Glasgow’s radical past is at the heart of a groundbreaking debut album by a collective of academics, musicians, and artists.
The Tenementals set out to invoke a city of protest and chants against a backdrop of clattering cobblestones and shipyard whistles.
‘Glasgow: A History (Vol. I of VI)’, is the result and the album is due to launch at a free concert taking place at Òran Mór at the end of November.
Frontman David Archibald, who is also Professor of Political Cinemas at the University of Glasgow, said: “What would history look like, feel like, smell like if it were created by a band?
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“Well, it would look, feel and smells very much like a newly cut 12” black vinyl fresh out of its sleeve.
“We love Glasgow and its history – we want the public to engage with our past, especially young people and we are doing this through the universal language of music.
“The Tenementals album tells a radical history of a radical city in a radical way.
“The songs engage with the complex interplay of a city’s history - at personal and political levels – and explore moments of radical possibility - for instance, when the shipyards were occupied and ran by the workers.
“While our project has academic roots, it lives and breathes as a rock band, turning fragments of the city’s radical past into provocations for radical futures.
“We hope the songs operate as thought bombs, provocations to think and act in a radical way.”
The songs engage with the complex interplay of a city’s history - at personal and political levels – and explore moments of radical possibility - for instance, when the shipyards were occupied and ran by the workers. - David Archibald
The album weaves together diverse narratives, from men who died fighting fascism in the Spanish Civil War to militant Suffragettes of the early 20th century.
It explores the 1820 Radical War, Glasgow’s complex relationship with Empire and slavery, and celebrates the city’s culture of pleasure and excess.
Professor Archibald said: “The Tenementals is a wild research project. Some of the band members are academics and it’s got one foot in the university.
“But it has another foot in the city’s vibrant music community. For a project like The Tenementals to have a life, to breathe, it has to move to its own beat and be run on the logics of a rock band. That’s the only way that The Tenementals can be alive.”
The band has already gained international recognition - their interpretation of the Nazi concentration camp protest song “Die Moorsoldaten” is now housed in Germany’s Documentation and Information Center Emsland Camps archives.
The Tenementals will perform at the Working Class Movement Library, Salford, on 24 November, alongside Maxine Peake and other performers, before returning to Glasgow for their free-to-enter album launch at Òran Mór on 27 November.
Watch: The Tenementals official video
This Tenementals’ album is supported with funds from Glasgow City Heritage Trust.
