The Glasgow Barons

To build hope, resilience, teamwork, listening and communication through music in Govan

Govan faces tremendous economic and social hardship. So, named after the ship building barons, The Glasgow Barons have been helping make music in Govan since 2017 with schools, community groups and local people. We bring diverse audiences together in a wide range of local venues, be it Fairfield Club, Govan & Linthouse Parish Church or the Billiard Room Sessions in the Pearce Institute.

Local groups build music programmes with our support, such as our asylum-seeking Musicians In Exile and The Linties’ golden oldies singalong group. We also support local singer-songwriters and rappers to tell Govan’s story. We pay local folk to support our charitable objectives. We align closely with the NSPCC Together for Childhood Govan and other local partners to maximise and sustain our impact.

The Glasgow Barons are based in Govan where our Artistic Director is also a resident and community councillor.

Join our Mailing List
Group of children and adults playing musical instruments outside of a school building, with a man leading a music activity.
Performer on stage rapping or singing into a microphone with DJ setup in the background, stage lit with blue and red.

Our Team

A middle-aged man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a suit and tie, standing outdoors near a body of water with trees in the background.

  • Executive Artistic Director & Conductor

    Paul MacAlindin has conducted orchestras and ensembles all over the world, from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the RSNO, the SCO, Oulu Sinfonia and Armenian Philharmonic to the ensembles of the Düsseldorf Symphoniker, Psappha and Cantiere Montepulciano.

    He has recorded for BBC Radio 3, WDR and Radio New Zealand. His most striking role to date has been as Music Director of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq, whose story he told in UPBEAT: the Story of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq. In December 2017, he received the first-ever Global Blue Ocean Shift Award for innovative business strategy from the Prime Minister of Malaysia at the Global Entrepreneurship Community Summit in Kuala Lumpur.

    He was a finalist for the conductor category of the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards of 2021, and now musically directs The Glasgow Barons.

Close-up black-and-white photograph of a person with curly hair, visible eyes, nose, and mouth, wearing a dark shirt and a necklace, against a plain background.

  • Creative Producer

    Ciarán Devlin is a music producer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and DJ with a background in social care work and education. As a health and social care worker he spent a decade 10 working with disabled people based in Glasgow and Govan, and he has a number of years of experience delivering educational programmes for Palestinian refugees and wider civil society in the West Bank with the British charity Unipal. He partnered with NGOs across Palestine to create summer camps for inner city youth in Nablus and Hebron delivering politics lectures, English classes and music courses for young people, and coordinated groups of volunteers within the region to effectively cater to hundreds of refugee children.

    As an artist, he has written soundtracks for short films shown at international film festivals, makes records with seedling artists from his own recording space, Rev Studios in Glasgow city centre, and has performed as an instrumentalist and DJ at venues and festivals from Cairo to Austin. He has won a SAMA award for Best Alternative Act, and has performed at TRNSMT, London Fashion Week SXSW, T In the Park, Tramlines, Belladrum and BBC Radio 6 Music Festival amongst others.

A young man with red hair, a red beard, and a red mustache is standing in front of a red and green glowing background with a tunnel-like effect. Tommy Dey, Creative Communities Producer

  • Creative Communities Producer

    Tommy Dey comes from a combined background of third sector community work and music. He is one of the most prominent voices in Scotland’s hip-hop and grime scenes. In his day job, he has supported people with Motor Neurone Disease, Young People with mental health difficulties and care leavers amongst others.

    Musically, he is a producer and songwriter. He has opened his own music studio, worked with young offenders in HMP Polmont with songwriting classes and supported esteemed acts such as BRIT Award Winner CasIsDead and MOBO award winner Scorcher. His music has been featured on the BBC, The Skinny, Scotland on Sunday and Wordplay Magazine. His most notable achievement in music was producing and performing at a Scottish rap takeover event in Marseille, which saw seven Scottish artists travel to France to perform.

    In community work he has worked as an advocacy worker for MND Scotland, supporting the rights of people with terminal illness. As a project lead with the Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare forum, which saw him organise a grant giving project  for young care leavers following the pandemic; and as an advocacy worker for Partners in Advocacy, through which he helped set up the nation wide project for young people going through the Children’s Panel process: My Rights, My Say.

Our Board

  • Black-and-white photograph of a man wearing glasses, holding a brass musical instrument, with a dark background. Bede Williams is our chair.

    Bede Williams

    Chairman

  • A woman with curly hair, smiling, wearing a patterned top. Jennie Dear is our vice chair.

    Jenny Deer

    Vice-Chair

  • Close-up of a middle-aged man with glasses, short gray hair, wearing a gray checkered shirt, smiling slightly, with a blue background.

    Martin Fairbairn CA, CBE

    Treasurer

  • A smiling middle-aged woman with short blonde hair, wearing a black shirt, in a setting with colorful, blurred decorative lights in the background. Wendy Niblock is a trustee.

    Wendy Niblock

    Trustee

  • A woman with dark hair and a floral top holding a clarinet and smiling.

    Jenny Stephenson

    Trustee

  • A man with dark hair and glasses wearing a yellow scarf playing an acoustic guitar at night with blurred Christmas lights in the background. Aref Ghorbani is a trustee and facilitator of Musicians in Exile.

    Aref Ghorbani

    Trustee

  • A smiling woman with shoulder-length brown hair standing outdoors with a cityscape, including the Brooklyn Bridge, in the background. Eilidh Gauld is a trustee.

    Eilidh Gauld

    Trustee

  • A smiling man with glasses and a beard taking a selfie on a city street with historic stone apartment buildings in the background.

    Rory Brown

    Trustee

  • Close-up of an older man with gray and white hair, light skin, light blue eyes, wearing a dark blue denim shirt, smiling slightly, standing in front of a beige tiled wall. Huw Lloyd Richards is a trustee

    Huw Lloyd Richards

    Trustee

Musicians In Exile Facilitators

  • A man with curly dark hair and a beard smiling and leaning against a tree in a park with green leaves and grass in the background. Jose Rojas is a facilitator of Musicians in Exile.

    Jose Rojas Navea

  • A man with dark hair and a beard sitting in front of a bookshelf in a decorated room, holding a guitar, wearing a floral print shirt.

    Aref Ghorbani