Why a Booktrail?
1970s: It’s the year punk rock was born, Concorde entered commercial service and a tiny Romanian gymnast changed the sport forever.
Welcome to the Heady Heights
What you need to know before your trail
Archie Blunt is a man with big ideas. He just needs a break for them to be realised. In a bizarre brush with the light-entertainment business, Archie unwittingly saves the life of the UK’s top showbiz star, Hank ‘Heady’ Hendricks’, and now dreams of hitting the big-time as a Popular Music Impresario. Seizing the initiative, he creates a new singing group with five unruly working-class kids from Glasgow’s East End. Together, they make the finals of a televised Saturday-night talent show, and before they know it, fame and fortune beckon for Archie and The High Five. But there’s a complication; a trail of irate Glaswegian bookies, corrupt politicians and a determined Scottish WPC known as The Tank are all on his tail…
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Travel back in time to the heady heights of 1970s Glasgow
“It’s the year punk rock was born, Concorde entered commercial service and a tiny Romanian gymnast changed the sport forever.”
What a city. The city of punk rock, young men and a whole lot of trouble
“The city shimmered in a ridiculous heat. Hottest summer since records began , claimed those who knew about such things. At other times of the year, the smog from hundreds of factory chimneys would have totally obscured the urban terrain from this elevated perspective. It was the end of the Glasgow Fair fortnight: the city air’s annual break from the relentless industrial processes that employed many of its citizens.”
This is the city and the novel which puts the city’s graveyard – the Necropolis – at the centre of the landscape It marks the gangsters spot where they hang out and give orders. It’s a far cry from the spires of the university which mark the cultured West End.
This is the landscape against which the novel takes place. The sound of the 1970s (there is a playlist at the back of the book) should be in the air as you read.
There’s just enough Scottish vernacular and Glasgow dialect to make this a visit back to 1970s Glasgow you will never forget.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Welcome to the Heady Heights
Destination: Glasgow Author/guide: David F Ross Departure Time: 1970s
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