The River Clyde is at the heart of Glasgow’s story. It’s why the city is where it is, after all. But is the river at the heart of Glasgow these days? Probably not, writer Louise Welsh and architect Jude Barber suggest in Who Owns the Clyde?, a new Empire Cafe podcast launched this week (visit podfollow.com/who-owns-the-clyde/view).

At the start of episode one (of three), entitled The Clyde Made Glasgow, the two of them are sitting by the river in Govan on a beautiful day looking at a couple of swans gliding gracefully along the river and … Well, nothing much else.

“Why is nothing happening on the water?” they ask. Exactly. As Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, tells them, in Glasgow the river and the city are disconnected. 

This is not the case in other cities: London, Liverpool and Newcastle spring to mind. In all three, the rivers Thames, Mersey and Tyne are tourist draws. In Glasgow, however, the river is just a line through the city that separates communities rather than pulls it together. “It’s an untapped resource,” as Welsh points out. 

I’m sure I was writing Herald op-ed columns about how terrible this situation was 10, 15 years ago. But in the years since it’s difficult to suggest that, the odd bridge apart, things have improved much.

Of course, it wasn’t always thus. The river was central to the city’s evolution and its industrial past. The Clyde was a vehicle for imperialism and trade. It’s the reason why Glasgow was able to monopolise the tobacco trade in Europe, councillor Graham Campbell pointed out to Welsh and Barber: “That’s our legacy. Lung cancer and slavery.” 

Hah, cheers Glasgow.

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I chanced across this new podcast series via a mention on Twitter (I don’t have to call it X just because Elon Musk says I do). I’m glad I did. By asking a simple question it’s reminding us how Scotland’s largest city has been unable to utilise the Clyde in the 21st century.

Not through choice. A vox pop conducted by the podcast suggests people have plenty of ideas of what they want from the river. Most just want to be able to walk or cycle along it. Welsh and Barber admit they would both quite like to swim in it. 

But is that even possible? To know that you’d have to know the answer to the question the podcast asks. Who owns the Clyde? 

Turns out the answer is, it’s difficult to find out. “There is real opacity around land ownership and rights in Scotland and indeed across the UK,” suggests Barber. “And how can a city plan for its future if it doesn’t fully know who owns what?”

Sometimes an answer starts when someone asks the question. I’m glad Welsh and Barber are doing just that.

(Image: Bjork)

Another podcast, Hrishikesh Hirway’s Song Exploder, has been given an airing on late night 6 Music this week. On Tuesday Bjork was given space to talk about the creation of her string-laden song Stonemilker, the opening track of her heartbreak album Vulnicura which came out in 2015. (Is that really nearly a decade ago?)

It is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever recorded (says me) and one of the joys of Song Exploder is the way it allows its creator to talk uninterrupted about its creation.

Bjork did so in her uniquely Bjorkian way: “I layered several recordings of the strings to be like a tower of equilibrium that you are standing in,” she explained, “and you are small and it is huge and it goes circle and circle and you feel really safe and secure.

“The strings are the tool I have to try to make this kind of cradle.”

Bjork actually waited for the right microphone to record it. “It had to be that you hear every detail in the voice. It’s like a really high-definition human that’s there.” 

Bjork is one of my favourite high-definition humans and this was a great reminder of why.

Oh, and the Lianne La Havas section that follows in the same episode is even better.

Finally, one of the most encouraging things on the radio this week has been the New Storytellers series on Radio 4 every morning this week. A platform for new radio voices, this series, drawing on entries for the annual Charles Parker Prize, suggests that the form has a robust future. Tuesday’s entry, Friends of the Wall, by Evan Green was particularly compelling. The story of the volunteers behind the National Covid Memorial Wall in Westminster, it was both technically and emotionally a beautiful piece of work; 15 minutes full of anger and passion, grief and love. 

 

Listen Out For: Penny Smith, Scala Radio, Tuesday, 10am

Scottish film composer Patrick Doyle, who scored Carlito’s Way, Gosford Park and Brave among many others, is Penny Smith’s guest.