Gears For Fears: The Proclaimers interview
By Classic Pop | November 12, 2018
Fresh from celebrating their 30th anniversary, The Proclaimers are back with energetic, politicised new album Angry Cyclist. Classic Pop meets the Reid twins in Edinburgh to hear why it’s important to stay fresh â and how the spectre of unemployment still haunts them, decades on…
Written by John Earles
Face to face, itâs actually very easy to tell The Proclaimers twins Craig and Charlie Reid apart. For over a decade, guitarist Charlie has only worn glasses on stage, preferring contact lenses when heâs not on full Proclaimers duty. Chief songwriter Craig is also wirier and more intense than his laid-back brother.
Both are good hosts. Aware that Classic Pop is only in Edinburgh for the afternoon before going back to London, they meet us at The Balmoral Hotel, right next to Edinburgh Waverley station, in order to maximise interview time. Also with us is their 6′ 6″ manager Kenny MacDonald, an amiable presence who has represented the Reids since before they were signed. âWeâve had the same tour manager, Tom Oliver, since the start too,â notes Craig. âIf youâve got folk you can rely on who do their job properly, keep with them.â
In the next 90 minutes over tea (Craig) and Diet Coke (Charlie), itâs clear The Proclaimers are closer to their blue-collar roots than pretty much any successful musicians this side of Bruce Springsteen. Itâs not an affectation; more that the Reid brothers know how very different their lives could have been.
Although itâs been 31 years since Letter From America and debut album This Is The Story made the twins stars, Craig and Charlie had each endured six years of unemployment before finding success in their mid-20s. Theyâd begun The Proclaimers after a succession of teenage punk bands eventually slimmed down to what now seems the most obvious idea: just the twins and Charlieâs guitar, going full-tilt at the world. âYou always feel slightly insecure if youâve been unemployed as long as we were,â explains Charlie. Craig nods his agreement. âIt marks you. Itâs not just having no money, itâs having no control of your destiny. Thatâs frightening. And it doesnât leave you, ever.â
Itâs also worth remembering just how unlikely The Proclaimersâ break was. Theyâd first had the idea of forming a band after seeing Dexys Midnight Runners in Fife, blagging it backstage and persuading Kevin Rowland to fund their first demo. This was sent by a friend to The Housemartins, who were so impressed, they offered the unsigned duo the support slot on the tour for their second album, The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death.
âWeâd never played to more than 50 people and more usually 10 people,â recalls Craig. âWe got the overnight bus from Edinburgh before that first Housemartins gig in Birmingham. That was to 2,000 people â we were terrified!â Charlie recognises the debt they owe Dexys and The Housemartins, fellow politicised working-class bands. âWeâd have kept trying if those demos hadnât had that impact,â he ponders. âBut itâs important to acknowledge thereâs a distinct possibility success wouldnât have happened without them, and so to be grateful for what we have. Those two bands were highly instrumental for us.â
Old Anger, New Politics
The Proclaimers are skilled at writing quirkily romantic songs, typified by the sweetly funny Iâd Ask The Questions on new album Angry Cyclist. But, right back to the list of recently closed steel mills recited in Letter From America, the Reid brothers have also taken left-wing politics to the masses. You hear it in the title track of Angry Cyclist, an image Craig feels summarises the incoherent anger surrounding Brexit and Donald Trump.
âIâve always felt angry about politics,â smiles Craig, whose wife Petra is the daughter of late Scottish National Party deputy leader Margo MacDonald. âBut it feels now like the gloves are off. Thereâs a disinclination to acknowledge that the other side might have a point. Trump becoming President proves lies can win: keep telling absolute lies and enough folk will believe it to get you over the line. Thatâs new.â
Charlie emphasises the importance of not living in an echo chamber of your own political views. âYou have to question yourself,â he states. âYou mustnât tolerate racism or bigotry, but you have to listen to people who donât share your view and not be so certain in your own opinions.â
Last year marked the 30th anniversary of Letter From America reaching No.3, marked by an accompanying BBC documentary. Are the pair gutted they didnât get Angry Cyclist out in time for the celebrations? âAh, weâve long given up on the idea of more hit records,â says Craig, while Charlie chuckles beside him, then points out that, since Persevere in 2001, The Proclaimersâ career has been a model of efficiency: a new album every two or three years, with an accompanying lengthy tour. In the UK alone, there are 47 dates for Angry Cyclist.
âWe couldnât have finished this new record any quicker than we did,â Craig says. âI think the quickest weâve ever written an album is five months, and Angry Cyclist took just over a year. Itâs not any harder to write new songs, but itâs not any easier, either.â
Charlie adds: âIf we stopped writing new songs, thatâd be the end of the story for us. Nothing against guys who just rely on the old hits, but thatâs not for us. And we canât take too long a break, because then your voice is wrecked.â
Musicals and Movies
At least theyâre still able to enjoy themselves on tour. New song The Battle Of The Booze sees various drinks compete against each other with â spoiler alert â vodka declared the champion. âThereâs many nights when weâll have a good drink after a show,â smiles Craig, who really does favour vodka. âBut never, ever before a gig. Thatâs embarrassing.â That philosophy dates back to pre- Proclaimers days, when the Reids witnessed musicians going on stage half-cut. Whisky connoisseur Charlie remembers: âYouâd see shaky singers going: âI play better when I have a drinkâ and theyâd be wrecks. We understood weâd never be as good, even if it was just one or two drinks inside us.â
Although The Proclaimers are well structured now, at their height they effectively disappeared for 13 years. Following second album Sunshine On Leith in 1988, there was just 1994âs Hit The Highway before they returned with Persevere. They helped raise their respective children and were devastated by the death of their father in the interim, but Charlie confesses: âIt wasnât like we didnât want to be in the band any more. Life was carrying on in other directions but even then, no, we shouldnât have been away that long. When we came back with Persevere, we played really small venues and didnât know if people would still be interested.â
People certainly were, partly thanks to the musical Sunshine On Leith, which eventually became a well-received film starring Peter Mullan and Jane Horrocks. The musical began as a low-key project in Dundee, with the twins initially sceptical of its writer Stephen Greenhornâs approaches.
âI didnât think it was a wind-up,â recalls Charlie, âI just thought, âwell, good luck with thatâĤâ. Weâve been very fortunate with the musical, because you reach more people than we ever would with an album. You forget how many people in Britain will never go to a concert, because theyâre too old, too infirm, or they just donât have the money. But once that film is on TVâĤâ
Craig picks up the story. âIâve seen four different productions and, hopefully, itâs going to the West End next year. Itâs surreal, every time, especially seeing a woman sing my lyrics. You go back to where you were when you wrote those early songs, skint and unemployed, and youâre welling up!â He bursts into a wry laugh.
The title track of Sunshine On Leith has another life, as the terrace anthem for the twinsâ beloved Hibernian. Itâs been played to pump up the crowds after big wins ever since a UEFA Cup game in 2001 against Greek side AEK Athens. Angry Cyclist is The Proclaimersâ first album since Hibernian finally won the Scottish Cup trophy for the first time since 1902, when they beat Rangers 3-2 with a goal at the death in the 2016 final. Theyâd lost 10 major finals in the intervening 114 years, yet the Reid brothers werenât there to see the emotional scenes of Sunshine On Leith being sung by Hibsâ fans in the aftermath. Instead, they were backstage in Salisbury. Craig says: âI never thought Iâd see us win a final, anyway! Iâm just glad the curse is lifted. Itâs some skill, to lose every final since 1902, but we won it. We saw it on a laptop and, when the final whistle went, wow, it was a weight off our shoulders!â
No Compromise
Craig calls Sunshine On Leith âby far the best song Iâve writtenâ. Yet, on its release as a single in 1988, he and Charlie refused to cut down the anthem into a radio edit. âYou donât cheapen a song like Sunshine On Leith,â he says. âThat song is what it is. And itâs six minutes.â
Itâs a stoic attitude that typifies The Proclaimersâ determination to honour their own music. Their only single before Letter From America was Throw The âRâ Away, which railed against record execs who refused to sign The Proclaimers because of their broad Scottish accents. âTo an extent, those record companies were right,â says Charlie. âThe way we sing, it does limit the number of people willing to listen. But it also makes you stick to your guns. Itâs the same with how we look. We knew from the start that being twins with glasses, singing in our own voicesâĤ you stand out, but itâs not mass appeal.â
Theyâre also calm about the legacy of Iâm Gonna Be (500 Miles) â one of the quickest songs Craig has ever written. âIâm just glad it happened!â he laughs. âFinancially, itâs been fantastic, and that means artistically itâs allowed us to keep making the records we want.â Because it was written so quickly, Charlie points out theyâve learned not to question songs which arrive speedily.
âIf a song seems to write itself, you record it quickly, like we did with âĤ(500 Miles),â he explains, before songwriter Craig adds: âbecause you can guarantee the next song wonât be so quickâ.
Unlike the stereotype of musical brothers, there seems to be little tension between the Reids. Itâs a friendship as well as familial association which Charlie alludes to when he explains how Dave Eringa came to produce Angry Cyclist, having first worked with the pair on previous album Letâs Hear It For The Dogs. Eringa has also worked with Manic Street Preachers, Kylie and Roger Daltrey. âDave nearly always works with artists more than once,â says Charlie. âHe understands the politics of bands. Not that there are many politics with usâĤ I hope!â
Which just leaves the big difference of their attitude to contact lenses. Craig has the worse eyesight of the twins, yet grimaces at the idea of âpoking about in my eyesâ, while Charlie despairs at how expensive glasses are now. âIâm recognised anyway,â he shrugs. âWhen weâre on tour, I canât be bothered taking time to put my lenses in, so people spot me regardless, especially with Craig. Iâm aware weâre hard to miss!â
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