CHRISTY MOORE at the BARROWLANDS

After the pleasant and sedate pace at the Royal Concert Hall with an older opera type crowd we had the footy style rock crowd giving a raw energy only the Barrowlands can lend , hence its legendary status among performers and concert goers alike.

The first song of the night was a tribute to Allende:



Later we had a classic cover of a Jackson Browne song which has strong sentiments to the cavalier attitudes shown by the bankers just prior to the inevitable collapse of the system.



There was also the brilliant Wally page song to the murdered civil rights activist by the Apartheid regime in South Africa:



Of all the many occassions i have sen Christy at this famous venue this was by far the most crisp;sharp;incisive and melodic of the lot.The crowd was in great voice too.

MARK THOMAS at the CITIZENS THEATRE

As promised Mark Thomas returned to Glasgow with his all Palestine experience set.

He played the Citizens Theatre on April 4 and 5.

"The others are early outings for a completely NEW show called "Walking The Wall"*


Never one to take the easy option, Mark decided to go rambling in the Middle East and walked the entire length of the Israeli Separation Barrier crossing between the Israeli and the Palestinian side.

This is the story of 300 000 settlers; a 750 km wall; six arrests, one stoning; too much humuus and a simple question...

"Can you ever get away from it all with a good walk?"

There will also be a new book telling the story of the walk, published Spring 2011."

He is a genuine World Class comedian and a passionate supporter of the Palestinians as well as excellent all round social justice politics.I would go as far as to say he is the best in the World.

Here is a video introduction to his latest project:



The tour is an epic journey around Britain as well , a whole year on the road and visiting spots all around where you would not imagine a strong captive audience.And the venues he is playing a big ones as well , town halls , large victorian theatres and venues where few comedians would dare to venture.Not only that but he is getting big turnouts and many completely sold out shows as the two in Glasgow testify.

Here Mark reads from the Book he has written of his travels in the areas devastated by the Wall:( you can get more parts of this reading from clicking the relevant videos from the side-header.

CHRISTY MOORE at the ROYAL CONCERT HALL

Out of all the many pleasurable occasions i have seen him , Christy was in especially fine melodic voice this time.He has that rare quality of being reflective and crisply incisive at one and the same time , a magic quality which makes his concerts such wondrous experiences.

Among the back to back highlights were

Missing You:


The exquisite Richard Thompson song Beeswing:


And a poignant tribute on the anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster:



The performance ended with a scintillating rendition of No Time For Love:

STAND UP FOR PALESTINE at the KINGS THEATRE

Frankie Boyles last appearance in a live format this year , and possibly the last time ever was rightly dedicated to the vast injustice and denial of basic Human Rights by the long neglected Palestinians.

Frankie Boyle himself organised the sell out fundraising show for the Palestine Legal Fund.As the blurb stated.You can get more details of the fund and its object from the Human Rights Legal Aid Fund website
"An all star line-up featuring Gary Tank Commander, Fred Macaulay, Susan Calman, Miles Jupp, Tom Stade and a special guest spot from Frankie Boyle in aid of the Palestine Legal Aid Fund (An unprecedented legal aid fund for Palestine, inspired by the successes of a similar fund during the South African anti-apartheid movement.)

The fund is dedicated to supporting Palestinians in accessing international justice, securing accountability and redress for human rights abuse. With stars of TV and radio lined up for the cause, this one-off show is sure to be one of the hottest tickets in the festival (and is currently scheduled to be Frankie’s only live appearance this year)."

It was good to see such a varied line-up and audience demographics supporting this very apt cause.

Here are two videos featuring Canadian funnyman Tom Stade and Scottish comic Fred MacAuley.

Tom Stade:


Fred MacAuley:

WILL HUTTON at AYEWRITE

Will Hutton gave his take on how the present economic climate can give the UK an opportunity to re-structure the financial resource management system integration fundamental structurisation towards a more Human orientated mechanism veering away from the heartless practice of treating People as commodities rather than beings.

As with all economists his points were high on vision , low on substance.

A major point he did make was the UK debt , though high on paper , is secured over a long period ( 30 to 40 years) as well as favourable terms.On the other hand many countries on the Continent has very sort term loans ( 3 to 7 years) as well as high end repayment regimes.

KING LEAR AT THE THEATRE ROYAL

A very fit and mobile Derek Jacobi give a performance which will live long for its austere minimalist majesty.

Though it is almost sacrilegious to say , Shakespeare has a dramatic lapse in conveying the graduation from top down aspirations to hand over absolute power to a troika of wards , albeit to his own blood.From self satisfaction to outright incurable rage does not quite happen convincingly.And less convincing are justifications that tyrants playing at being benevolent would behave in that way , but there is a certain tone of our bard can do no wrong about their argumentation.

This point is worth remembering because King Lear , of all the major roles of Shakespeare , is one in which the actor has to get past this in order to proceed to the much stronger balance later in the play without it appearing to be a melodrama rather than a study of the closest of universal familial and close knot social society themes this otherwise great work explores.

Derek does a great job as the role he plays is more emotional than overtly political , which is the easiest get-out way to look into the role , with bombast and hysterics replacing the substance.

Derek takes the role full on and shows his class by achieving all the good points with an almost nonchalant degree of ease.

RAJA SHEHADEH AT AYEWRITE

Humanitarian lawyer and author Raja Shehadeh has a long established connection to Scotland.I first saw him at the Edinburgh Book Festival in 2003.Since then he has collaborated with Scottish playwright David Greig to have a stage adaptation of When The Bulbul Stops Singing performed in the same city , it won the Amnesty International Award for Best Human Rights Themed Play for that year.

Raja is an eloquent, understated , highly effective articulator of the genuine Human Right for the Palestinians to be treated equally before the great court of Universal Justice.

His latest Book is on the material and transcendent them of land and time.The Rift in the title is a play on the geographical location of Palestine in the Great Rift Valley , beginning in present day Turkey , going along Lebanon to the Jordan Valley , the Dead Sea ( the lowest point on Earth) and all along Eastern Africa.Raja Great Uncle , like Raja was born within the great mountain ranges on either side of the Valley , though at a point North of Ramallah hence the continuum through space and time of their relative experiences , one fighting the later Ottomans , todays taking on the bitter ender zionist colonialists.

The Rift in time , is no rift at all but another continuum , generations before him saw of external empires , and so will the children of today.

One point worth bearing in mind is Rajas statement the Ottoman Empire in its 400 year reign was tolerant of religion , allowing all communities to co-exist without one dominating the other.Debt and bureaucratic decline in the later years is where problems set in.Israel , on the other hand is systematically tied to domination , to the point , which will be reached within a decade or so , of using artificial ethical gymnastics to ensure domination of an area in which non-Jews will be in the majority.

One continuum Raja has learned from his Uncle of the past is that the region can only live in Peace if there is equality and complete Freedom of movement within the region for all its population , including the right of return for those unjustly expelled in the traumas of 48 and later.





In the video below Raja talks about his walks in todays Palestine , what comes out is that all that is seemingly lost is remembered and will will return no matter what perverse policies are persued totake the Humanity in the Region.