Words: Josh Parsonage
From Live Aid to Jacksonville ‘64 music has shown itself to be one hell of a
powerful tool throughout time, and on the night of June 3 rd St Luke’s became a
beacon of solidarity as over 600 gathered for an evening of politically charged
performance which carried (and succeeded in) an end goal of sending a
surgeon from Glasgow to Gaza.
The Serve Solidarity gig was organised by Unite Hospitality in Glasgow (and
supported by other organisations, such as Islamic Relief), who’s campaign of
the same name aims at exploring the power worker’s have in controlling the
ethics of their own labour by putting pressure on their employers to practice
BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) by ending the buying/selling of produce
from the apartheid Israeli state.
Theo Bleak’s ambient sound beautifully filled the old church space of St
Luke’s to open the night, easing the crowd into what was to be an evening of
emotional testimonies and well-directed anger. She was followed by Scottish
left-wing comedy legend Frankie Boyle who, in very much sticking to the
shock-comedic style which has brought him so much success, took jabs at
every aristocratic figure from Charles to the recently deceased Elizabeth,
which went down unsurprisingly well with an audience of-whom every member
the current (and next) UK government would brand an ‘extremist’.
After a chorus of Palestinian freedom chants from an inspired crowd local
artist Tina Sandwich took to stage and turned the energy up ten notches.
However, amongst a exhilaratingly high-energy set the highlight was an
unreleased ballad which brought the room into silence through amazement.
The song, which we can only hope will find its way into our headphones soon,
explored the feeling of being dropped back into a totally different world after
viewing the horrific images and stories seen coming out of occupied Palestine,
Gaza, and the West Bank.
Following next was Josie Long who, through hilariously engaging and often deeply relatable stories, explored the brutal reality of being left-wing in Britain, with the self-depreciatory humour about being English playing beautifully into the hands of a Scottish crowd. And, either side of another round of chanting from the audience came the headline act, and long-time campaigners for Palestinian freedom, Declan Welsh and the Decadent West who opened with the explosive and witty track, ‘No Fun’.
The next 45 minutes left not a moment to breathe as the band fired through track-after-track of high tempo indie mayhem. The most important moments of the set came naturally in the songs discussing the brutal occupation in Palestine, one of which being written long, long before the events of the last eight months. ‘Different Strokes’ is Welsh’s best and wonderful effort at telling the story of his time in the West Bank and captures in a strikingly personal way the warmth he felt from the Palestinian people despite their unimaginably terrifying situation. Two unreleased tracks ‘Walk a mile in Gaza’ and ’Twenty Thousand’ home in on the current Israeli onslaught of Gaza and seek to agitate the people of Scotland and beyond in a movement for Palestinian liberation. All profit made from these two songs will be donated to Islamic Help, the first of which is released on June 14th.
Another round of chanting proceeded the final track ‘Absurd’ which saw the crowd descend into a pit of chaos through dance, and a fan of the band, Lewis, joined them on stage to play Welsh’s part on guitar. With that an inspiring event of not only solidarity but material action came to an end with some final words from the frontman: “We are going to be doing more of these, you should do more of these, we can all do things like this, get off your arse and organise, have belief in yourself for you have power, free Palestine!”
As of the latest update at writing the event has gone on to raise a total of at least £12,000 with the £14,000 needed to send not one surgeon but two to Gaza expected to be achieved extremely soon.
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