Things are hotting up as Glasgow gears up for the most prominent MayDay celebrations for a number of years. In a major concert, Comedian and activist, Mark Thomas; marxist magician, Ian Saville, and former BBC Young Folk Musicians Siobhan Miller and Jeana Leslie join political song master Arthur Johnstone, and harmonica virtuoso, Fraser Speirs, in a star studded line-up at the Great MayDay Cabaret that crowns this years’ Friends of MayDay activities.
Mark Thomas has done a number of recent events in Glasgow, and was approached to headline the city’s MayDay Cabaret when he chaired the hugely successful Tony Benn film preview during the Celtic Connections festival. The concert is scheduled for Monday May 6, in the city’s Oran Mor from 7.30pm. Tickets are £12.50 from the venue or (including a booking fee) from www.oran-mor.co.uk. It is sponsored by the Co-operative Membership.
News is also breaking of an intriguing set planned by singer/writer Dave Anderson. He has been working with the Co-Op Funeralcare Brass band to develop a ‘crossover’ set with different musical strands. Dave said “I’m really looking forward to working with a brass band of the quality of the Co-op. This is a first for me but they have a great reputation as a fine band. I’m sure we’ll deliver a new and exciting set!”
The previous day (Sunday 5) the traditional Mayday march assembles in George Square at 11.30am. The march winds its way through the city to the O2 Academy in Eglinton Street, where Alvaro Sanchez, the Political Counsellor from the Venezuelan Embassy, Neil Findlay MSP and disability campaigner, Tommy Gorman will speak.
These are the highlights of a range of activity in the two weeks around MayDay that ranges from walks to comedy, to films and theatre.
The hugely successful film, The Happy Lands, returns to Glasgow to be shown again at the GFT. This great film deals with the General Strike and the subsequent lock-out in a pit village in Fife. Made by Theatre Workshop with local community volunteers and actors, this was a hit of the recent Glasgow Film Festival, and we are really glad it has returned. GFT on Sunday May 5 at 3.45pm.
Other films are being screened by Glasgow’s anti-racism campaigners, Hope not Hate, who are premiering From Cable Street to Brick Lane on Friday evening May 3 at 7.30pm in Partick Burgh Halls - All welcome. And the Scottish Cuba Solidarity Campaign screens Will the real Terrorist please stand up? at their social evening in the STUC on Friday 10 May at 7.30. Free but ticketed. Tickets on the door.
Other Concerts feature too. A group of Matt McGinn afficionados have come together to stage a tribute to the great folksinger. In St Andrew’s in the Square on Friday May 3 tickets £10 from
The highly-praised talk by Scottish composer, Bill Sweeney on Music and the Working Class Movement, has been revived by the Morning Star Campaigns Committee as part of their Our Class, Our Culture series. This year at the STUC on the evening of Wednesday May 8. At 7.00pm, Free.
Along with all these goodies - the programme for which is being supported by the STUC as part of its There is a Better Way Campaign, and Thompsons Solicitors - the regular Tron series Mayfesto returns for another year - and a Play, a Pie and a Pint continue their innovative programming each lunchtime at Oran Mor.
