'Lost' Glasgow Subway song by Scottish musician revived 40 years on

On the Underground, written by the late Scottish composer Harry Barry, celebrated the launch of the city’s ultra-modern Clockwork Orange in 1980.

Now the cheery ditty, which featured on radio and TV at the time, is back centre stage in a social media campaign for Strathclyde Partnership for Transport.

The SPT is bidding farewell to its old Subway fleet as part of an ongoing £288m refurbishment.

SPT’s Director of Transport Operations, Richard Robinson said: “We are delighted to be able to use Harry Barry’s song celebrating our legacy fleet as we prepare to say goodbye to these much-loved trains from the system.

“We’d like to thank Harry’s family for letting us use the track, which was commissioned to mark the last modernisation of the Subway.

“We’re bringing this cheerful song to a brand-new audience.”

Harry, who was from Uddingston, died suddenly in 2013, but he has a huge back catalogue as a writer and producer in a career spanning 50 years.

It’s not the first time one of his compositions has had a resurgence.

Harry’s football anthem European Song, which celebrated Aberdeen FC’s victory in the European Cup Winners’ Cup final in 1983, featured in the film Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In, which premiered in 2021.

Harry’s daughter Kate said: “We’re delighted that dad’s memory lives on in his music.

“He wrote hundreds of jingles and songs during his career. His compositions have stood the test of time.

“He was a very talented man.”

The song is currently featuring on Glasgow Subway Instagram and TikTok platforms.

Meanwhile, Glasgow writers Steven Blockley and David J Thacker have written a book of short stories, Tunnel Visions, inspired by Glasgow’s Subway.

Steven explains: “Our first book – The Welsh Hercules – followed the life of my great-grandfather, the fairground and music hall strongman, Jack Lemm.

“So having covered family, it seemed natural to move on to home as our next project – and Glasgow is a wonderful canvas to use.”

David adds: “I’m a fairly new import to the city, and Steven has lived here all his life, so we knew we could provide an interesting point of view – looking at the city and its people through different eyes.”

The connecting thread for all the 15 stories in the new book, Tunnel Visions, is the Subway system.

“It seemed a perfect fit,” Steven says. “The Subway binds very different parts of the city, so that gave us a huge cast of characters to choose from.”

David adds: “We wanted to try and show as many sides to Glasgow as we could – there’s even a sort of ghost story in there.”

Tunnel Visions: Tales Inspired by the Glasgow Subway and the People Who Circle It is available now online or from Aye Aye Books at the CCA on Sauchiehall Street and Good Press Books in the Merchant City.

Glasgow's Subway opened in 1896, the third-oldest underground railway system in the world, largely covering the West End and city centre with eight stations to the north of the River Clyde and seven stations to the south.

The system was electrified in 1935, and the name changed to Glasgow's Underground. It was an unpopular decision, however, and Glaswegians continued to call it the Subway until the name changed back around 60 years later.

The 'Clockwork Orange' was not always orange, either - before 1954, its colours were mostly red, black and cream, and from 1954 until the 1980 modernisation, red alone.

In mid-1977, the entire system shut down to accommodate the modernisation works which were not actually finished by the time the Queen arrived to perform the official opening on November 2, 1979. The Subway re-opened to the public in April 1980.