Tongs Ya Bas: The Explosive History of Glasgow's Street Gangs

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It was in 2004 when long held stereotypes were confirmed in the eyes of many when Glasgow was named as the murder capital of Europe with 6.5 murders per 100,000 people. Violent crime levels were also at a record high with 80 violent crimes per 100,000 people. The issue got so bad in Easterhouse that Sixties crooner Frankie Vaughan even made an intervention, launching a knife amnesty in the area and bringing rival gang members round the table to talk it out.

San Toy (Protestant), Calton Tongs (Protestant), Tim Malloys (Catholic), Kent Star (Catholic), Calton Entry (Catholic) By that time the drug trade, which had crept in during the 60’s took hold of nearly every impoverished community with places like The Calton, Maryhill and Possil particularly affected. The areas were drowning amid a deluge of heroin and plagued by a new generation of violent, ruthless dealers. Lex is the youngest of three brothers MacLean being brought up by a single mother in a grubby tenement flat. His brothers are greatly contrasting in character; Alan a sensitive, aspiring artist, and Bobby an illiterate and unpredictable gang member. It is the former that Lex looks up to rather than Bobby who he sees as a "moron". Much of the film's central concerns seem to lie in these two contrasting sides of Lex's up-bringing. He lives in a world where artistic expression, or any such kind of creativity, is stifled. This being graphically represented by the beating of a young artist at the hands of a local gang. We also learn of this character's father's fruitless attempts to produce grapes in the middle of Glasgow. The only escapism and means of capturing anything remotely extrisnic for the likes of Lex and Alan is through their art. Ultimately though it is intelligence which prevails when Malky's ignorant act leads directly to his destruction. The 50s and 60s was a time of mass migration as people from the tenements moved out to the brave new worlds of Castlemilk, Easterhouse and Drumchapel.

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Includem, who work with kids other groups have given up on, have seen offending drop by nearly half among the gang members they have helped. Some say the saying “Ya Bass” comes from the ancient Scottish Gaelic battle cry of “Aigha Bas” meaning battle and die, but it’s far more likely the Calton and Barrowfield meaning was short for something far less subtle. So, a while later, after the "hilarity" was over I went to the bathroom and washed it all off as our food would be arriving soon and I didn't fancy answering the door to the Dominos man in drag.

Some early reports suggest a sectarian aspect to The San Toys in the early 1900’s with a grievance against the large numbers of Irish Catholic immigrants that were arriving in the area in large numbers.Director Gillies shows he knows how to film his environment and gives us telling and memorable images - such as a huge close-up of blood running down a plug-hole that looks like some work of abstract art. CIRV is a co-ordinated approach by the Strathclyde Police gangs task force, the national Violence Reduction Unit, youth support charities such as Includem, social work, housing and education bodies. Sergeant Ramsay said: "When we stop people and they are telling us who they run with, if they come up with a new name of a gang we haven't heard of before, we have to be on top of that and build up a picture of who is involved.