PETER GABRIEL at the HYDRO GLASGOW

This was my debut at the Hydro , and also the 25th Anniversary tour by Peter Gabriel of the So Album with his original band still intact, sad thing was i was at the original tour at the SECC a quarter of a century ago.

The Hydro is a space-age venue , with the vapours of newness oozing out of every synthetic polished surface , the steely aromas of what a new Star Trex Spaceship would smell like and everywhere the crisp fresh sight of shiny metal and artifical alloys of all hues except natural.

The venue has the look and feeling of a Close Encounters Of The Third Kind craft having just landed on a grassy knoll.Should make for a spectacular light show on St.Patricks night , a night not formally celebrated in the City because all the orange bastards that would complain , citing traditions.

The concert was divided into 3 sections , the first was an acoustic set featuring brilliantly catchy tunes like this favourite called "Come Talk To Me"




The second was old hits and some arena-shaking electronic soundbashers , including a great version of "Solsbury Hill"



Then we had the full top-to-bottom performance of the So Album , starting with the earth-shattering "Red Rain".The so-called quieter songs "Dont Give Up" and "Mercy Street" came so alive when done on stage , giving great balance a rightfully accepted classic album.Here is a version of my favourite "In Your Eyes"


The encore contained the Human Rights Champions Anthem "Biko" , which reminded me that Peter Gabriel on the initial So Tour was promoting Amnesty International , in the days when you physically wrote 4 letters a year to the victim and oppressor concerned.it was heartwarming to see Peter still dedicated to Human Rights and Amnesty after all these years.

MARTIN LUTHER KING , JR SPEECH - i have a dream and its enduring legacy and relevance to Britain

This year is the 50th Anniversary of the famous speech by Martin Luther King Jr. at the US seat of power in Washington D.C. Though we now know this March as "The Freedom March" , we would do well to recall that the real title of the demonstration was the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom". 

This is a very important distinction to recall as one of the main focus of the March was to force the US Government itself to provide jobs to "coloured" in the internal Government Sector.

The speech ( which lasts about 20 minutes) became famous because it was captured in the beginnings of the national Television age.If you analyse the speech it starts of on an economic agenda leading onto the mention of "bad checks" at about the 4min 20sec mark , and from the 5min20sec it becomes a very radical attack against the half-way house agenda argument against gradualism ( the belief that slow piecemeal progress , controlled by Whites ruling the country) , a very robust notice that the time for no-compromise on the immediate right of equality had reached a critical mass on no return.Continuing with this uncompromising theme is a warning if action by legislatures is not taken we hear at 6min40sec the warning....rude awakening if nation returns to business as usual.And the theme gets hotter by 9min20sec by citing the grave injustices met by coloured on a day to day basis..unaddressed the situation will never be satisfied ...police brutality continues.... a negro in Mississippi cant vote , a negro in new york has nothing to vote for".

This was the script of the speech until Martin Luther was prompted by Mahalia Jackson to "Tell them about the Dream" , this is when Martin Luther departed from the scripted theme was to make the most remembered part of the speech which has become one of the most legendary oration ever made.

Scholars contend the speech at that time would have gone down as the "Bad Check Speech" , with an economic theme based on the poverty of inequality , what happened next is what made the speech one of the most famous of the last century.

The speech can be seen in the video below:


The "I have a Dream" segment divides the speech into two distinct portions , the first (scripted) is an unequivocal call to action , the second part ( actually a peroration added to the scripted main address ) has an aspirational feel which has been picked up by the right in recent years and those cultural ( but queasy about affirmative action or major changes to zoning planning laws that cement , to pardon the pun, inbuilt poverty among the blacks even today) lip-servers who want to "show" support without taking the responsibility of doing the lawmaking graft to gravitate to this portion of the speech whilst forgetting the hard-hitting message of the initial two-thirds.This is why it was no irony in Ronald Reagan signing Martin Luther King Day
as a National Holiday after a four year campaign even though he was very Anti-Luther King at the time of the speech and beyond.

One of the successes of the March for freedom and Jobs was that no Politicians spoke at the podium in 1963 , it was a genuine civil grassroots movement occasion  recognising Politicians , as a class, are to be lobbied and pressured to act and deliver , not persons to be cheaply given Just Cause platforms which they can use for expedient short term political capital.

The upshot of the March was to set in train the momentum that led to lasting , real Civil Rights , Non-Discrimination and Equality Legislation in Congress.Clearing legal , if not for many decades social obstacles to Kings demands.

To this we can also add the sad spectacle of President Obama commemorating the 50th Anniversary whilst in the same week proposing the bombing of Syria and justifying the Drone attacks in Pakistan , something one would feel would not attract much committed support from King himself.

The March had a chequered History in that it was initially opposed by President Kennedy , a little later Kennedy supported the March and even enlisted Trade Unions and Church Groups to ensure success , but this had the effect of diluting Demands and stifling the hard edged demands for Jobs and opportunities.Instead creating a vacuous sloganed showcase for the same Kennedy who was planning coups and wars as far afield as Brazil , Cuba and Vietnam"As a result, some civil rights activists felt it presented an inaccurate, sanitized pageant of racial harmony".

There seems to be a somewhat misplaced narrative Myth that there were two paths to the civil rights movement , the effective peaceful one of MLK and the ineffective violent one of Malcolm X.In fact , there was a co-joined symbiosis as Kings message only carried weight in that it gave Americans the choice of yielding to legislative peaceful change before hundreds of thousands of Black Americans who were about to serve in Vietnam , getting training in the army and proficiency in use of arms finally took more militant means to redress rights in the late 60's , a time when the Johnson Administration finally took steps more motivated by potential conflict than benevolence to enforce laws passed in the mid-60's.

The effects and legact of MLK was to convince victims that economic "war" does make a difference to the fight for equality.Therefore in the UK , and the wider world the MLK of the Montgomery Bus Boycott 
Is a more valuable role model to remember than the "peaceful dreamer".

In the UK we had our own "Montgomery" in 1963 when members of the West Indian community were being denied jobs on the ground of race in Bristol. 

"Four young West Indian men, Roy Hackett, Owen Henry, Audley Evans and Prince Brown, formed an action group, later to be called the West Indian Development Council, as they were unhappy with the lack of progress in fighting discrimination by the West Indian Association. Owen Henry had met Paul Stephenson whose father was from West Africa and who had been to college. The group decided that the articulate Stephenson would be their spokesman.^[6] Stephenson set up a test case to prove the colour bar existed by arranging an interview with the bus company for a young warehouseman and Boys' Brigade officer, Guy Bailey. When Stephenson then told the company that Bailey was West Indian, the interview was cancelled.^[7] Inspired by the refusal of Rosa Parks to give up her seat on a bus in Alabama and the ensuing Montgomery Bus Boycott, the activists decided on a bus boycott in Bristol.^[8]
Their action was announced at a press conference on 29 April. The following day they claimed that none of the city's West Indians were using the buses and that many white people supported them.^[9] In an editorial the Bristol Evening Post pointed out that the TGWU opposed apartheid in South Africa and asked what trade union leaders were doing to counteract racism in their own ranks.^[10] When reporters questioned the bus company about the boycott, the general manager, Ian Patey, said

"The advent of coloured crews would mean a gradual falling off of white staff. It is true that London Transport employ a large coloured staff. They even have recruiting offices in Jamaica and they subsidise the fares to Britain of their new coloured employees. As a result of this, the amount of white labour dwindles steadily on the London Underground. You won't get a white man in London to admit it, but which of them will join a service where they may find themselves working under a coloured foreman? ... I understand that in London, coloured men have become arrogant and rude, after they have been employed for some months."^[11][12]"

It was supported by the then MP for the area Tony Benn and ultimately led to the Race Relations Act , the organisers credited and were inspired by MLK and the Montgomery Boycott Campaign.

Tony Benn pictured with one of the committee members of the Bristol Omnibus Company Boycott campaign.

MACBETH at the TRON GLASGOW

In this timely version director Rachel O'Riordan states "For me the play has something of the thriller about it.It is fast paced and actions and consequences rush into each other at breath-taking pace.It is this sense of history in a world out of balance which makes for an exciting audience experience..reflecting Shakespeares own times , the union and scotlands identity is under question again."
Two vital changes from the normal stagings are , like Shakespeares time , the witches are played by males , an effect that internalises ( hence secularising) the thinking of actioned strategy of the protagonist rather than him being led by fates on a path from which he cannot shrink even if he wanted too, it is no irony that the actors playing the three witches also turn out to double up as Macbeths three principle advisers.The other is the youngness of the the wife ( again taking away from the "traditional" stagings which suggest she is the one who leads an unwilling partner on a path of no return.Both this "innovations" are as the original audience in Shakespeares time would have saw and understood the dynamics of the action.
This way of returning to the future gives added weight to real metaphors and essence of the play as theatregoers of the time would have "understood" the story which is not about Scotland but rather as near as Elizabethan theatre goes come to raging against The founders of the Tudor persecution and what they though of the Lady Macbeth in their midst.This is brought into sharper relief with Tom Paulins assertion Shakespeare had sympathy , if not was, for the Catholics.

This review from the Scotsman , the reviewer does miss the point that Lady Macbeth is a young bride with only limited influence in a production which looks to make Policy and not Individuals master and destroyer of Fate.

"Yet for all these fascinating hints and possibilities, this Macbeth never quite seems to gain a persuasive sense of direction. Crerar somehow ends up delivering Lady Macbeth’s mighty poetry with the vocal tone and body-language of an exasperated girlfriend in an office comedy."

Mark Brown , on the other hand, is far more astute and mature in his review in the Telegraph

"The youth of Lady Macbeth is crucial here – as O’Riordan points out, she would, in medieval Scotland, have been a young teenager when she married. Playing to her tender years, as Leila Crerar does beautifully, transforms the drama in an extraordinary way."

LIFE AND TRAVELS OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS IN SCOTLAND (Glasgow Black History Month)

Frederick Douglass was a passionate and highly articulate advocator of anti-Slavery who toured Britain for 2 years including many stops in Scotland.Though there are very few markers of his time , as opposed to the many landmarks and street names to The Slave Merchants , research has showed that he was recieved very warmly by grassroots Scottish organisations and public , including sell-out fundraisers attracting over 1200 to places as far awide as Paisley and Dundee.He also made appearances in Glasgow , packing large venues such as the City Halls.

Douglass achieved Fame on both sides of the Atlantic after the publication of his Book in 1845 , selling out the first run in just a few months and ultimately tens of thousands in the years prior to the American Civil War.

The video below details scholarly accounts into his Book and the Impact it had in his day and beyond.



One of the major themes of Douglass visits to Scotland was to lobby against the newly set-up Free Church of Scotland 
The new Church set about gaining new sources of funds including a major campaign to raise money in the US , mostly from Slavery supporting congregations in the Deep South , Douglass campaigned vigourously using the slogan "send the money back" as this speech in Dundee records:

"Dr. Chalmers, the eloquent Scotch divine, having been appealed to by the members of the Free Church of Scotland, on the subject of receiving contributions from churches in the slave states of America, to say whether religious fellowship could consistently be extended to slaveholding churches, the Doctor repudiates the spirit that would narrow the sphere of Christian union, and says, that the refusal of such fellowship would be 'most unjustifiable.'"

Fellowship with slaveholders! (continued Mr. D.)— refuse fellowship with man-stealers, woman-whippers, cradle-robbers, and plunderers!—to refuse Christian fellowship with such would be "most unjustifiable." (Applause.) Did they think Dr. Chalmers would ever have said this, if, like him, he had had four sisters and one brother in bondage? (Cheers, and cries of "No.") Would this paper have eulogised George Thompson or William Lloyd Garrison, or any other eminent abolitionist? (No, no!) Well, the slaves run away—the bloodhound has not been able to follow their tracks, and the paper which eulogises Dr. Chalmers thus advertises the fugitives

In the video below James Earl Jones reads an extract from a Douglass speech capturing the charisma , passion,content and power of delivery which captivated so much of the audience of the time.

 

This excellent piece from the Blackpresence website tells more details of the impact of Douglass Tours. 
The article also informs of some objections to Douglass within the abolitionist camp like the following quote:

"Clearly, Frederick Douglass had a strong influence on British society, but this did not mean he was universally admired. His exposure of the Free Church and the Evangelical Alliance was criticised in numerous quarters, and several newspapers objected to his conduct, claiming he was “anti-religious” for attacking the Free Church. Furthermore, Douglass was not popular with all British abolitionists. Richard D. Webb, a supporter of the American Antislavery Society praised Douglass’s oratory skills but attacked his character repeatedly during his stay in Britain. And several abolitionists in the Society vilified Douglass’s decision to accept the purchase of his freedom, which was arranged by a family in Newcastle. This was seen as recognition that man could be bought and sold as property. But this purchase ensured the safety of Douglass and his family, and surely, argued Douglass, this ‘transaction’ proved to the world the hypocrisy of the United States – how could a country declare its foundations in liberty when the government legally supported the purchase of men and women?"

The US made documentary below tells about the role of Douglass prior and during the American Civil War , including harrowing recollections of the young Frederick watching his Aunt being cruelly whipped by her slavemaster.

SUN , SEA, SAND AND SCOTLAND: Our role in Empire,Slavery and Caribbean

During Glasgows Black History Month there is a growing trend to accept, repent and atone for Scotlands role in the Triangular Slave Trade , a role that is not officially recognised by the Glasgow Council or Scotlands Government.
The Official narrative is that Scotland was the first victim of English expansionism and imperialism , but more studies and dedicated searches of surviving archives at home and abroad are beginning to tell a story in which Scotland provided the Intellectual brainpower, skilled administrators, banking mechanisms, middle-managers , legal clerks , missionaries and accountants and political policies which elevated the British Empire from a large though ad-hoc international trading entity like the Spanish in the mid-millennium to the first effective International Global dominating World Industrial scale Empire influencing and directing nearly every asset of inter-continental trade.
At the time of the Union in the early 18th century Scotland has 4 established Universities churning out International Class Scholars in fields secular and divinity at a time when England ( 10 times the population of Scotland) had only 2 Universities which only had divinity departments with no real specialisations in the fields of trade,banking and macro-management which Scotlands Universities boasted,  having curricula from the very modern advanced techniques from Germanic lands where the aftermath of the 30 Years War had created the fore-runners of the modern state civil services and advanced bureaucracies and macro-management.
The video below examines The  Slavery and Emancipation in the Caribbean with special perspective of Scottish involvement.



You can see the whole series of lectures examining many aspects of the trade in this link series.

A major reason for the Scottish denial of the role in the Slave trade is that there has not been any national educational curriculum which deals with the countrys links to the Caribbean , a circumstance highlighted when the Great Homecoming festivities invited the diaspora from North America but failed to send any invitations to the considerable numbers of Scots descent from Jamaica or the other islands which had many Scottish immigrants as well as a sizable creole population.

One other factor is the negligible amount of Afro-Caribbean community in Glasgow to articulate demands for their forefathers experience to be commemorated and remembered with due dignity , something which was a major drive in Bristol and Liverpool creating Museums , Exhibitions and permanent markers of recognition.

Slowly more and more academics and researchers are beginning to bring to light Scotlands unrecognised involvement in the Slavery trade.Hopefully Glasgow will join Liverpool and Bristol following the lead of Hull which was one of the first places to accept the responsibilities and start the long process of atonement.