True story – the first song I listened to in 2020, not long after the bells, was not some Jools Holland, recorded in July, boogie-woogie piano piffle.
And neither was it whatever half-remembered and re-heated dollop of dire 90s Scot-pop BBC Scotland decided to ‘treat’ its new year viewers to.
No, it was Atrocity Exhibition by Joy Division.
The opening song to the band’s 1980 masterpiece Closer, it was itself inspired by a story collection from the wonderful dystopian writer JG Ballard.
They’re bleak pieces, song and book, whatever way you look at them.
The lyrics “asylum with doors open wide / where people pay to see inside” are hardly the stuff The Broons would have had a post-bells knees-up to.
But before I get accused of being a miserable indie caricature, it was only by pure chance that I happened to listen to it as 2019 lurched into 2020.
I had gone to the kitchen in search of drink when I heard it playing on iPod shuffle (remember that?).
I remember thinking that it was pretty appropriate. 2019 was, whichever way you cut it, an awful year, with December being particularly bleak.
We finished the year with a continental land mass on fire – and we started a new one with the prospect of a civilisation-collapsing war.
This is the way, step inside.
HOWEVER – I also watched Rogue One (the best Star Wars film, no argument) twice over the Christmas holidays. And this year I am choosing to sign up to its central message of hope – the stuff, in the film at least, all rebellions are built on.
And, as the wonderfully optimistic Charlotte Bray points out (page 28), the third sector by its very nature is feel-good, and is itself a rebellion based on optimism and the very best of humanity.
In this month’s magazine we have attempted to showcase some of the things we have to look forward to this year. These include the Scottish Charity Awards, which have just launched at Edinburgh castle (pages 10 to 15) and SCVO’s fantastic Gathering event, which showcases the best of our sector.
You can find a full events programme for this year’s event on pages 34 to 35
This is just a foretaste of some of the things that will be happening in Scotland. We have many challenges here, but also many opportunities.
It’s the same internationally – the Civicus Monitor report into global civic freedoms (pages 22 to 23) does make concerning reading. But it also points to the existence of a thriving civil society across the planet.
And the focus of the world will be on Scotland this year when Glasgow hosts the COP26 climate summit in November. The third sector has much to contribute here – and it couldn’t be more vital, as is outlined on pages 8 and 9.
So – this is the way, step inside.
As long as we keep fighting there’s always an avenue for advance.
I hope.
Graham Martin is editor of TFN.
