Alistair Hulett, Scottish singer and songwriter and was a perfect local Socialist on 24 March in the Cobbler's Irish Pub in Germering a guest. Even now in his second Occurs in this oasis located just outside Munich of Celtic folk music, he succeeded in playing again, to draw the audience into kürzeseter time in its spell. Alistair Hulett is an excellent musician. With his expressive voice and his guitar, he conjures both a dense and fantastic sound on stage.
And then this man has something to say and tell. That he typically does with Scottish wit and sometimes with a good dose of ironic sarcasm, which makes the whole thing very entertaining - not least because of his broad Scottish slang.
In the first part of his appearance in the Cobbler's Irish Pub, he sang especially for him so typical workers and protest songs that denounce loudly the exploitation of people in the capitalist system, such as in the song "the old divide and rule" ... .
Alistair Hulett has over 25 years spent in Australia to agitate as a punk-folk-rocker and a member of a street theater group against the exploitation of workers in asbestos mines.
As a member of the punk-folk group "Roaring Jack" he was in the 80s together with Steph Miller, Davey Williams, Rod Gilchrist and Bob Mannell on several albums, mainly on the former model of the Irish punk folk band "The Pogues "and the British punk-rock scene-oriented ...
"Blue Murder", the blue death ... so that the dying of the asbestos mines in the Australian Abeiter is meant to be in the last century for a one-way passage from England to Australia for years to work at the local asbestos mines and vedingten sometimes to the implications of this work miserably perished. Alistair Hulett has worked extensively in his Australian years in ensuring that the victims of this labor market policies are appropriately compensated ....
His latest album "Red Clydeside" tells the story of the workers' uprising in Glasgow during the First World War, which wanted to force the workers into the local armaments factories, the end of the bloody carnage on the battlefields of Europe. In concert, he sang the title song of this album include "The Red Clyde Sides", the protagonist of this uprising is dedicated to ...
As a staunch socialist and fighter for the cause of workers and unions, it is obvious that Alistair Hulett officially part of the concert, as usual with the "International" decided that was then followed by several encores and an interview ...
The interview with Alistair Hulett
You sang a lot of songs that come from your last album: Red Clydeside. That is, I think a very interesting story ....?
Yes, that's a story that has me very intrigued. The more I dealt with it, the more this story has me under her spell. It is a kind of hidden history (in the historical sense) the city of Glasgow.
Many people who have spent your whole life in Glasgow know in a way a little bit of what's happening in the city in the period to the time of the 1st World War, many have ever heard of the uprising of the Clyde-worker - the Clyde is The river, which flows through Glasgow. At that time, were in this part of the city's many shipyards and steel mills.
So when in 1914 the war broke out between Britain and Germany to Glasgow was a city where there was a large part of the defense industry. Here the tanks and the ships were prepared to slaughter the weapons and ammunition that were used to humans.
Under the leadership of the Socialists was an anti-war movement in Glasgow. This was above all a certain John MacLane (of whom I sing a lot). That is the part of the story, know that most residents of Glasgow.
1919, but came almost to a massive uprising between the police and the workers, which broke out in the very center of the city. Military and tanks were sent to Glasgow, the whole city was surrounded and imposed a curfew.
Glasgow was virtually an occupied city. That was the government's response to the events, which are referred to as the "Red Clydeside", on the motion, which was led by John MacLane. This developed into almost a revolution, and of course there were certain connections with the events in Germany that led to the overthrow of the Emperor and ultimately the end of the war brought about, because things had developed so terrible that the workers on both sides of extreme agents intervened to stop the whole thing.
Here in Glasgow we had a very similar situation as you here in Germany. Even the leader of the anti-war movement in Glasgow was jailed, as they locked up Karl Lebknecht of exactly the same reasons. Because he denounced the war as wrong and called for the end.
Red Clydeside at Celtic Connections Festival 2004 ...
I wanted to tell this story and I began to investigate. So I finally wrote some songs that I recorded 9, which can be heard on my last CD. I'm so much been on tour in Scotland and until recently was held at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow, Scotland.
As part of this festival, we performed the story "Red Clydeside" in a theater, with actors who recited the words of the Red Clydesiders, the insurgents.
The performance was sold out every night and many of the audience after the show we talked to them. They had never heard of this story, although she had spent her entire life in the city. Although they wßten that was there anything done, the whole story but they did not know.
I came up with this story when I was in Australia. Someone gave me a book that was written by a certain Nann Milton. The book was titled John MacLane. It turned out that the daughter of John Milton Nann was MacLane, who told the story of her father.
After reading this, I concerned myself more with this story, I read more books. Within two years I must have read almost every book on this topic. Books, who expressed this positive, but also books that denounced the events as unpatriotic.
So it is a part of our history, which is concealed, as well as here in Germany just a few humble people about the history of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg to know the leaders of the German anti-war movement.
I think this story is of great importance, especially now that we are witnessing the largest anti-war movement of all time: The protests against the war in Iraq. Just a few days in England was again held a big demonstration against it. Was the largest of the demonstrations there last year in February in London.
But the fact is that Tony Blair will not be influenced from it. We must learn from the Red Clydesiders and forcing them to listen to them.
The future ...?
The organizers of the Celtic Connections festival currently attempting to raise funding to the British Arts Council. This committee will finance projects that do not work commercially and profit oriented.
Our performance is as such a project because it is very expensive, to send on tour. In Glasgow, we worked with three actors, three musicians and the technical staff. There were also projections of historical imagery.
We need about 10 people to bring to the stage. That costs a lot and we need support. Whether we get the money that I'll know when I'm back in Glasgow, the more I can say no more. If we get funding, then we go on tour with the project, if not, was it das.
But there are enough other stories to tell ...!