The brand new Pollokshaws Cadillac, volume 10, can be streamed on Mixcloud here. Full playlist at the end of my wee story about Steak and Kidney, Dolly, Lena, Michael and Liz. Or click on the link that follows:

May 17, 1977. Punk bubbling away like a volcano. White Riot by The Clash released a couple of months previously, Orgasm Addict by Buzzcocks on its way and unstoppable, and of course the Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen already banned by the BBC. It was Her Majesty’s Silver Jubillee, after all. And England’s dreaming. But what about Scotland?

That May morning saw Queen Liz arrive in Glasgow for a Jubilant day in the Dear Green Place. All the sweets of being royal were made available: lunch at the City Chambers with aldermen and alderwomen. A visit to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery. Football at Hampden, where a Glasgow Select played (and beat) an English FA team. A friendly of course.

Finally, a Royal Gala Variety Performance at the King’s Theatre. The line-up beggars belief. Names like Shari Lewis, ventriloquist, mean very little today. But old stagers like Frankie Howerd, Eric Sykes and Ronnie Corbett were all present and saucily incorrect. David Soul from Starsky and Hutch. He sang, approximately.

From actual Scotland, there was, as well as Corbett, the soon-to-be tragic figure of Lena Zavaroni and the legend that was Sydney Devine, Steak and Kidney, pride of Ayr, belting out Tiny Bubbles no doubt, to the jewllery-rattling delight of the assembled punters. But it’s the other two names on the roster of acts that cause the jaw to drop.

The Jackson Five. Dolly Parton.

The young Michael Jackson apparently nipped across Sauchiehall Street during rehearsals to buy a bottle of lemonade. If only he’d been served Irn Bru instead, perhaps the whole fabric of music history would have been different. Or maybe he was, and it was all Irn Bru’s fault…perhaps he watched and learned from Steak and Kidney’s glittery act. Then again, maybe not.

But Dolly. Dolly met the Queen. The Queen met Dolly. This was Dolly’s first trip to Scotland and I just love the idea that somehow, for a brief moment, Sydney Devine, Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton and Queen Elizabeth might have been found backstage at the Kings, passing round a bottle of ginger…

At the time, Dolly told the Evening News: “When they told me on the plane I was appearing in front of the Queen I just jumped up and down telling everyone. It’s just one of the biggest thrills of my life.

“When I was a little girl I grew up in a world of kings and queens and princes and princesses in fairy tales, now I’m going to meet one.”

Others have written far more knowledgeably and insightfully about Dolly’s importance as a musician, songwriter, actor, cultural icon, and philanthropist, I interviewed her once, sight unseen ‘down the line’ about her Imagination Library project, and I remember one of our producers, Kirsteen, a Dolly superfan, went to Glasgow (I was in Aberdeen) to ‘supervise’ the other end of the interview. To be in The Presence. She was quite stunned to find Dolly wearing glasses. Like another country music queen I interviewed, Tammy Wynette, she was delightful, funny, helpful, generous with her time and opinions. Above all, she was professional. And she told the old stories, the ones she’d related a million times before, with verve, panache and sincerity.

And the thing about Dolly was this: she was loved. Loved in a way that went beyond mere fandom. Despite all the visual artifice, the glamour and posed poise, she embraced the marginal and the poor, the wealthy and the celebrated. She gave millions back; she gave her time and she gave herself. And she was utterly sincere.

Like Johnny back in 1977, she meant it, man.

Polly10 playlist

You Held the World In Your Arms — Idlewild

Wonderful — Kinnaris Quintet

Little Sparrow — Jenn Butterworth

These Barren Years — Admiral Fallow

Been So Long in Babylon — The Donald Anderson Band

Wide Ocean Blue — Malachy Tallack

Fly Away — Monica Queen

Coisich, A Ruin — Capercaillie

This Fire — Franz Ferdinand

Endless Soul — Josef K

Boys Keep Swinging (2016 Remaster) — The Associates

Tom Weir — Aberfeldy

Write a Novel (Modern Loss) — Star Wheel Press

Worldwide — The Painted Word

Ceci n’ Est Pas Une Pipe — Michael Marra & The Hazey Janes

The Darkness Ends — The Hazey Janes

Never Gonna Be the Same — Danny Wilson

All The Things She Said (2025 Mix) — Simple Minds

For Shame Of Doing Wrong — Sheila Henderson

Hokey Pokey (John Peel Session 11/02/1975) — Richard and Linda Thompson

Coney Island Rain — The Legendary Hearts

Little Sparrow — Dolly Parton