Glasgow band to pay homage to Paul Robeson's 1960 visit at May Day gig

There, a resolution was also passed declaring that the South African government’s “ruthless methods” against the native people had aroused the indignation and condemnation of the entire world, in what was a foreshadowing of Glasgow’s later involvement in the Anti Apartheid Movement.

Now, more than 50 years on, a band made up of artists, academics and musicians are to follow in Robeson’s footsteps by marching from Glasgow’s principal civic square to Queen’s Park before taking to the bandstand stage and performing as part of this year’s May Day march and rally.

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The Tenementals are a recently formed group who have set out to recount the radical history of Glasgow through song and ponder what and where hope might lie in the city.

Their songs, all original compositions, focus on ‘the dissidents and dissenters’ of the city’s past with lyrics that both ‘celebrate the city’s culture of pleasure and excess’ and ‘interrogate its entanglements with empire and slavery’.

The band shot to prominence back in September thanks to a celebrated first gig at the historic Trades Hall for the annual Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival, which saw the band pick up the award for ‘Outstanding Event’ for their performance of ‘A History of Glasgow in Song’. 

Speaking to The Herald, singer David Archibald, a senior lecturer in Film and Television Studies at the University of Glasgow, said the band are “honoured” to be marching in Robeson’s footsteps and perform on the very same stage he did back in 1960 at this year’s event.

Paul Robeson on stage in Glasgow (Image: Newsquest)

He said: “Robeson was a lifetime campaigner and leftist activist, and his career suffered because of this. Not least, his passport to the US was revoked at the time of the McCarthyite witch-hunt against American communists and sympathisers. As a mark of solidarity, Robeson was invited to lead the 1960 May Day parade and to perform in Queen’s Park bandstand. 

“We are honoured to be marching in his footsteps from Glasgow Green to Queen’s Park, and to perform on the stage he played from before every one of us was born.”

Ahead of their performance this weekend, they are also keen to establish exactly which songs Robeson sang to the thousands of gathered workers at the bandstand, to help inform their setlist.

Robeson, who died in 1976, is believed to have led the crowd in Loch Lomond and entertained them with renditions of old favourites such as Water Boy and Ol’ Man River, as well as ‘a song of peace’.

The Tenementals on stage (Image: Julia Bauer)

Dr Achibald added: “We know that Robeson sang Ol’ Man River, from the 1927 musical, Show Boat. It’s the song that above all others is associated with his career. But what else did he sing? 

“Robeson famously recorded the German antifascist anthem Die Moorsoldaten/The Peat Bog Soldiers in 1942. The song was first performed in a concentration camp by German leftists and Robeson’s recording while the Second World War was still being fought is indicative of the internationalist outlook in his work. We also sang a cover of the song recently and are fascinated as to whether he might have sung it in Glasgow.

“The Greek philosopher Heraclitus notes that you can’t stand in the same stream twice. And in that vein, you can’t sing the same song twice. Robeson’s recording was marked by his characteristic bass-baritone voice, which booms loud above the instrumentation. The last time we sang it, we were joined onstage by Lily, the teenage daughter of one of our friends, and we sang it in German and English. Let’s see how we do it at May Day.

“If anyone who saw him on stage can remember what he sang on the day, that might well inform our set list on the day.”