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Profile: Russell Leadbetter

Latest articles from Russell Leadbetter

Those were the days - 1959: The Glasgow building that went against the grain

BACK in its early days, this long-gone building, the Corn Exchange…

65 years of rock and roll - and all that jazz

ROCK around the Clock - widely regarded as the first popular rock…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1981: “Butter, 2lbs of porridge oats and Red Kooga, please”

BACK in 1981, health-food manufacturers were openly debating an…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1988: When flower-power met the war on plastic

WHEN the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive decided to…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1962: Glaswegians take to the roads in 24-hour rail strike

PRETTY soon, they’d have the Cuban missile crisis to worry about,…

1953: Taking exception to the second Queen Elizabeth

IN crocodile formation they marched solemnly, ten men each carrying…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1968: ‘Young lions rampant’ mark their success in Glasgow poll

LIKE “young lions rampant,” observed the Glasgow Herald on the…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1948: Another luxury Cunarder takes shape in Clydebank

THE British Pathe footage can be seen today, on YouTube: Princess…

US-China trade tensions could mean "wild ride" for rest of globe

COUNTRIES around the globe must "buckle up for a wild ride" as the…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1960: ‘Melancholy in the air’ as demolishers move in

THIS was Cambuslang Main Street in 1958, but before long, plans…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1945: The war is finally over, now give us our daily bread

JOY was unconfined when the war finally came to an end in August…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1969: Mind the gap – and excuse the noise and the dust ...

“I HOPE,” the Queen Mother said on June 26, 1970, “they will…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1961: "Be careful, the floorboards are giving way," Duke is told

THE Duke of Edinburgh, accompanying the Queen on a much-publicised…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1947: Jackie Paterson, the title-laden boxer capable of ‘devastating power'

THE Scottish boxer Jackie Paterson, said his obituary in this paper…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1959: The Old Firm game marred by gales and ‘skin-flaying’ sleet

IT was, wrote the Evening Times’s Gair Henderson, quite the worst…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1977: The times they are a-changing, even in Byres Road ...

BACK in 1977, the people who lived near, or worked in, Glasgow’s…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1959: The type of cinema that used to serve afternoon tea

IT had been a “black week” for cinema in Glasgow, our film…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1960: A royal baby has been born. Ring any bells?

WITH today's papers full of the first photographs of the Duke and…

How the Yes campaign delivered a new Scottish Parliament

When the cross-party campaign that sought a yes/yes vote in the…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1968: The photograph that means so much to two 60-year-olds

WE have, we think, run this photograph in this slot before, but we…

The Scotswoman at the heart of American politics who made the cover of Life magazine

ON November 20, 1967, at a dinner at Washington DC's Mayflower…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1988: No way through for Rangers against Steaua Bucharest

WEDNESDAY, March 16, 1988. The scene: Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow. The…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1976: Addressing the roots of neglect in Glasgow’s East End

THE Scottish Secretary of State, Bruce Millan, had just announced…

Why superheroes are box office superstars

THE box-office figures for the latest superhero film, Avengers:…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1949: Summer stay-at-homes flock to Calderpark Zoo

THAT July of 1949 was largely excellent, in terms of weather, with…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1971: When an old-age pension of £8 was worth fighting for

JACK Jones, general secretary of the Transport and General…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1988: Now there’s something you don’t see every day ...

AH, Mayfest. Some Glaswegians still miss it: the teeming,…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1927: George V gives his name to George V bridge in Glasgow

THE memorial stone is still at the bridge today, tarnished with the…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1969: Ken Dodd signs Alhambra petition as he recalls the old Empire

KEN Dodd arrived at Glasgow’s Alhambra Theatre in late April 1969…

What it feels like ... to open an island gin distillery

Jonny Ingledew, 35, master distiller and Kate MacDonald, 32,…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1965: "I waved to my sister-in-law on her train from my window"

NOT everyone would like to have a busy railway line within yards of…

After Billy McNeill's death, we look at what makes a sporting hero

SCOTTISH sport is the poorer for the passing this week of the…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1971: Rolls-Royce staff “too stunned to speak” after bad news

THIS was no ordinary lunchtime for these Rolls-Royce workers at…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1974: Celtic claim their ninth Scottish title in a row

A SUPERMARKET and its car-park now occupy the site where Falkirk’s…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1958: Barrowland owner pledges to rebuild after huge blaze

THIS was the burnt-out shell of the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1965: Scots see off the ‘likeable tourists’ from South Africa

APRIL 1965, and Scotland has just become the first rugby team to…

Russell Leadbetter on Billy McNeil: Hail Cesar, legend, leader and Lisbon lion

A friend of mine, a Celtic fan since she was knee-high to Jimmy…

"I've never been 'Billy McNeill the footballer' I always aimed to be just 'Billy McNeill, a father to my kids"

This article originally appeared in The Herald in September 2004.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1955: All smiles now, but an ‘unpleasant’ night lies in store

PLAYERS who made up the Scottish League XI assembled at Glasgow’s…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1971: On-trend fashions in Glasgow (bulldog just out of shot)

SHUFTY’S, the boutique was called. It was unusual, and not just…

The origins of Easter traditions

EASTER, it seems, consists largely of the consumption of a vast…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1949: Launch of the “perfect” tanker, Vikland

JOHAN Rasmussen, the man from the Tanker Corporation of Panama,…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1940: Naval survivors of Narvik battle arrive in Glasgow

AN interesting reminder of the reporting restrictions in force…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1968: Easterhouse gangs lay down their arms

SENIOR police officers, and the Scottish Under-Secretary of State,…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1985: ‘Golden gal’, 75, arrives from Canada for world curling championships

HER name was Beatrice Pack, and her mustard-coloured cowboy-style…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1964: Never mind the Beatles, here’s the Joe Loss orchestra

IN November 1964, popular music was about far more than just the…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1975: Not even the rain can mar the 'Glasgow 800' celebrations

A SUNNY day in Glasgow, a leader column in this paper advised on…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1970: Stampede for tickets for the international police tattoo

THE police headquarters in Glasgow were inundated with phone calls…

90 billion reasons why music-streaming is so big in the UK

JULIAN Casablancas, lead singer with the cult US band The Strokes,…

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1957: US Ambassador John Hay Whitney on the river Clyde

THE immensely wealthy John Hay (‘Jock’) Whitney - “sportsman,…