abandoned in 1915 and the law was changed by the enactment of the Rent Restriction Act. Glasgow Film Theatre is marking the centenary by showing the 1984 film on the struggle - Red Skirts on Clydeside - on Saturday 2 May. The film will be introduced by Maria Fyfe, former MP for Maryhill and chair of the Remember Mary Barbour Association. Maria said. "As we look forward to a tangible memorial for the rent strikers with a statue of Mary Barbour, it is good to be able to say how much we have managed to move the recognition fight on since the film was made."

In addition, a walk organised by Glasgow Friends of MayDay (GFoMD), will

Rent Strike demo

visit the old court were the case was due to be heard, the prison in which many women were held and sites of many of the demonstrations and rallies. 'Women, the War and the Rent strikes' will take place on Saturday 25 April. Chris Bartter, Chair of GFoMD said "The women involved in the rent strikes were often also involved in the peace campaigns and before that in the struggles for women's suffrage. Their lives are an example to today's activists, and it makes a good walk!"

The two events are just part of the programme launched to mark the International Workers' Festival in Glasgow and around. Other events include a Clarion Cycle Club ride out and a Love Music, Hate Racism Gig - both on May 1 - afternoon and evening respectively. The now-famous Great MayDay Cabaret will again be in Oran Mor on the 4 May - this year it stars Tommy Sands - and a short tour of John and Willy Maley's play - From The Calton to Catalonia - starts on the 1 May in the Calton starring, well-known Scottish actor, Gary Lewis. The full programme is available from the Friends of MayDay website - may1st.org.uk.

Tickets for the GFT film go on sale on 23 April at £5 from http://www.glasgowfilm.org/ Signing up for the walk costs £7.50, contact Chris Bartter on 07715 583 729.

 

Tickets for both The (Third) Great Mayday Cabaret and the May 3 performance of From the Calton to Catalonia are available from Oran Mor (over the bar) or via their website - http://oran-mor.co.uk/whats-on/ (booking fee). Tickets for other performances of From the Calton to Catalonia see the FairPley website at http://www.fairpley.com/

Gary Lewis and Tommy Sands lead Glasgow's MayDay festivities.

--> MayDay festivals have been celebrated since pre-Christian times. Earliest celebrations marked the beginning of summer and linked to many pagan festivals including the Gaelic Beltane. In 1891 MayDay was formally adopted as International Workers Day – primarily to mark the anniversary of the 1886 Chicago Haymarket Massacre, when four strikers were killed when police opened fire on a demonstration after a bomb was thrown. 

Despite the gravity of this event, and maybe because of earlier festival links, the celebratory side of International Workers’ Day is longstanding and international, especially in Glasgow. The story of labour in the west of Scotland is peppered with cultural input – choirs from the Orpheus to the Eurydice, theatre from the Glasgow Workers’ Theatre to 7:84 and Wildcat, Glasgow Trades Council even once ran a film society! This is the background to the increasing range of activities now being organised in the city by a range of TU, campaigning and labour organisations.

The now hugely successful Great MayDay Cabaret, organised by Glasgow Friends of MayDay (GFoMD), celebrates its third anniversary at Oran Mor on the Mayday Monday (4) evening. This year’s headliner is celebrated Irish singer and peace activist , Tommy Sands. Also performing are poet Elvis McGonagall, actress Juliet Cadzow, comedians Bruce Morton and Susie McCabe, and singers Arthur Johnstone and Siobhan Miller. Dave Anderson comperes.


In addition, Glasgow-based film actor Gary Lewis (Billy Elliot, Gangs of New York) stars in a specially commissioned rehearsed reading of John and Willy Maley’s play – From the Calton to Catalonia – republished last year by Calton Books. This play about their father’s experiences in the International Brigades launches, appropriately enough, in the Calton, then goes on a small tour during the period including Irvine’s Harbour Arts centre (2) and Oran Mor (3).

Chris Bartter, Chair of Glasgow Friends of Mayday said “This year’s celebrations have moved up a gear. Many more organisations and people are planning events and we are delighted that we’re able to add a theatre performance to the already successful Cabaret.”

Trade Union Councils throughout Scotland continue to organise MayDay marches and rallies on the Mayday Weekend (Sat and Sun 2/3 May). Plans and speakers are still being finalised.

An interesting project run by Glasgow Museums and Glasgow University plans to get trade union and campaign banners out of museum storage and into local communities, where people with a connection to the struggle will tell their story. One is scheduled in Glasgow’s Castlemilk on the afternoon of May 1 with banners from the local Anti-Poll Tax Union, and the Tailors’ and Garment Workers’ Union. Similar events are planned in Barmulloch and Govan later.

Love Music, Hate Racism have organised a gig in Glasgow’s Stereo on the evening of May 1 and are also showing the film, The Clash: Westway to the World on Sunday 10 May at the CCA.

Other film showings, include the third in a series of film showings at the CCA organised by a local GMB Branch. Linking International Workers’ Memorial Day (28 April) with MayDay, they are showing Ken Loach’s The Navigators on April 30.

A new MayDay tradition of walks through Glasgow’s heritage continues, with the Friends of MayDay organising a Women, War and Rent Strike walk on Saturday April 25. And the Glasgow Women’s Library has one of its Women of the Merchant City walks two weeks later (9 May).

Of course established venues often have relevant events – most obviously The Tron’s Mayfesto festival – an important part of which will be Rites, a powerful NToS and Scottish Refugee Council-backed piece by Cora Bissett on female genital mutilation. David MacLennan’s legacy– A Play, a Pie and a Pint- also serves up The War hasn’t Started Yet – a view from modern Russia from May 4–9.

Amongst a number of talks and discussions, the ever-interesting Morning Star Our Class, Our Culture series has an intriguing presentation by John Quinn of Glasgow School of Art – Portraying the Heroes of Red Clydeside in the STUC on 5 May. 

The festival events in Glasgow take place in the weeks before and after the MayDay weekend (this year Sat 2 – Mon 4) and are organised by a wide variety of trade union, cultural and campaigning bodies.

Tickets for both The (Third) Great Mayday Cabaret (4 May) and From the Calton to Catalonia on the 3 May are available from Oran Mor (over the bar) or via their website - http://oran-mor.co.uk/whats-on/ (booking fee).

(Currently the OM website is being revamped, so tickets for the cabaret on line are available from ticketweb here - http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/event/great-may-day-cabaret-tickets/163277. And the OM performance of From the Calton to Catalonia, here - http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/event/from-the-calton-to-catalonia-tickets/167595).

The full 2015 programme is due to be published early in April. It will be available on http://may1st.org.uk as well as Oran Mor, the STUC, trade unions and other outlets.

David MacLennan – Plays, Politics and Popularity

--> This is a slightly longer and more personal version of the obituary I wrote for The Morning Star. That version can be accessed here.

David MacLennan (June 19, 1948 - June 13, 2014)

I was in Italy when the news came through via a friend on Twitter. David MacLennan, the theatre writer, director and producer, had lost his short battle with Motor Neurone Disease. The co-founder of 7:84 Theatre Company and Wildcat Productions, the man who had been part of the foundation of MayFest, and who created the Play, Pie and a Pint format, who was in a new ascendancy with the National Theatre of Scotland (NToS) commissioning him and David Greig to co-curate The Yes, No, Don't Know, Show, had left us and in particular, left a huge hole at the centre of Scottish Theatre, Political Theatre and Popular Theatre.

I first came across David when Nalgo, one of UNISON's predecessor unions made their first break through in joint working with political theatre. They reunited 7:84 Theatre company co-founders, John McGrath and David by commissioning their production, On the pigs back, in 1983. The show was a street theatre production of typical 7:84/Wildcat wit and political polemic that toured all across Scotland in a double decker bus that doubled as the backdrop! Getting the bus onto ferries to Stornoway and Lerwick was not the least of the problems!

This was part of Nalgo's first major campaign against cuts and sparked a raft of similar union-supported productions with both Wildcat and 7:84 dealing with the politics of the Thatcher years. including Bed Pan Alley sponsored by NUPE. It also included Nalgo's sponsorship of The Steamie which opened at a disused public wash house in Govan, one of my favourite venues! Ultimately, these initiatives also led to the establishment of MayFest in 1983, an arts festival based on trade union MayDay celebrations. Typically David (and his then wife Ferelith Lean) were in at the start of this too!

David's (and Wildcat's) uncompromising, if extremely humorous, politics – they produced plays on the Miners’ Strike, Ireland and Rock and Roll! - eventually led to a falling out with the then Scottish Arts Council, and funding was withdrawn. Despite a lengthy campaign, it was the end for Wildcat. MayFest too, shut after a different funder withdrew support (for different reasons).

After some years on individual projects and commissions, David launched another innovative and popular initiative. Entrepreneur Colin Beattie's new bar and venue, Oran Mor, was looking for artistic projects to fill its cavernous spaces! And A Play, a Pie and a Pint was born! This format, allowing people to leave work, have a drink and a bite to eat and see a short play - all in the space of a lunch hour - quickly established itself in a completely commercial environment. Spin-offs to both other venues, and other art forms (a Cocktail, a Canapé, and a Concerto, anyone?) showed its versatility, and ultimately the idea of short, popular plays in non standard venues was taken up by the NToS itself in its Five Minute Theatre initiatives.

Although now successful commercially, David's political commitment was maintained right till the end. He addressed one of the first Morning Star cultural events in Scotland, shortly after the success of A Play, A Pie & A Pint. He introduced himself as a 'convinced Marxist'! His final project - co-curating the Yes, No, Don't Know Show - involved a series of 5 minute plays all dealing with the current referendum on Scottish Independence, (David's 'No' view, being balanced by David Greig's 'Yes' one!)

Political, yes, but not didactic, David knew the need to entertain was part of the production. In John McGrath, his brother-in-law's phrase, the production had to offer an audience, 'A good night out', if it was to connect politically.

His vision, and the ability to sense a successful theatre idea, kept with him from The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black, Black Oil, 7:84 Scotland's magnificent opener (from a film of which there is a rare shot of a MacLennan appearance on stage!) through his other joint collaborations (with Dave Anderson) in Wildcat, right up to the hugely successful Play, Pie and Pint, series. This last has been copied all over the world. It would be a fitting tribute, were David's political ideas similarly distributed! The story, as yet, has no end.

David’s loss is keenly felt by the Scottish theatre community, the many colleagues who worked with him and the close friends he had, but the biggest loss will be to his wife, Juliet and their son Shane. My sympathy goes out to them both.

  

Who's Afraid of the Big Bar-L?

On Sunday an interesting new play has its public premiere at Oran Mor as part of Glasgow’s WestEnd Festival. Who’s Afraid of the Big Bar-L is a humorous look at the history of Glasgow’s most famous ‘Big Hoose’, written by well-known writer and director, Philip Differ, and commissioned by retiring Barlinnie Governor, Derek McGill

He has seized the opportunity created by a major turning point in the big prison’s history to commission the play to mark the prominent place Barlinnie has played in the folklore of Glasgow and Scotland over the last 100 plus years!

Barlinnie's Derek McGill

While this may seem unusual, it is entirely appropriate now for two reasons according to Derek, who has been a long-term promoter of arts, music and drama as alternative therapies and interventions to help prisoners desist from crime and change their ways..

“I have spent my time in the prison system investing in creative methods to help prisoners address their offending.” He said, “There is a lot of evidence especially from Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands, that this approach can reduce re-offending.”

In addition, the future of Barlinnie is currently under discussion. Reports have highlighted that the prison, built in 1882, is no longer fit for purpose. It would need significant expenditure to meet modern demands on prison life. The two options being discussed are major refurbishment, or closure and building a new prison on a different site.

“There is much debate over Barlinnie’s future.“ Derek said,  “Closure or major refurbishment are both possible outcomes, so I thought that now was a good time to look at the Bar-L and its place in Glasgow’s popular culture.”

Not content with just commissioning a play, he asked leading Glasgow-based arts production company, FairPley, to produce the play and they got well-known Scottish comedy writer and producer, Philip Differ - famous for Naked Video and Watson’s Wind-up - to write and direct it!

You can hear both Derek and Philip discuss the play and Sunday’s performance on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland - here. The interview is 2hr and 36 mins in (at the end).

Philip said “My main concern - and the cast's too - was that the play would be authentic, that the

Philip Differ

prisoners would connect with it. After every performance we held a Q and A session with the audience and every time we were asked if any of us had 'done time'. The prisoners seemed genuinely surprised none of us had because the play was, as they put it, 'bang on'. That told us we'd hit the mark and was as rewarding for all of us as the laughs throughout the performances”.

The play is set in the future – in the London offices of Gin ‘n Tonic productions – where a former inmate of the now defunct Barlinnie, and a former prison officer, meet to discuss its history. Is G‘nT the best choice to produce the history of the Bar-L? As you might expect with a writer of Philip Differ’s pedigree, the play crackles with humour.

After a successful tour of its 'captive audience' in four of Scotland's toughest jails, it is now showing to the general public in a one-off performance in Glasgow's Oran Mor on Sunday June 1 at 7.30pm. Tickets over the bar or via this link.

MayDay Celebrations step up a gear in Glasgow

Things are hotting up as Glasgow delivers the most prominent MayDay celebrations for a number of years. In a major concert, Comedian and activist, Mark Thomas; marxist magician, Ian Saville, and former BBC Young Folk Musicians Siobhan Miller and Jeana Leslie join political song master Arthur Johnstone, and harmonica virtuoso, Fraser Speirs,  in a star studded line-up at the Great MayDay Cabaret that crowns this years’ Friends of MayDay activities tonight.

Mark Thomas said - “It is great that I am able to get back to Glasgow for this MayDay Cabaret. The city’s political activity is well known and it's great that they are revitalising the celebrations for International Worker's Day."The concert is in the city’s Oran Mor from 7.30pm. Tickets are £12.50 from the venue or (including a booking fee) from www.oran-mor.co.uk. The last ones are rapidly going, so get hold of them quick! It is sponsored by the Co-operative Membership.

News is also breaking of an intriguing set planned by singer/writer Dave Anderson. He has been working with the Co-Op Funeralcare Brass band to develop a ‘crossover’ set with different musical strands. Dave said “I’m really looking forward to working with a brass band of the quality of the Co-op. This is a first for me but they have a great reputation as a fine band. I’m sure we’ll deliver a new and exciting set!”

Arthur Johnstone and the Stars band warm 'em up!

This follows a hugely successful MayDay march that wound its way through the city yesterday from George Square (how important it is that the ‘people’s square’ is retained to allow us to gather and rally there) to the O2 Academy in Eglinton Street, where Alvaro Sanchez, the Political Counsellor from the Venezuelan Embassy, Neil Findlay MSP Lilian Macer. UNISON’s Scottish Convenor, Alan Wylie from the No 2 Bedroom Tax campaign, and disability campaigner, Tommy Gorman addressed a busy rally. 

These are the highlights of a range of activity in the two weeks around MayDay that ranges from walks to comedy, to films and theatre.

The successful film, The Happy Lands, returned to Glasgow yesterday afternoon. Shown again at the GFT, this great film deals with the General Strike and the subsequent lock-out in a pit village in Fife. Made by Theatre Workshop with local community volunteers and actors, this was a hit of the recent Glasgow Film Festival.

Another film is being screened by the Scottish Cuba Solidarity Campaign. Will the real Terrorist please stand up? will be shown at their social evening in the STUC on Friday 10 May at 7.30. Free but ticketed. Tickets on the door.

The highly-praised talk by Scottish composer, Bill Sweeney on Music and the Working Class Movement, has been revived by the Morning Star Campaigns Committee as part of their Our Class, Our Culture series. This year at the STUC on the evening of Wednesday May 8. At 7.00pm, Free.

Friends at the Scottish Left Review have their fundraising comedy evening next Saturday (11 May) at the Stand in

101 Uses for a
Spare Bedroom

Woodlands Road, Glasgow. 101 uses for a spare bedroom is hosted by Elaine C Smith and features Vladimir McTavish, Susan Morrison, John Gillick and Andrew Learmonth. Music from Arthur Johnstone and friends. Tickets £12/£7 from http://www.scottishleftreview.org/shop/ 

Along with all these goodies - the programme for which is being supported by the STUC as part of its There is a Better Way Campaign, and Thomsons Solicitors - the regular Tron series Mayfesto returns for another year - www.tron.co.uk/mayfesto/ and a Play, a Pie and a Pint continue their innovative programming each lunchtime at Oran Mor.

Two other exhibitions look good - the Rock against Racism archive exhibition - currently at Platform at the Bridge in Easterhouse, and the Street Level photo gallery exhibition of Willy Romer’s photographs of Weimar Germany. On until May 26.