We are just back from the Proclaimers gig in Dunoon Queens hall. Ears still ringing.
A night with the Proclaimers is a peculiarly Scottish affair. They stand and deliver, lyrics half sung, half shouted- all in broad Scots. But there is a tenderness and thoughtfulness despite the style of delivery…
I wonder my blood
Will you ever return
To help us kick the life back
To a dying mutual friend
Do we not love her?
Do we not say we love her?
Do we have to roam the world
To prove how much it hurts?
When you go will you send back
A letter from America?
Take a look up the railtrack
From Miami to Canada
Bathgate no more
Linwood no more
Methil no more
Irvine no more.From ‘Letter from America’
So in the old story I’ll bet that I came
From Gael and Pict and Angle and Dane
And a poor migrant girl who could not write her name
It’s a common old story but it’s mine just the sameAll through the story the immigrants came
The Gael and the Pict, the Angle and Dane
From Pakistan, England and from the Ukraine
We’re all Scotland’s story and we’re all worth the same
Your Scotland’s story is worth just the sameFrom ‘Scotland’s story’
The whole night was a kind of tease- leading up to the orgasmic rendering of ‘I would walk 500 miles’- which has become a kind of Scottish unofficial anthem.
I kind of like this one though…