Walking Heads

07/03/2025

An eye opener

19/01/2025

Here we go

Here's the latest MNS GIGguide from the MUSIC NEWS Scotland team, which includes our guide to music on Scottish TV and radio in the coming

25/12/2024

“It’s about helping people carry on”
A Christmas gift

As is tradition for us now, our Chair of Trustees Nick Hopkins has written about his reflections of the past year and the work of the organisation. He shares this with you below:

We tell each other stories, human beings. Ourselves and each other. About ourselves and each other.

Christmas has its own set of stories. The story of a journey and a birth. Ghost stories to send a shiver. Stories about family Christmases past. Stories in Christmas films, whether interwoven love stories or pursuing hostage takers in downtown LA.

Glasgow kind of fancies itself as a city of storytellers, with some justification. From Billy Connolly to Kevin Bridges, to the bloke in the pub sharing his life story, to the chats over the counter and on the bus, we (I think I can say that after 29 years) are constantly telling stories. Often loudly.

The last couple of weeks had me thinking about stories and whose we hear, and what they are for. A chunk of my work time is spent with spreadsheets. But a chunk is spent on the phone or in the flesh listening to and noting down people’s stories, and using them to tell another one about their collective experience.

Last week I was hearing from people getting home care trying out a new bit of tech. The stories of the people I was talking to aren’t generally heard. Only a bit of them by me in that half an hour in their home, and in our wider culture, local and national, hardly at all. The people with them are invisible.

I think the same is true of our Foodbank Centre users. Yes, Glasgow tells itself stories of hard times, its past poverty is something the city sort of celebrates and runs from at the same time. It’s certainly a story others tell of us, often for worse, not better.

But I’m not convinced we really hear the stories of people in poverty, right here, right now. The people coming to us don’t tell people they know. They don’t appear on TV or radio. Others are sometimes happy to create stories about them. Pushing their voices and their real stories forward would feel as counter cultural as the Christmas story of love and low birth would have felt in Imperial Rome.

Some of those stories will shock, but offer hope. I’ve spent time this year speaking to people who use the Money Matters advice service. Some of whom get to it through using our Foodbank Centres with us. Some were very clear. Without the help of that service, their story would have stopped, and they would not have been here to tell it. Our work, and that of our partners is about more than food and money. It is also about helping people carry on.

We tell stories to generate a connection, to share an understanding, to create a moment of shared emotion. To provoke action.

It’s above my pay grade to knit together a vision, a future story, of how we get to a society in which stories of poverty only reference the past. There will be spreadsheets as well stories involved in that effort.

But there will also need to be the stories of the people who come to us. And next year a bigger part of our work will be amplify those voices and stories, with permission of course, so that they connect with people, create a shared understanding, a moment of shared emotion. And provoke to action in a way that perhaps can help build a new story.

I’d like to wish you a wonderful Christmas, in which your old stories warm you, and a New Year in which the ones you write and share are what you hope they will be.

Our donations have been lower this Christmas than previous years and we could very much do with your help.

If you would like to help us continue our work and our story, please consider donating here

https://glasgowsw.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/

Nick Hopkins
Chair of Trustees
Glasgow South West Foodbank

19/12/2024

Tomorrow (Friday) and tomorrow…

05/12/2024

This Saturday La Belle Angele

Our beloved Latin club night, Reggaeton Party is back in Edinburgh this Saturday!

The best Reggaeton DJs playing strictly Reggaeton all night, featuring all your favourite old and new bangers like Gata Only, Gasolina, Bailando, TQG, Moscow Mule, El Taxi, Despacito, Mi Gente, Pepas, Con Altura and so many more!

There will be some tickets on the door, but best grab yours now to secure your spot on the dance floor.

Tickets: https://www.fatsoma.com/e/xqt2lfk8/reggaeton-party-edinburgh-december-2024

fans

10/11/2024

A date for the diary with Underground Solution and Ian Rankin

Big Announcement! Join us in two weeks for a very special guest appearance...

'Behind the Counter' Album In-Store with Ian Rankin. Saturday 23rd November from 3pm.

Celebrating the release of the 2nd installment from Rough Trade Shops 'Behind the Counter' compilation series, we're very excited to be welcoming its curator and local legend Ian Rankin to the shop to work a special one-off 'shift' here behind the counter!

“I still haunt record shops and play vinyl, and I still compose playlists, just in case the chance of working behind the counter arrives." Rankin says.

Well, after reading this quote from the sales notes for the LP, we couldn't help but offer to make this dream finally come true. Our offer was graciously accepted, so you can catch Ian playing his favourite records, signing copies of the album, and maybe serving the odd customer here! Good tunes and top musical banter are guaranteed.

Grab a pre-order for the album via the link to our website below and collect a signed copy on the day from the man himself!

https://www.undergroundsolution.com/various-artists-behind-the-counter-with-ian-rankin-rough-trade-shops-rtbtc2lp.html

16/07/2024

Well worth a look

27/06/2024

We’ve been quiet lately but that’s about to change. We are fair delighted to be joining the lovely bunch at Glasgow City Heritage Trust and Inner Ear in Series Three of If Glasgow’s Walls Could Talk

Tonight sees the launch of the latest podcast series as Walking Heads research director and co-founder (that’s me, Fay) joins GCHT director Niall Murphy to co-host stories from the heart of Glasgow

I have a go at explaining how it came about…

Generally, one thing leads to another - as I discovered around 2010 when I teamed up with the other Walking Headers founders Sharon McLaughlin Alan Gibson and Dougal Perman to create a different way of exploring cities

OK, here goes. Adjusts mic, pats headphones, clears throat. “Hello and welcome to Series Three of If Glasgow’s Walls Could Talk”. Is that really me? It seems my work has taken an unexpected new direction and despite the stomach full of fluttering butterflies it’s a great thrill. How did it h...

03/05/2024

30/03/2024

What a lovely start to our weekend.
Birdringing volunteers George and Ben arrived at 7am and caught a sunny morning as well as a beautiful pair of chiffchaffs among many other songbirds, (They also ringed 43 Siskins! Will find a pic)
Such a treat for us.
Our investment in sunflower hearts not wasted!

George and Ben also spotted 2 kingfishers, 1 dipper, and a pair of goosanders - as well as our resident swan, moorhen and mallard families. Red squirrels didn’t seem at all put out.
When I get time I’ll add all this to blog. It’s overdue. Hoping to involve local groups in wildlife visits and discussions. We’re supporting the inspiring work of Children’s Hospices Across Scotland () again this year

16/12/2023

Live now, Radio Magnetic Winter Live Stream, our festive party on air featuring Andy Watt, Hammy Sgìth, Noisebox (live modular set), Brother Jo Seph, Jamie Thomson, Turtle, Vic & Davie B2B, Anny & Dougal (me) B2B.

Broadcast live to your community of fans and tune in direct to creators from every genre

19/08/2023

A real feel-good post - we’ve been discovering from Inner Ear team some of the great stories of the people, the bands, the inspiring musicians, who make the championships echo round the world. Lots of stereotype-busting!! Thank you Wake and District Pipe Band. Looking forward to s treasure trove on Trad TV

Stories, sights and sounds balance our world. The digital media production company behind the UK's longest running internet radio station, Radio Magnetic (www.radiomagnetic.com),…

01/09/2022

More than heartwarming!
Cinema brings community together, A good cause to support.

We're very concerned about the impact the Cost of Living Crisis will have on our community.

Cinema is a comfort during hard times, and we want to ensure we're always here when you need us. Our ticket prices haven't increased since 2019 and we won't be raising them any time soon.

As a charity, the crisis will present many challenges for GFT too. If you are able, and would like to support us to continue to deliver Cinema for All throughout this period, you can make a donation to GFT online: bit.ly/GFT_Donate

We really appreciate your support 🖤

17/08/2022

Another lovely invitation from GFT ...maybe more welly-weather than going barefoot tomorrow but all the more reason to take seat in the cinema for a great Movie Memories film!

This month’s Movie Memories at GFT is a dementia-friendly screening of the charming romantic comedy Barefoot in the Park.

"Gene Saks’ 1967 film stars Robert Redford and Jane Fonda as a newly married couple setting up home in a small New York apartment. But as the romance of their honeymoon gives way to the reality, they realise that married life isn’t all fun and games!"

All tickets are £3. More info and tickets from this link

Scotland’s original independent cinema is the home for film and film lovers in Glasgow.

08/07/2022

What’s inside?
Much more than you can see in one visit. I’m old enough to remember the first opening of the Burrell Collection in 1983 so it was good but a little strange to visit the newly refurbished museum. Familiar yet different. Old and new.

Staff of all ages very welcoming and enthusiastic.

In two hours we had barely begun! Will be back.

While Glasgow city centre still showing signs of Covid impact on daily life, it’s interesting to see how busy and bustling the Burrell is.

15/06/2022

Here's a cheering thought – tomorrow's dementia friendly film at GFT is Local Hero. By the one and only Bill Forsyth. "A loving, funny, understated portrait of a small Scottish town and its encounter with a giant oil company."

This is part of Movie Memories, Glasgow Film theatre's monthly programme for people affected by dementia, their carers and/or families, a chance to socialise in a safe and welcoming environment.

The screening starts at 11 am. All tickets £3.00, find out more here: https://glasgowfilm.org/shows/movie-memories-local-hero-12a

For news and updates just sign up to the monthly Dementia-Friendly Enewsletter: glasgowfilm.org/enewsletters

Scotland’s original independent cinema is the home for film and film lovers in Glasgow.

11/03/2022

A moment of magic in a time of turmoil - if you are able, enjoy this extraordinary beautiful sound installation, Sing the Gloaming, part of Cryptic Glasgow Sonica event in the Hidden Gardens which is open free to the public until Sunday 20 March

This is just one of the ‘fairy voice boxes’ (as one wee girl described them yesterday afternoon) located among ferns and emerging spring bulbs in a quiet corner of the gardens. I’ll add a video or two if I get a chance.

Featuring the work of Simon Kirby, Tommy Perman, Rob St John and many more voices. See more about Sing the Gloaming here https://singthegloaming.surfacepressure.net/