A SCOTTISH rock band will be joined by former top union leader Mick Lynch and comedian Zara Gladman at their Edinburgh show next month.
Glasgow’s The Tenementals, a group of academics, artists, and musicians who tell the city’s radical history and untold stories through song, will be joined by special guests at their Portobello Town Hall gig on May 3.
Mick Lynch, former general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), will deliver May Day Greetings, which will mark International Workers' Day.
Lynch, who received extensive attention whilst leading the RMT in a series of strikes in 2022-23, appeared alongside The Tenementals at The Revelator Wall of Death in the former Barclay Curle shipyard in March 2023.
The former union leader was keen on the Glasgow band playing one of their songs, which references the famous figurehead of the Clyde shipyard workers, Jimmy Reid.
Gladman, who will feature in the forthcoming BBC Scotland sketch show Good for Her, will also appear on the evening alongside Scottish Poetry Library Young Makar, Leah Sinforiani.
Singer and founder of The Tenementals, David Archibald, said he is “delighted” that Lynch will be joining them to deliver the speech.
“When we performed alongside Mick Lynch in The Revelator Wall of Death, it was an unforgettable event,” he said.
“We had only played two gigs previously when Stephen Skrynka, who had built the wall of death with a group of volunteers, approached us about appearing alongside Mick in The Revelator.
“He was keen on us singing ‘Universal Alienation (We’re Not Rats)’, a song which references Jimmy Reid, the trade unionist famous for being the figurehead of the Clyde shipyard workers when they organised the world-famous work in on the yards in 1971.
“We were honoured and delighted to do so. The Revelator is relatively small, so we had to keep secret the fact that Mick was appearing, but there was an extraordinary buzz about the place when it dawned on the attendees who was going to be speaking. It was, in anyone’s book, a special night.
“After the event, we kept in touch and explored future collaborations.”
Archibald, who is also a professor of political cinema at the University of Glasgow, added: “We are delighted now that Mick will deliver May Day Greetings to our event. It promises to be another extraordinary event.”
The National previously told how the band is best described as Leonard Cohen meets The Clash, and that the eight-piece aims to breathe fresh life into the city's past.
The Tenementals aim to retell Glasgow’s “radical history” through punchy riffs and self-proclaimed “banging” lyrics.
The band's back catalogue includes songs about the statue on the Clyde dedicated to the people who fought in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, the 1820 radical republic uprisings, and the famous trade union activist Jim Reid, and a plethora of some of the most important working-class stories from the city.
Click here for tickets and more information for the show on May 3.
