"We always wanted a strong name. We wanted something with a gospel feel to it that indicated strength in the vocal delivery, a sort of spiritual element." Craig Reid. Memphis 1989.
After a childhood spent in Edinburgh, Cornwall and Auchtermuchty in Fife, the teenage twins were rabid music fans. At home it was Merle Haggard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Hank Williams and Ray Charles. At school they formed punk bands called The Hippy Hasslers, Black Flag and Reasons For Emotion. Out of this collision of styles and attitudes came The Proclaimers in 1983. Over the next three years the duo built up a fervent following in the pubs of Edinburgh and Inverness.
People latched onto and identified with these two characters. Straight (nice jeans'n'jumpers, thick glasses, sensible haircuts) but individual (traditionalism meets radicalism inside, burning soul fired by pure adrenaline). Songs that opened your ears and hit your heart. Kevin Rowland of Dexy's Midnight Runners gave inspiration, advice and demo time to these two unsigned unknowns, who'd written to him. A fan in Inverness sent a Proclaimers demo to The Housemartins who were on the verge of topping the UK charts at the time. "Who are The Proclaimers?" The Housemartins asked on Janice Long's Radio 1 show. A UK tour supporting "the fourth best band in Hull" followed. On 30 January 1987 The Proclaimers made their television debut, playing Letter From America on the Channel 4 music show: The Tube. The TV station was jammed with curious callers.
Two weeks later, Craig and Charlie did a four-song set in the boardroom of Chrysalis Records in London. Two weeks after that on March 2nd they signed to the label. One day later they began recording their debut album. Nine days later This Is The Story was finished. Six weeks later it was in the shops. Eight months later, The Proclaimers had played the Hammersmith with Van Morrison, Finsbury Park with The Pogues, the main stage at Glastonbury and had toured the UK solidly, sell out crowds, front covers galore and by December their second single a re-recording of Letter From America (produced by Gerry Rafferty) went to Number 3 in the UK singles chart and the album went Gold and beyond. A year of touring and an album of electrifying acoustic energy had paid off. A song about Scotland, its emigration, politics, industrial closures and the Highland clearances had reached the top of the pop charts.
In August 1988 Sunshine On Leith saw The Proclaimers' raw delivery complemented by the country/rock scope of a full band. As ever with The Proclaimers, their politics and passions were palpable, but crucially, never brow-beating. If their songs spoke of troubled soul-searching, they still bore a dignity at heart. If their songs were euphoric, it was a communal joy. These were selfless songs.
Over the next ten months they performed 145 times in 18 countries. Sunshine on Leith sold well (1 million +) throughout Europe and America (released Feb 89) and went platinum in the UK, Canada and new Zealand. It went triple platinum in Australia. Im Gonna Be (500 Miles) was a world-wide hit, occupying the number 1 slot in Australia for 5 weeks. The album and single, though refused to lie down well after the world tour had ended. Four years later, in summer 1993, both would be back ...
At home in Edinburgh The Proclaimers' rest and recuperation were disrupted in 1990. These were fraught times for the Reids; die-hard supporters of Hibernian football club, they were spurred into action by the threatened take-over of their team by local rivals: Hearts. The Hands Off Hibs campaign with The Proclaimers as leading lights, fought hard and fair. Unlike Hearts, the Hands Off Hibs campaign won.
Back to the song writing. The King of the Road EP released in November 1990, featured two new tracks (Lulu Selling Tea and Not Ever and a version of the traditional ballad Long Black Veil (covered by everyone from Lefty Frizell to The Band to Nick Cave), plus the Roger Miller classic lead track which was used as the soundtrack for an Australian film The Crossing. The Reids' seventh single went Top Ten in the UK.
A year later Craig and Charlie travelled to Nashville to take up an offer from Barry Beckett of the legendary Muscle Shoals rhythm section and past producer of the likes of Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and The Waterboys. Three covers were recorded: Gentle on My Mind, made famous by Glen Campbell, Jimmy Rodgers' Waiting for a Train and The Consolers' I Want to Be a Christian. The first two appeared as b-sides on the UK release of Let's Get Married. A re-recorded, live version of I Want to Be a Christian provided a fitting emotional climax at the end of The Proclaimers third album: Hit the Highway.
"We always expected that if we were going to have a hit in America - if we'd ever dream we'd do that - that you'd be on the road somewhere. Sitting in Texas or New York when you found out. But I was sitting in my house in Edinburgh, we'd not played live for years, and somebody phones up and says, it looks like you're going to have a hit single in America..." Craig Reid, Los Angeles, July 1993.
Out of the blue, via the sterling efforts of actress and Proclaimers fan Mary Stuart Masterson, I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) became the theme song in the film Benny & Joon. In the summer of 1993 the song went from silver screen to small screen to airwaves to record shops. Over 28 weeks in the Billboard Hot 100, I’m Gonna Be climbed to number 3, selling a million copies. The climax of a three-week, coast-to-coast promotional tour was an appearance before 22,000 New Yorkers at Z100's tenth anniversary bash at Madison Square Gardens. In the summer of '93, America fell for two down- to-earth punters from Fife. The parts of the world that missed out first time around when it was a hit in ‘89, more or less followed suit.
A Gold album and Gold single from the USA followed with Sunshine on Leith, now selling over 2 million copies. But with characteristic conviction, The Proclaimers refused to re-release the single in the UK. It had been a substantial hit there already. And anyway, there was new material on the way.
By the time of their American success, most of Hit the Highway was complete. Personal upheaval - the break-up of Charlie's marriage, subsequent new marriage and birth of second son, Craig's marriage and the birth of his first daughter - had played its part in the lengthy gestation of the third album. But indolence didn't enter into it and citing ‘writer's block’ obscures the point. "It's not that we'd been sitting doing nothing", declares Craig, "It's not that we'd been sitting with nothing. We could have had an album out two or three years ago, but it would have been mediocre. Mediocre or bad. And there's no point in doing that."
Honesty is paramount. The Proclaimers exist to play live - to do that over the course of a rigorous world tour, you have to believe in the songs 100%. In the Reid book there's no crime more heinous than faking it. And you can't frog-march the truth. As Charlie told NME in 1990, "The next album has to be the best thing we've ever done, or else there's no point in putting it out. I couldn't sleep at night, if it wasn't a step up, if I thought we'd receded or something. It takes as long as it takes."
Hit the Highway was recorded in six weeks in the late Autumn of 93. As with Sunshine on Leith, the place was Chipping Norton studios in Oxfordshire, the producer was Pete Wingfield. A renowned soul buff and keyboard player (when not in the studio he's on stage with The Everly Brothers). Wingfield's production skills first came to the Reids' notice by way of his work on Dexy's Searching for the Young Soul Rebels - an all time classic as far as Craig And Charlie are concerned. A three piece brass section adds R'n'B punch. Wingfield's Hammond adds resonant soul. The band adds a solid rock drive.
And above all this are the voices and the words of The Proclaimers. Spiritual - but the emphasis is on finding your own path. Romance - never dulled by soppy sentiment. Family and friends - but never blind to the humorous side of 'domestic bliss'. Hit the Highway is the naked truth, the uplifting sound of unstinting individualism, the inspired reason of truly personal politics, the stirring results of hard graft and hard fact. Stand up for what you are. Go your own way, or hit the highway. "If you're a bit shady or cowardly", says Craig, "you're gonna sell dummies, side-track all the time."
1994 - As Lets Get Married goes Top 20 in the UK, the Hit the Highway album is released and The Proclaimers (with a four piece band) toured constantly for the whole year with Craig and Charlie ecstatic to be back on the road. 116 live shows performed to over 170,000, over the course of the year (Apr-Dec) including a massive 71 dates, coast to coast in USA and Canada. The atmosphere and crowd reactions at the shows were phenomenal, having had five years off the road Craig and Charlie were overjoyed to be performing again. To be singing and reaching out and feeding off the passion and energy a Proclaimers concert generates. Playing live is what motivates the twins and makes them determined to have their fourth album out next year and to getting back to touring.
Hollywood continued to knock on The Proclaimers door as they contributed a version of The Temptations' Get Ready to the soundtrack of the hugely successful 'Dumb and Dumber' and their version of The Everly's Bye Bye Love for the movie Bye Bye Love.
1995 and Craig and Charlie after 18 months of non-stop touring and promotion are enjoying being back home and refamiliarising themselves to family and loved ones. Craig’s wife Petra gave birth to their second daughter in the summer of 94 when Craig was mid-tour in America, so he has had a lot to catch up with. Charlie’s wife Carole, is expecting their second child early autumn.
C&C are writing briskly, hopefully the songs will be falling into place and they will be releasing their fourth album and touring in 1996.
June 1995
Back to the index...