The Proclaimers

A few weekends ago I went to see the Proclaimers play in Guildford. It had been around 6 or so years since I last saw them live, inebriated, off the back of two songs and a wee bit of silly nationalism. At the time the inebriation and silly nationalism certainly raised my opinion of them, but their performance encouraged me to purchase their greatest hits album a few days later. I am very pleased I made this decision, along with the one to go and see them again in Guildford. This time, older and wiser, having only had one pint, I was able to appreciate them much more as musicians. They put on a great show and have inspired me to look further than the peripheries of compilations. Sunshine on Leith is now level pegging with Rumours to be the next CD I purchase.

For someone (like myself back in t' day) looking to engage with their music after the turn of the century, it must be difficult to look past their image as a novelty act to be confined to wedding parties where three minutes of jovial scotch 'ta-da-la-la's sit well next to the 'Macarena' and 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. Back in t'day though (a much earlier day than t' day I was back in, mind) they leaped onto the scene with a television performance that garnered a lot of attention. Rather than a party tune, this was a deeply political ode to emigration from Scotland. These two songs, the two I was familiar with before seeing them for the first time, illustrate what makes them appealing to me. Matt Lucas of Shooting Stars and Little Britain fame describes it more eloquently than I can currently:

"...there is great wit and intelligence. Craig and Charlie's lyrics are frequently emotional, often unashamedly sentimental. Other times their words are as dry and pithy as their melodies are simply divine. They write with unabashed honesty and understated eloquence about what they know best - life, death, love, sex, marriage, parents, kids, football, politics, alcohol and Scotland - and leave the rest, quite happily, to everyone else."

- taken from the foreword to The Best of... (2002)

 This mixture, combined with the wry sense of humour which seems tied into a sense of 'jovial suffering' that pervades most aspects of Scottish culture, that makes them a winning package for me. There is something beautifully human about being free to tackle all subjects, from the serious to the comic, and not being any worse off for it. By looking at them this way it seems less surprising that Lucas was able to write that "'Sunshine on Leith' says more to me about me life and the way I feel than anything Morrissey or Cobain ever wrote." And he's not even Scottish!

Their style of lyrical honesty is certainly one that I'm going to try and use more in the future, and they are definitely a band that I am going to encourage others to give a chance to. Starting with you! Go and grab a bunch of them.

"Let me donate something to a kids charity of your choice
For you I would willingly be a worse traitor than William Joyce
If I could sing I would sing you a song in Sam Cooke’s voice
Let me rephrase that, I think there’s a better line there
Spinning around in the air"