Tales from the city - the first

As we are now able to, Doreen and I have decided to spend more time than usual in various parts of the eastern city at events arranged during August. Apparently they have a goodly number of them at that time, who would have thought it? I hope to keep up a regular blog of reviews.

Legends in tribute to the Legend

At the newly refurbished Assembly Rooms, the first event was Songs of Struggle, an extension of the successful concerts arranged to celebrate the UCS 40^th Anniversary. Some of Scotland’s greatest singers came together and put on a concert inspired by the birth centenary of political activist and folk legend - Woody Guthrie.

Alastair MacDonald

Alastair MacDonald kicked off the show with Irish traditional song Kelly, the boy from Killane. he followed it with a classic ‘Thurso Berwick’ (Morris Blythman) song Perfervidum Ingaenium Scotorum. It set the good size audience up for a sparkling evening. While there were a good number of classic left political songs, set through it were more unusual items. Sheena Wellington, who followed MacDonald, set a more laid-back tone with her a cappella songs (including her own Women o’ Dundee). Dave Anderson - fresh from his success in Oran Mor’s Summer panto - Alice in Poundland, revisited Wildcat’s play about the 84 Miners’ Strike with his version of Dead Liberty. The balance problem between the keyboard and voice didn’t lose too much of the context.

Arthur and Brian at the UCS
concert in the Old Fruitmarket

It was left, appropriately enough, to Arthur Johnstone, and Brian Miller to bring us to the specific Woody Guthrie songs of the night, highlighting Ramblin Round, (a nice version of this song by Bob Dylan can be heard here -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76kx2CPXiyE ) and Do Re Mi.

The short tribute ended with the ensemble performance of This land is your land, and sent the pleased audience on their way with Guthrie’s So long (its been good to know you).

Short, though the concert was, it was a fitting tribute. With the Guthrie songbook hardly even pauchled, never mind plundered, his hundredth birthday has surely some more mileage yet?

And did those feet...?

It is probably taking a step too far to see Danny Boyle’s inclusion of suffragettes, trade unions and the NHS in his Olympic opening ceremony as a left ‘claim-staking’ of cultural events in the UK. (Mind you wasn’t it great that so many right-wing politicians and media made fools of themselves berating the ‘lefty propaganda’?). However, the left has certainly, in recent years evinced an increasing interest and involvement in cultural and artistic events.

A number of items at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival point to this revival of socialist and working-class interest in, and use of, cultural and artistic activities to reach people and to raise their profile in general.

Tony Benn

At the Assembly Rooms, produced/programmed this year by Tommy Sheppard (himself no stranger to radical ideas), old skool left Labour ex-Parliamentarian, Tony Benn will be taking the stage to introduce a forthcoming filmed biography - Will and Testament. This has been over a year in the gestation and covers, among many struggles, Benn’s involvement in the 1971/2 Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in. This was a struggle he remembered last year as he took part in the Gala Concert staged to mark the 40^th Anniversary in Glasgow’s Mitchell Theatre - many attendees will remember the film crew following Tony around.

Woody Guthrie

In addition a number of the other participants in that concert (and the subsequent Celtic Connections concert) are coming back together to mark another working-class anniversary - the centenary of the birth of Woody Guthrie, dust bowl poet and singer, communist and inspirer of many of today’s folk singers, most notably Bob Dylan. Arthur Johnstone, Alistair MacDonald, David Anderson and Sheena Wellington lead the line up paying homage to Guthrie.

While this might be seen as the product of successful concerts and the desire of a new producer/programmer to strike out in a new direction from his predecessor, in fact these events are the latest examples of might be seen as a resurgence of ‘socialist culture’ that seems to be taking hold.

MayDay

Previous events included the UCS 40^th Anniversary Concerts, and other highlights like the screening of Cinema Action’s films of the Work-in, but there are also the two years of cultural activity around Glasgow’s traditional MayDay march. Although low-key, these are increasingly being distinguished by the rise in the number of campaigning organisations staging events. Last year the programme featured Scottish Left Review, Cuba Solidarity, and the International Brigades Association as well as Glasgow’s Trades Union Council and the co-ordinating Glasgow Friends’s of MayDay.

Our Class, Our Culture

Also Scotland is seeing a series of increasingly respected Morning Star Our Class, Our Culture discussion sessions. These last have featured well-known artistic performers, writers and composers, such as Dave MacLennan, Alistair Findlay and William Sweeney, and have covered the contribution of different genres to working class struggle, and the impact of different artists - like Robert Tressell. 

Tressell also features at Edinburgh with a production of Stephen Lowe’s two-handed dramatisation of his Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, produced by Townsend Productions and Unite the union, and a South African Season also features, led by Athol Fugard’s Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act and Woza Albert! from The Market Theatre in Johannesburg (at the (other) Assembly).

The awakening of trade unions to the profile-raising and appeal-broadening sides to this cultural activity is significant. The UCS and Tressell productions have been financed largely by Unite the union, and the other large player, UNISON has been running a number of interesting and innovative Mobilise sessions around Scotland - bringing singing, music, comedy and cartooning directly into the fight. 

A 'Golden Thread'

As someone who has long argued that the use of culture and the arts should be much more of a ‘natural’ element for trade unions, and the left in general, these developments are welcome. I don’t think I am alone, either, in seeing in the flashmob, and other theatrical stunts produced by UK Uncut and the Occupy movements, a practical application of this link. While it should not, (and cannot successfully) be separated from the need to have a clear political direction and a planned campaign, the use of music, drama, imaginative writing and all the entertainment of a well produced event needs to be increased. 

After all, as Boyle himself said his ceremony had  “a single golden thread of purpose - the idea of Jerusalem - of the better world, the world of real freedom and true equality…”. Maybe my original theory doesn’t sound a step too far after all! I suspect Woody Guthrie would have subscribed to Boyle's " ...belief that we can build Jerusalem. And that it will be for everyone”.

Woody Guthrie sings the concerns of people in the 30’s and in the 10’s

A number of hugely interesting developments are planned for this years Edinburgh Fringe. Following on the increased interest in political music at this years Celtic Connections, a similar development seems to be hitting Edinburgh’s festivals - in particular the Fringe.

Woody Guthrie - his guitar killed fascists!

At the city’s Assembly Rooms, new broom, Tommy Shepherd has programmed a sweep of new projects, and specifically two nights of concerts celebrating the centenary of dust-bowl folk singer and political activist, Woody Guthrie.

The links are more than coincidental, as the organisers of the concerts, FairPley, are the same people who organised the UCS 40^th Anniversary Concerts in Glasgow’s Mitchell Theatre, and during Celtic Connections at the Old Fruitmarket, and certain similarity in the artists will also be seen!

The Songs of Struggle concerts star some of Scotland’s finest singers, including Dave Anderson, Arthur Johnstone, Alastair McDonald and Sheena Wellington, plus guests. They will be singing songs by Guthrie, who provided the voice for the many dispossessed during the depression created by the financial crisis in 1930’s United States. It is no wonder that there is an increasing interest in Guthrie, as we struggle in the depths of another crisis of financial capitalism.

Guthrie, of course, was as well-known for inspiring other singers and artists - Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs (when is he to be due his re-discovery?) and of course Bob Dylan - as singing songs himself, and the stars of this concert will also sing material inspired by Woody.

The concerts are at 9.00pm on 11 and 12 August in the Assembly Rooms’ Ballroom. Tickets are £14.50/£12.50 from www.arfringe.com or 0844 693 3008. Why not get your union branch to block book tickets and get a discount? Contact Jim or Stephen at FairPley - 0141 418 0562

An increasingly strengthening link between left politics and artistic performance is being seen across Scotland, and it is certainly one to which the Captain will be returning in the near future. In particular the return to Scotland of veteran socialist and former UCS minister, Tony Benn, with his biographical film. Keep an eye on the Captain’s grumps!