Celtic Connections: Red Clydeside: John Maclean Centenary Concert
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall - 19/01/24
Socialist rhetoric was a familiar feature of the public square until the coming of Margaret Thatcher and the neo-liberal barbarian hordes. It was heard again briefly a few years ago, but with the eclipse of Jeremy Corbyn and the rise of Sir Keir (and pace Mick Lynch) it has gone back into the echo chamber. There was an element of the choir being preached to in this commemoration of the centenary of John Maclean’s death, but in a more positive light it was a warm celebration among friends of a significant anniversary.
John Maclean, for those unfamiliar with this once prominent figure in Scottish life, was a school teacher who became a revolutionary leader in Glasgow (and beyond), arguing tirelessly against the loss of life in the First World War, teaching economics and politics to working class people eager to learn how to analyse their position in society and change it. He died prematurely in 1923, effectively hounded to his death by the powers-that-be.
The format of the evening saw MC Allan Henderson outline the essentials of Maclean’s life and introduce a formidable cast of singers and poets who personified what Henderson referred to as ‘the living tradition of liberatory politics and radical song’. While the spirit of John Maclean might be said to have hovered over the proceedings it was joined by the shades of other like-minded souls in Matt McGinn and Hamish Henderson whose ‘Ballad of John Maclean’ and ‘John Maclean March’ were given powerful voice by Paul McKenna.
To McGinn and Henderson, H. we might add the late Alastair Hulett, who was represented first by Gavin Livingstone (whose former band Tonight at Noon produced what is for many the definitive reading of the ‘John Maclean March’), by Siobhan Miller, who curated the whole evening, and who did the riotous ‘Mrs Barbour’s Army’ and the sombre ‘Granite Cage’ more than justice. Miller has developed into one of Scotland’s most outstanding singers, a position she shares with Karine Polwart whose rendition of Sydney Carter’s ‘John Ball’ was a masterpiece of clarity. Both Polwart and Miller share the ability to render the thought and intention behind a song without muddying it with generalised emotion, with the result that the truth of what they are singing about unerringly hits home.
The spoken word was given due prominence too with a moving recreation by actor Raymond Wilson of Maclean’s speech from the dock, and extracts from letters from Maclean to his wife, Agnes, read by his grand-daughter.
The guest appearances came thick and fast. Clydebank songwriter Kapil Seshasayee, Karen Casey from Ireland, poets Beth Friedman and Jackie Kay, Eddi Reader, and Billy Bragg, who followed up a raucous ‘Power in a Union’ by introducing to the stage Dick Gaughan, absent from the scene for many years due to ill health. The response was immediate – a lengthy standing ovation for an artist who many thought would never be heard or seen on a public platform again. He and Bragg sang ‘The Red Flag’ to its surprising original tune, ‘The White Cockade’, giving the old ‘dirge’, as Bragg described it, sprightly new life. It wasn’t the only socialist anthem of the evening as proceedings were rounded off in an atmosphere of hope and aspiration with the whole ensemble, including the tasteful house band, giving voice to ‘The Internationale’ and Scotland’s own ‘Internationale’, the ‘Freedom Come All Ye’.