It’s been a hard week, since my first experience of NorthLink’s flat-lie pods on the 12-hour boat trip north from Aberdeen to Lerwick, last Friday into Saturday morning (up at 5.00am to avoid the rush showerwards).
Then a memorable journey north last Saturday, by ferry to Yell and then another to the island of Fetlar, my first visit there for 40 years, since the advent of Sister Agnes (later Mother Mary Agnes) and her mini-monastery, long departed. I was there to conduct a memorial service, the first of three funerals in six days. Fetlar is known as The Garden of Shetland, and its expanses of grazing (once cultivated, notably for beremeal) are spectacular, as is the coastline scenery. So is its new harbour and lovely community hall. Work on the gothic sprawl known as Brough Lodge is continuing.
I’ve also been working this week on a kind of statement of belief and what actually happens at a funeral I conduct as a celebrant, as there has been some local lack of clarity surrounding this. I’ll publish that in the next few days.
But The Pollokshaws Cadillac, my experimental weekly 90-minute streaming show of music made (mostly) by Scots, continues. This is episode four, available to listen to or download on Mixcloud HERE. A Polmadie special and it starts with some doggerel about the Glasgow district called Polmadie. Full playlist at the end of this post.
We have a wee flat on the south side of Glasgow and to get there from the north we usually take the M73, then the M74 and leave the motorway by the Polmadie junction. We’re also regular visitors to the Polmadie recycling centre, built on the old incinerator. Susan has family connections to this part of town, and she often tells the story of her father, in his younger, poorer days, joining the after-dark teams of men and women who would scour the railway maintenance yard tracks here for coal discarded from steam engines.
Anyway, the show begins with a reading, celebrating the glories of Polmadie. Which is, to say the least, very different from Fetlar.
Polmadie
Let us to that verdant bower
Where our love in bliss can flower
Oh the glories we shall see
In lovely Polmadie
We’ll bide a while in Toryglen
Cavort through Govanhill, and then
From all care will be set free
In Polmadie
Polmadie, oh Polmadie
I will not cease to sing for thee
Where all our fears and terrors flee
In Polmadie
South of the Clyde, that crystal stream
Anointed by the heavenly gleam
A glimpse of eternity
We’ll dally there in Polmadie
All the rubble of life’s cares
We’ll gather, pack and leave it there
And travel homewards gratefully
For all we’ve left in Polmadie.
Polmadie, oh Polmadie
I will not cease to sing for thee
Where all our fears and terrors flee
In Polmadie
The Pollokshaws Cadillac, episode four
Polmadie — Tom Morton
Let’s Make Plans For The Weekend — Carla J Easton
The Lonely Lp — The Vaselines
Good Morning Heartache — Tam White
Call Me Round — Pilot
Koeeoaddi There — The Incredible String Band
Til We All Have Faces — Steve Butler
Lady Kilmarnock’s Lament — Alan Reid & Brian McNeill
World Turned Upside Down — Dick Gaughan
The Reflector — The Revellers
Sunny Side — North Country Fair
The Only Thing That Keeps Me Alive — Kissing Bandits
Riverman — Rutkowski Sisters
A Little Love — Biffy Clyro
Age Of Capricorn — Boards of Canada
Sorry Eyes — Pictish Trail
It’s Sin That’s Got Its Hold Upon Us — King Creosote
My Life — Kirsten Adamson
Straight Talking Man — Rory Butler
Jigsaw — Brontës
It’s Just a Ghost — Galson Motors
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