Bob Hamilton

Describing the women from the adjacent garment factories, and the hoist men

Clip Title	Describing the women from the adjacent garment factories, and the hoist men
Interviewee Name	Bob Hamilton
Interviewee Role	Taught photography and built the Darkroom in Ingram Street. Was the resident photographer for events and exhibitions.
Interviewer Name	Kerry Patterson
Interview Date	12 September 2019
Clip Length	2 minutes 30 seconds

Transcription

BH: Aye, it was quite good- well the Print studio was the only place, the rest were garment factories. There used to be a university drama group on the ground floor. But yeah, the women fae the factories, we were sort of like the weirdos, kind of like the weirdos upstairs! And we were right across from one of them. And they used the same lifts and sometimes you would get in the place, you know, if the lift wasnae working or if somebody hadn’t closed the doors, and there’d just be this sea of women, you know [mumbles], it was amazing! But they were very standoffish, you know, they didnae ‘get’ this kind ae stuff, and then I remember one time they were on strike, you know, it was, all out on strike and stuff. It was the middle of winter, and the women were all standing roun’ the bottom of the street, freezing. I says “come in for a cup of tea, you know?” So that was a kind of introduction to the Print Studio. So they come in, they’d staun, and have their wee cups of tea and just look out at what’s happening round about them and stuff like that. It was quite nice, because you had a reference then, you know, for them going up and down the stairs. And as I says it was a very, it was a kind of strange arts workshop. Very much traditional Glasgow bill of fare, you know what I mean? It was er… And… aye it was… cannae think of anything… I mean a few of them came into the studio and we showed them about, and it was quite nice cause’ they were quite intrigued by the whole thing. And that was one, I mean as I say, that’s one of the things about the Print Studio is, you could come into it, it wasn’t a pretentious art place. It was a very straightforward kind of, although people perceived it as being a kind of an odd place, but once they came in and started chatting to people, it was… But aye the sweatshops, and then we had the two hoist men, you know you used to employ a hoist man.

KP: So that was the guy that worked the lift, is that?

BH: Aye. It was Rab… Rab and, [pauses] what’s the other one- there was a philosopher, and an alcoholic. You know what I mean? And it was like total chalk and cheese. You know they’d work shifts – there’d be Rab and it’d be, oh what’s his name… but him and Calum [MacKenzie] used tae have these philosophic conversations, and stuff you know and - Wully! Wully the lift man. And then Rab, Rab would come in and sniff the, the acid to clear his nose and stuff like that, you know, he’d go into the acid [room] and [mumbles], ‘clear my nose’. You know, he was completely off the wall.