Roots men make rebel connection in Glasgow

Much has been written about the links between British folk music and American roots music, much less so between British folk and Jamaican reggae. But that is the area that  Scottish Canadian musician Jason Wilson, and his band have been exploring in the last few years, with the help of English fiddle player Dave Swarbrick, and Scottish troubadour, Dick Gaughan. Last night's Rebel Musics concert at Oran Mor, as part of Glasgow's Celtic Connections festival showcased the results of that work, and previewed (it was designed to launch!) the collaborative album Lion Rampant, that Wilson's Band have recorded along with a multinational galaxy of guests

Dave Swarbrick

The links between the music are certainly more evident now than they were two years ago, when I last saw them - Swarbrick's Spanish Ladies dance tune works suprisingly well with a heavy reggae bass beat behind the fiddle! And Gaughan was clearly 'dancing in the oldest boots he owned' as he delivered Tom Paine's Bones! I hope it isn't heresy to suggest however that sometimes the link looks too contrived? I'm not sure adding Marley's No Woman, No Cry, on to the end of Burns' My luve is like a red, red rose adds much to our appreciation of either, despite Gaughan's inimitable delivery.

To add to the international mix, Pee Wee Ellis, past member of both the James Brown and Van Morrison bands, provided an excellent example of funk sax playing on a version of And it Stoned Me.

Earlier, singer-songwriter, Fraser Anderson (think early John Martyn meets a quiet Loudon Wainwright) played a laid-back set mixing his own material with Bob Dylan, Peter Sarstedt and an interesting Woody Guthrie poem, Sweetest Angel, that Anderson had set to music.

Dick Gaughan

Links between national musical traditions, as this concert showed, can come up with excellent new takes on old standards. They also demonstrate that links between peoples, are often much more important than national divisions. Gaughan's traditional finish of Hamish Henderson's international anthem, the Freedom Come-All Ye,  demonstrated that.

This is my Morning Star review of the Celtic Connections concert, Rebel Musics, starring Jason Wilson, Dick Gaughan, Dave Swarbrick and Pee Wee Ellis.  It took place at Oran Mor on Thursday 23 January 2014. It is as written, as I think the para on Pee Wee Ellis, works better linked to the set in which he played. I've appropriated the Star's headline however, as it is much better than mine! The piece as published is here.

Far, far from Ypres, and not yet close to a target

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If producing a show that deals with a cataclysmic event, such as a war. especially a war that consumed so many lives for so little purpose, it is useful to have an aim in view. What was the impact of it? Did people die in vain, or for a purpose? If there were disasters, why did they happen? Unfortunately the lack of such an aim or target in Friday's (17) First World War concert at Glasgow's Celtic Connections (Far, far from Ypres) in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall ultimately meant that it lost its way.

The material itself was often excellent, and the artists - including Barbara Dickson, Dick Gaughan and rising folk star, Siobhan Miller - more than did it justice. But the confusion about what the show set out to do, ultimately meant that it failed.

Billed as the music, songs and poetry of World War One from a Scottish perspective, the show used contemporary songs - music hall and troops own - in a similar vein to (and using much the same material from) theatre workshop's 'Oh, What a lovely War!'. However lacking the clear political perspective of that show, meant that we were also subjected to trite jingoistic material with no sense of irony or sarcasm. And of course, troops' songs in a major conflict such as the First World War don’t tend to fit into a Scottish, or any national perspective.

Ian McCalman, who directed the musical show, also mixed in some later material such as Eric Bogle's The Band played 'Waltzing Matilda' which, while a superb song, is about ANZAC troops in Gallipoli. I’m not sure Bogle’s Scottish birth was sufficient link.

The device of using ‘Jimmy McDonald’, an ‘everyman’ figure, could also have worked, if he hadn’t been introduced and then forgotten about for most of the show! Even when he had to be dispatched, he went via the Spanish ‘flu outbreak of 1919, rather than in the war itself. Ian Anderson’s narration, while clear, reinforced the view that this was intended to be a journey. But not knowing whether we were tracking the impact on the squaddies, history, the battles, or Scotland meant that we didn't really know where we were going.

It was a disappointment, that after such a successful opening venture as McCalman’s Spanish Civil War songs last year, this one didn’t gel. It wouldn’t take much to get it right. Perhaps it should be regarded as a ‘work in progress’?

Ending where we started

Scotland's cultural highlights started early with The Happy Lands - an uncompromising film portraying life in a Fife pit village during the General Strike. Developed by Edinburgh-based theatre workshop using local people both to source stories and portray characters, it premiered at the Glasgow Film Festival and toured throughout the UK looking for a general release. Unsuccessful, despite enthusiastic reviews, it is now available on DVD. Go to http://distrify.com/films/6990-the-happy-lands 

January's Celtic Connections festival had a strong left-leaning programme. The ubiquitous FairPley productions served up not only another sellout Songs of Struggle, but packed the huge Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow with a crowd anxious to see Tony Benn promoting his forthcoming film biography, Will and Testament. Other concerts included Songs of the Spanish Civil War, and a tribute concert to Scottish folk singer songwriter, Alistair Hulett, headlined by doyen of the folk scene, Roy Bailey.

Mark Thomas headlined the first sellout Great MayDay Cabaret, the centrepiece of Glasgow's MayDay festival celebrations. A bill including the Co-operative Funeralcare Brass Band, and Marxist magician, Ian Saville kept the Oran Mor audience rocking with songs and laughter. The finale where Mark grabbed a tambourine to join folk's political leader, Arthur Johnstone, and master of the moothie* Fraser Speirs in a rendition of Bandiera Rossa had everyone standing.

Other gems sparkled in an impressive MayDay programme, including a reprise of The Morning Star's own Our Class, Our Culture event that brought composer, Bill Sweeney to talk about Music and the Working Class Movement. 

FairPley also programmed a major part of Edinburgh's Assembly Rooms' Edinburgh Fringe, successfully mixing music, theatre and spoken word events. The Fringe showed an increase in left shows this year, although the low number of shows dealing with the upcoming independence referendum excited some comment. Notwithstanding, a conference on the future of political theatre concluded that it was in fact, in rude health

Assembly Rooms highlights included a return for Tony Benn and for a Songs of Struggle concert, and a couple of interesting short plays in God Bless Liz Lochhead, and Hindsight, the latter the first play from new writer, Keir McAllister. Elsewhere,  an intelligent look at the pressures of politics and the failures of the last Labour administration made The Confessions of Gordon Brown stand out, and the already high level of standup was boosted by the return to the stage of Alexi Sayle and another in the series of Mark Thomas's 100 Minor Acts of Dissent.

Other key events this year have included a cracking satire from a group of writers as part of the always worth watching A Play, a Pie and a Pint series. The Deficit Show took us swiftly back to the days of Wildcat in a sharp, entertaining attack on austerity economics. 

A superb performance of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto from Canadian violinist, James Ehnes backed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, drew plaudits from audience and reviewers alike.

Finally the year ended with a TV outing for The Happy Lands, when BBC Scotland gave the film a showing (last Sunday 15 Dec) to counter the lack of a cinema release.

*Mouth organ, for those uninitiated! 

A Step for a Star?

If you are looking for something different to listen to tonight, you could do worse than to get yourself along to Glasgow's O2 ABC2 for 7.30, when talented, young Glasgow singer-songwriter, Jasmine, takes the next step in a promising career.

She takes to the stage to promote her newly released eponymous album. It can

be heard and purchased from iTunes here. Tickets for the concert are £10 available from
the O2 ABC or on line.

Jasmine's youth doesn't mean that her music is naive, sentimental or light. Her voice is
both powerful and melodic - with traces of one of her influences, Tracy Chapman - and her
songs are mature reflections on life. Probably because of her experiences. She is from
Pollok, and brought up in a brought up in a single parent family that she describes as 'very
close'.

She says
"Making music is my passion and I could honestly not picture myself doing anything else. I
have been writing, performing and developing since I was ten, and every song I've written
has been about some personal experience that either happened to me or to someone I
know."

Although Jasmine is only 18, she has already worked with a number of important
musicians, including Scottish singer-songwriter, John Taylor, and Wet, Wet, Wet's Graeme
Duffin, (who produced her album). She has supported Luka Bloom, at Oran Mor, and
played concerts to support, anti-poverty charity, Caritas, and the recently the Clutha Vaults
fund

Came for the Adams, left with the Shostakovich!

A huge crowd at Glasgow's City Halls last night, experienced sublime artistry. A performance of a piece of music took flight, in a way that only happens very rarely. The stage for this event was a BBC SSO concert simultaneously broadcast on BBC Radio 3. The artist was Canadian violinist James Ehnes. His playing of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto took the roof off the City Halls.

Inspired by the Hall, which he admitted was a favourite, and by the piece which had been written while Shostakovich was under severe political pressure, Ehnes gave us all a performance that one sees few times in a lifetime. His playing of the final Burlesque movement, was particularly inspired and had even the orchestra applauding enthusiastically.

Indeed, it eclipsed the rest of the programme - a pity in some ways, as the first piece, Beethoven's 4th Symphony, is already too little known, and the John Adams headliner, City Noir both deserved good reviews - in which some of the magic rubbed off on the orchestra. Ehnes has worked with this orchestra, and with Donald Runnicles a number of times previously. Glasgow will be looking forward to the next occasion.

While it would be difficult to recapture the full experience of the live performance, it is available on BBC iplayer for the next seven days. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03kpdh8

Absent Friends?

Since the Westminster Parliament voted (by 26 votes) to continue with the justly maligned Bedroom Tax, the twitteratti have been having a field day. Bitter recrimination has been piled on accusation and deep loathing. MPs have been targeted for direct action. Threats have been made to oust MPs who have left their vulnerable constituents at the mercy of this iniquitous legislation.

So far, so unexceptional you might think, but in this case the targets are the MPs who represent the party that publicly opposes the Tax; that has committed to repeal the legislation; and that was responsible for the staging of the debate. Whit?!

The substance of the accusations levelled at (some) Labour MPs (and at the Party in general), is that by not having all their MPs in the Commons for the vote, they have let down the fight against the Bedroom Tax. In some extreme cases the claim is that this failure led to their own amendment being lost, despite the obvious fallacy of that!

Now the rights and wrongs of the pairing system aren't an argument that can be dealt with here. Nor, incidentally, are they an issue that was raised by anyone before the debate or vote. However, it is unquestionable that the missing MPs were paired. Thus, all claims that the missing MPs 'cost' the vote against the Bedroom Tax fail, as their appearance would immediately have been matched by the appearance of their 'pair' to vote in favour.

It is also most unlikely that any attempt to 'ambush' the vote would have defeated the tax. Firstly, even if successful, it would not have been binding on the Government, and they would simply have called a vote of confidence, which they would have won. A similar caveat applies to any attempt to impose a three-line whip. That would have been made public, and would have turned the vote into a a vote of confidence with similar results.

Indeed, one MP has pointed out that all the SNP MPs have been absent at one time or another at votes against the legislation containing the Bedroom Tax, while it was going though the commons. While there is one error in her list, the point about absent votes and pairing remains true. No doubt MPs of other parties missed these and similar votes. No doubt all of the above MPs were paired, and their vulnerable constituents not left without a representative. But quite clearly not all parliamentary votes are as significant as others. Indeed these votes actually impacted on the passage of the legislation!

Having said that, there have clearly been failures on the part of the opposition. How else can we explain what should have been a great public opportunity being turned into a publicity gaffe? It should have been anticipated that public interest in the outcome of the vote (even if overturning it would have required the votes of LibDems) meant that any likely absences should have been identified and - if unjustifiable, stopped, if justifiable, explained. After all, many of those criticising believe in extra-parliamentary campaigning, and it is hardly wrong for MPs to also take part in such campaigns. Not preparing for this, and probably allowing some non-attendances that should never have been allowed, has meant a massive publicity opportunity for the Labour Opposition has been lost.

However, what has also been lost in the welter of criticism is any sight of the real villains of the piece. After all the majority of the votes in the Commons were to back the Bedroom Tax - these ConDem MPs are thanking their stars for the furore whipped up by the nationalists and ultra-left.

It's Boyling Point in Glasgow!

Anyone who woke up yesterday to the frost on the cars and on the ground, and who heard the weather forecasters say it was the coldest day this year, will be wondering what this blog is about.

Of course, if you come from Edinburgh, and are a reader of the Evening News, the

Frank Boyle and his work

suspicion may have already dawned that the reference isn't to the temperature at which water changes from a liquid to a gas, but to a well-known cartoonist whose work appears regularly in the pages of that blatt. And you would be right!

Glasgow-based cartoonist of the Edinburgh Evening News (as he styles himself), Frank Boyle is opening a solo exhibition of his work in Glasgow on Friday of this week. This will not only display some of his best known cartoons of the recent past, but in addition, Frank will be displaying some of his water colours and drawings.

Cuts Hurt - Part one of thePublic Works diptych 

 

 Frank has been drawing politicians, celebrities and the topical issues of the day, for many years. He also has done cartoons for trade unions and other good causes. - he drew the posters for UNISONScotland's Public Works campaign - but his watercolours and other work are a revelation.

It's well worth getting along to South Block in the centre of Glasgow between November 11-29 (closed 16,17 & 21-24) to check out Frank's work. and if you can't summon up the cash for an original, his current book Boyling Point 2, is on sale there for a measly £8.99. (Or you can get it from Frank's website with a pound off at www.boylecartoon.co.uk).

South Block itself is a new creative venue in Glasgow City Centre. Developed by the well known WASPS Studio it provides studios and work spaces on the corner of Osborne Street, and King Street.