DURING a lockdown walk, Glasgow professor and band frontman David Archibald spotted an unusual gravestone.
“I had walked up to the monument in Sighthill Cemetery which is dedicated to those who were executed or deported for their role in the Radical Wars,” he explains.
“I was familiar with the leaders’ names - Andrew Hardie and John Baird, and James ‘Purly’ Wilson, who was hanged and beheaded in Glasgow Green.
“But when I read the names of those deported to Australia, I spotted ‘Thomas Pike or Pink’.”
He added: “It seemed ironic that on a monument dedicated to an important episode in Scottish history there was a lack of clarity about even the names of those deported.
“Instantly, I knew that this would be the subject of a new song.”
The Tenementals consists of academics, musicians and artists whose songs explore the radical side of Glasgow’s past.
They will release their new song, Peter Pike or Pink, featuring Belle and Sebastian’s Sarah Martin as guest vocalist, on August 2.
It is the second single from their forthcoming debut album, which is supported with funds from Glasgow City Heritage Trust and will be out on Strength in Numbers Records in the autumn.
The Radical Wars, or Scottish Insurrection, was a huge uprising which made Glasgow’s upper classes and factory bosses tremble in their well-heeled shoes, fearing a French-style revolution was on the cards, but it is rarely included in Scottish history lessons.
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The wars began in April 1820 after years of growing unrest. More than 60,000 workers in Lanarkshire, Dunbartonshire, Stirlingshire, Ayrshire and Renfrewshire halted work on April 3 in protest at harsh working conditions.
Many were unhappy with the government in London ignoring their plight and wanted a greater Scottish voice in politics.
Three Radical leaders - John Baird, Andrew Hardie and James 'Purly' Wilson - were executed, and others transported or fled the country.
Wilson, earned his nickname because he was credited with inventing the purl-stitch, and yet, he is not well known.
Although the uprising was quashed, the call for reform was not completely disregarded. Eventually the 1832 Scottish Reform Act granted Glasgow its first MP.
In 1847 the remains of Baird and Hardie were re-interred at Sighthill Cemetery where a monument to all the Radicals stands in their memory.
“Why are Scotland’s radical reformers and revolutionaries not known yet its city streets are often named after merchants and traders whose fortunes were connected to imperial plunder and transatlantic slavery?” says David.
“As I sauntered home, that day, I wondered who ‘Thomas Pike or Pink’ was, what happened to him and began to put some lyrics together.
“The song also reflects on the position of 1820 in the Scottish imagination. For some, the event is too nationalist, for others, it is too radical, indeed revolutionary.
“In our own small way, the song celebrates the spirit of Baird, Hardie, Wilson, and Pink or Pike: after more than two hundred years of historical marginalisation, they fully deserve it.”
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He adds: “Sarah has recently been making beautiful banners. It seemed fitting to make a video that connected her banner-making skills with the stitching and weaving of those who participated in The Scottish Insurrection.”
Sarah explains: “I was thrilled last year when David asked me to sing with The Tenementals - their songs are my favourite way to learn the history of Glasgow, and ‘Peter Pike or Pink’ is one of my favourites.
“It’s both a memorial - to a maker so obscure that even the correct name on The Sighthill Martyrs memorial was uncertain - and my gateway to learning about the Radical Wars of 1820.”
Peter Pike or Pink will be launched at The Glasgow Weekender on August 2 and 3, when the band will appear alongside Belle and Sebastian, Camera Obscura, CMAT, and The Vaselines in the city’s SWG3 venue.
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