Musical duo The Proclaimers are Scottish twins Charlie and Craig Reid. The pair - most famous for their 1988 hit 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)' are coming to NZ in May. Charlie talks to Kim Hill ahead of their visit.
The Proclaimers's Charlie and Craig Reid Photo: Murdo MacLeod
The Proclaimers released their debut album This is the Story in 1987. It included their first hit - the politically-charged anthem 'Letter from America'. A year later they released Sunshine on Leith which featured the enduring hit song 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)'.
The duo are on a 14-month international tour and will play in several centres around Aotearoa in May.
"We do tour a lot" says Charlie. "The live stuff's where you can still make a living….and we can go to places that maybe a lot of other bands from Britain can't tour so much now."
The Proclaimers have long been politically active. They included protest songs such as 'Cap In Hand', about Scottish independence, in their repertoire, and they have played benefit shows for Reprieve, an organisation that seeks to end the death penalty.
"We've never never made any effort to hide what we've felt….We're not really trying to change anybody's point of view but we never hid our allegiances and we never will."
For example, 'Letter from America', written out of rage at Margaret Thatcher made comparisons between her government's economic policies and the forced evictions of people in the Scottish Highlands in the 18th and 19th centuries.
"People were being driven off the land that their ancestors had lived on for hundreds of years, sometimes thousands, to make way for sheep farming… Comparing that to the period in the 80s where people had to leave again, as they had in the 20s and the 30s. Because of the lack of work, because of the almost wholesale collapse of heavy industry in Scotland."
The Reid brothers are long-term supporters of the Scottish National Party and campaigners for an independent Scotland. So how do they feel about the independence movement chances in the wake of Brexit?
"I hope Scotland becomes an independent country and I hope an independent country that has closer ties to Europe than many English people seem to wish for Britain."
The title track from their latest album, Angry Cyclist, reflects this dismay at Brexit and also the US political situation.
"A general thing in politics now which you see in the US and I guess in all advanced economies where, partly because of the internet, people can sit in a bubble. They can sit in a position where they only interact with people who they agree with. And when they come up against people they disagree with, the problems and differences are magnified. And perhaps because you can hide behind the anonymity of the internet, view points, I think, become more and more extreme and more polarised."
"Politics in Britain, UK and in Europe at the moment is so fractured that it'd take the wisdom of Solomon to know where it's going to end," Reid says.
So why choose the image of an angry cyclist to convey these ideas in the song?
"You certainly see it a lot in London and in Edinburgh now, cyclists being hemmed in by traffic and then jostling for position on old streets which were not built for the traffic that they now have. And the cyclist being jostled and feeling, understandably, under pressure and pushed to one side. So the image of a person feeling threatened, exasperated and under seige in the middle of bigger, heavier traffic is the image being portrayed."
He says the anger that Scottish independence voters feel is not the same driving force behind the vote for Brexit.
"I think there's a difference between wanting to take responsibility for your own lives, own future and turning your back on the world. I would see the movement to Scottish independence, which was firmly inside a European tradition, as being the polar opposite of Brexit."
"I understand why a lot of people voted for Brexit and I appreciate that what has happened since Thatcher, new Labour and then back to the Tories with globalisation has affected people very badly. I think the anger should be more directed at domestic political policy and economic policy than toward foreigners."
The Proclaimers NZ Tour 2019:
- Christchurch: Town Hall, Fri 3 May
- Dunedin: Regent Theatre, Sat 4 May
- Invercargill: Civic Theatre, Sun 5 May
- New Plymouth: TSB Showplace, Tues 7 May
- Palmerston North: Regent Theatre, Wed 8 May
- Wellington: Michael Fowler Centre, Fri 10 May
- Auckland: ASB Theatre - Aotea Centre, Sat 11 May
- Hawkes Bay: Black Barn - Sun 12 May
