‘Peter Pike or Pink’: The Tenementals ft. Sarah Martin
On 2 August 2024, Glasgow band The Tenementals will release ‘Peter Pike or Pink’, which is the second single from their forthcoming debut album, Glasgow: A History (Volume I of VI). The album recounts a radical history of Glasgow and will be released by Strength in Numbers Records in the autumn.
Appearing as a guest vocalist on the track is Sarah Martin from Belle and Sebastian. Sarah has appeared at several gigs with The Tenementals, including at The Revelator Wall of Death when the band played alongside RMT trade union leader, Mick Lynch.
Peter Pike or Pink is related to what is commonly known as the 1820 ‘Radical War’, ‘Radical Rising’ or ‘Scottish Insurrection’, when workers in central Scotland attempted to establish a Radical Republic. This involved a period of sustained civil unrest, a general strike, and an aborted armed uprising. It culminated in the leaders being sentenced to death while others were deported.
David Archibald from The Tenementals said:
‘During lockdown I walked up to the monument in Sighthill Cemetery which is dedicated to those who were executed for their role in the Radical Wars, and to those who were deported to Australia.
I was familiar with the leaders’ names; Andrew Hardie and John Baird, and James ‘Purly’ Wilson, who was hanged and beheaded in Glasgow Green. Wilson’s nickname is connected to him being credited with inventing the purl-stitch, and yet, he is not well known. 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?
When I was reading the names of those deported to Australia, I read of ‘Thomas Pike or Pink.’ It seemed ironic that on a monument dedicated to an important episode in Scottish history, but one which does not significantly permeate public consciousness, and of which there is considerable uncertainty, 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, and as I sauntered home, I wondered who he was, what happened to him and began to put some lyrics together. That little episode resulted in ‘Peter Pike or Pink,’ which involved a degree of artistic license. It seemed to me, though, that as the powers that be were uncertain of his name, why should we be prisoners to their historical account?
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.
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 Martin added:
‘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 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 War of 1820.’
The single will be launched at The Glasgow Weekender 2-3 August, when the band will appear alongside established acts such as Belle and Sebastian, Camera Obscura, CMAT, and The Vaselines in the city’s SWG3 venue.
Further info: https://swg3.tv/events/2024/august/a-bowlie-event-belle-sebastian-present-the-glasgow-weekender/
The Tenementals’ debut album is supported with funds from Glasgow City Heritage Trust.