One of the bosses got very excited when I was offered a phone interview with a Proclaimer, for 1) they're musical legends and 2) it meant he could entertain the office with terrible Scottish accents, wailing 'Take a loooooooook / up the railtraaaaack'. Being so established, it was tricky racking my brains to come up with original questions. This was a nightmare to transcribe as the dictaphone picked up a nearby building site rather than Craig's quiet voice.
I'm still not sure which one's Craig and which one's Charlie. Thankfully I've never been called upon to identify either.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in September 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
CRAIG REID - THE PROCLAIMERS
Everyone’s favourite Scottish twins The Proclaimers are preparing themselves for a lengthy tour this autumn. No jokes about walking 500 miles between venues please; we expect they’ve been heard many times before. We picked up the phone to Craig Reid (he’s the one who isn’t called Charlie) and asked him a few questions…
Hello, is that Craig?
Speaking, yeah.
You’re not tempted to pretend to be your brother and make stuff up?
No! [laughs] To be honest with you, it would probably be pretty much the same answers if you spoke to him.
You might get in trouble for that. What have you been up to this week?
This week so far we’ve been doing promotion and rehearsals. Went down to London to do a couple of things.
Have you been to see your musical?
I saw it the second to last night it was on at Glasgow. I would have seen it in Edinburgh but we were recording the new album at the time. I thought it was great.
It’s a play about two guys coming out of the army and going back to Edinburgh. It’s not a Proclaimers musical, it uses our songs but I thought they did a good job and I think they’re doing it again next year in Scotland and are thinking about taking it other places.
Your last album ‘Life With You’, are you pleased at how it’s gone down?
It’s fantastic to me. We’re proud of the records we made the last few years but this has got far more attention. It’s selling a lot better than the last few, it went in the charts so we’re very pleased with that.
You’re quite keen on your political issues, there’s a few songs on the album against the war in Iraq. Can you tell me some more about those?
Well there’s ‘The Long Haul’ which is really dealing with the idea that we’ve got to accept that this supposed war on terror - thirty, forty, fifty years they’re going to have to be doing whatever we’re doing.
And there’s also a song called ‘S-O-R-R-Y’ which is basically about the number of journalists, particularly newspaper columnists who were very keen on getting us into Iraq, they all thought it was going to be over quite soon. There’s certainly been a number who have admitted they were wrong but there’s a huge number who still won’t apologise for their part.
You’ve always been quite political in your lyrics haven’t you?
Yeah, it’s still a minority on this record [indistinct] it’s just the way it’s come out in this record, there’s probably four or five political ones on this album, maybe one or two on the last few records.
You’re in a good position to tell people your views aren’t you?
Yeah, you can’t ram it down their throats, I think you’ve got to try and do it in an entertaining way with a bit of wit and a bit of humour. But I think that if you have political views and you’re an artist then occasionally they’re liable to come out in your work. And I think there is a wealth of subject matter in the world at the moment, there’s no shortage of material.
Skip forward a bit… you’ve got a UK tour coming up, are you looking forward to it?
Very much. We’re starting in just over three weeks.
You’ve already sold out all the Scottish dates!
Yeah, we’ve actually added a few just before Christmas. But the Glasgow one sold out in the first day. This is by far the biggest UK tour we’ve been on, with the extra dates in Northern Europe it’s going to take us right up to Christmas. And then we’ll probably go to Australia and New Zealand.
No rest for the wicked.
The touring is the best part of it for us by far.
It’s why you join a band isn’t it, to play to others. Are there any bands you’re listening to yourself at the moment?
Yeah, there’s plenty of good stuff about. The Fratellis are great, The View, The Zutons.
‘I’m Going To Be (500 Miles).’ Are you fed up of it yet? And I’m sure you’re asked this question in every single interview and I’m very sorry.
No. It’s done very well for us. It’s opened up the whole world for us, we’ve been all over the world with that song.
It’s been covered quite a few times, is there anyone you’d like to see cover it?
I don’t know! [laughs] Someone multi-million selling, that would be good! I think it’s a coverable song, I think it’s one of those songs that’s easy to sing, anybody could do it really. So anybody that wants to do it is more than welcome!
How about the Peter Kay thing earlier this year?
Peter Kay got in contact with our manager exactly a year ago and suggested doing it and he’d already been in contact with Matt Lucas. He didn’t know that Matt Lucas was a big Proclaimers fan.
When we heard what they wanted to do we said yes straight away and we did the video in December last year. We really enjoyed doing the whole thing. It took me about ten views of that video to work out exactly who everybody was!
I read that in 2003 you came fifth in the Glasgow Herald’s poll to find the Most Scottish People In The World. What are you going to do to make that coveted number one spot?
Ohh, I think you’ve just got to be who you are, you know. I’m not bothered if we’re first or if we’re a hundred and first. I’m not sure how you can measure Scottishness!
I read that your brother had laser eye surgery?
No, somebody asked him that the other day. He said that he’d consider it so he’s not actually had it yet. But he wears the contact lenses quite a lot when he’s out.
One last question – I was looking on your forum and someone said they had a dream there was a statue of you in Edinburgh. Is that something you’d approve of?
That’s not something I’d approve of. I’ve always been of the opinion that statues should only be for dead people. Once we’re dead I’m sure we’ll be quickly forgotten but once we’re dead, if someone wants to do that that’s up to them.
Still got life in you yet.
Yeah, I think so!
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The Proclaimers are touring the UK in October, starting in Carlisle's Sands Centre on October 3rd and finishing in Aberdeen's Exhibition Centre on November 17th.
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