Alex Glasgow

Alex Glasgow (14 October 1935 – 14 May 2001) was an English singer-songwriter from Low Fell, Gateshead, England. He wrote the songs and music for the musical plays Close the Coal House Door and On Your Way, Riley! by Alan Plater, and scripts for the TV drama When the Boat Comes In, the theme song of which he sang.

Biography The son of a coal miner, Glasgow was born in Gateshead. His parents had previously emigrated during the depression in the 1930s to New Zealand and then Sydney in Australia, where his sister Isabelle was born. They later returned to the UK and Alex was born in 1935.

He was educated at Gateshead Grammar School, where he was a founding member of the Caprians Choir in 1953. He graduated in Languages from University of Leeds and taught in Germany. He spent his last years there and died aged 65 on 14 May 2001, He was a long-time friend and collaborator of the playwright and actor Henry Livings with whom he starred in a 1971 comedy sketch series for BBC2, Get The Drift, based on their stage show, The Northern Drift. This included a version of "As Soon as This Pub Closes (The Revolution Starts)". In 1980, he appeared with Livings at the Perth Festival in Western Australia in The Northern Drift. Glasgow emigrated to Australia the following year.

His songs include several which explore the contradictions of socialism, both inside and outside the Labour Party such as "The Socialist ABC", "My Daddy Is A Left-Wing Intellectual", "Little Cloth Cap" and "As Soon As This Pub Closes".