The Proclaimers

[valerie davenport]

The Proclaimers are a Scottish band composed of identical twins Charlie and Craig Reid. They are best known for two particular songs they wrote: "Letter from America" and "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)". The latter became the theme song to the film Benny & Joon (1993), and to the charity event the Terry Fox Run, as well as a Molson Canadian beer commercial.Formed in 1983, the Auchtermuchty pair leapt to public attention after a January 1987 appearance on UK popular music programme The Tube on Channel Four; "Letter from America" peaked at number 3 in the UK singles chart, while the album This is the Story went gold. The follow-up album Sunshine on Leith featured "I'm Gonna Be..." and "I'm On My Way".

The Proclaimers tour dates.
July 21 - Wickerman Festival
www.thewickermanfestival.co.uk

July 29 - Sundae on The Common, Clapham Common, London
www.benjerry.co.ukOct-03 Carlisle Sands centre 01228 625222 www.thesandscentre.co.uk

The Proclaimers are confirmed to play on August 12 - The World Fleadh, Portlaoise, Ireland
www.theworldfleadh.com

Oct-04 Hull City Hall 01482 226655 www.hullcc.gov.uk/hullcityhall/
Oct-05 Bradford St Georges Hall 01274 432000 www.bradford-theatres.co.uk
Oct-07 Derby Assembly Rooms 01332 255800 www.assemblyrooms-derby.co.uk
Oct-08 Ipswich Regent 01473 433100 www.ipswichregent.com
Oct-09 Brighton Dome 01273 709 709 www.brightondome.org
Oct-11 Leicester De Montfort Hall 0116 233 3111 www.demontforthall.co.uk
Oct-12 Southampton Guild Hall 023 8063 2601 www.southampton-guildhall
Oct-13 London Hammersmith Apollo 08448 44 47 48 www.carling.com/music/venue/hammersmith_apollo
Oct-15 Bristol Colston Hall 0117 922 3686 www.colstonhall.org
Oct-16 Wolverhampton Civic Hall 0870 320 7000 www.wolvescivic.co.uk
Oct-17 Reading Hexagon 0118 960 6060 www.readingarts.com
Oct-19 Norwich UEA [phone] //secure.ueaticketbookings.co.uk
Oct-20 Cardiff St Davids Hall 029 2087 8444 www.stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk
Oct-21 Plymouth Pavilions 0845 1461460. www.plymouthpavilions.com
Oct-23 Sheffield City Hall 0114 2 789 789 www.sheffieldcityhall.co.uk
Oct-24 Stoke Victoria Halls 0870 060 6649 www.theambassadors.com/victoriahall/info/
Oct-25 Llandudno North Wales Theatre 01492 872000 www.nwtheatre.co.uk/
Oct-27 Coventry Warwick Arts Centre 024 7652 4524 www.warwickartscentre.co.uk
Oct-28 Cambridge Corn Exchange 01223 357 851 www.cornex.co.uk
Oct-29 Southend Cliffs Pavilion 01702 351 135 www.thecliffspavilion.co.uk
Oct-31 Preston Guild Hall 01772 258858 www.prestonguildhall.com
Nov-01 Liverpool Philharmonic Hall 0151 709 3789 www.liverpoolphil.com
Nov-02 Manchester Apollo 0870 4018000 www.carling.com/music/venue/manchester_apollo.htm
Nov-04 Newcastle City Hall 0191 2612606 www.newcastle.gov.uk/cityhall

Scottish dates on sale from 2nd April.

Nov-07 Perth Concert Hall - SOLD OUT
Nov-08 Edinburgh Playhouse Theatre - SOLD OUT
Nov-09 Edinburgh Playhouse Theatre - SOLD OUT
Nov-11 Fort William Nevis Centre - SOLD OUT
Nov-12 Glenrothes Rothes Halls - SOLD OUT
Nov-13 Kilmarnock Grand Hall - SOLD OUT
(a Lighthouse Foundation Benefit Concert)
Nov-15 Glasgow Academy - SOLD OUT
Nov 16 Glasgow Academy - SOLD OUT
Nov-17 Aberdeen Exhibition Centre - EXTRA TICKETS ADDED

Scottish dates hotline [phone]
Online www.ticketweb.co.uk



November 21 - Dublin Vicar Street
November 23 - Castlebar TF Theatre
November 24 - Ennis The Glor Theatre
November 25 - NEC Killarney
November 28 - Derry City The Nerve Centre
November 29 - Belfast The Waterfront Hall


01 Dec 2007 Cultuurcentrum Mechelen
02 Dec 2007 Cultuurcentrum De Spil Roeselare
04 Dec 2007 Ancienne Belgique Brussel
05 Dec 2007 Cultuurcentrum Hasselt
06 Dec 2007 Cultureel Centrum De Werf Aalst



August 5 - Villa Marina, Isle Of Man
www.gov.im/villagaiety/

August 12 - The World Fleadh, Portlaoise, Ireland
www.theworldfleadh.com

August 18 - V Festival Hylands Park - SOLD OUT
August 19 - V Festival Weston Park - SOLD OUT

[valerie davenport]

Craig and Charlie will be special guests on The Chris Evans Show on Thursday
26th
July

[valerie davenport]

The Proclaimers will be signing copies of their new
album 'Life With You' at Virgin Megastore, Buchanan
Street, Glasgow at 5pm on Thursday 6th September.

On Friday 7th September at 1pm, The Proclaimers will
do a short acoustic set then sign copies of the album
at HMV, Princes Street, Edinburgh.

[valerie davenport]

Wed 19th Motherwell Civic Centre 01698 403120 for tickets please ring these numbers thank you
Thurs 20th Dundee Caird Hall 01382 434940
Sat 22nd Edinburgh Corn Exchange 0870 903 3444
Sun 23rd Glasgow Barrowlands 0870 903 3444

[valerie davenport]

The Proclaimers 'Life With You' album has entered the UK National
charts at
no 13, is doing great business and getting rave reviews

[valerie davenport]

a interview The Proclaimers have done with Digital Spy
______________________________________________
They've been around for two decades and although they've been under the radar for the last few years, The Proclaimers are one of the hardest-working groups in music. The Scottish duo were thrust back into the spotlight thanks to Matt Lucas and Peter Kay's cover of their most famous hit 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)' for Comic Relief last year, reaching number one for three consecutive weeks. This month they released their seventh studio album Life With You, featuring thirteen new recordings. We spoke to one of the brothers, Charlie Reid, to discuss their new material, what it's like to be back in the spotlight and rumours of a collaboration with Mika.

You have a new album out, Life With You, can you tell us a bit about it?
"I think it's an advance on anything we've done before, it's our seventh studio album. We've put four out since we went back on the road again in 2001, this will be the fourth of the studio ones. I think it's probably the best thing we've ever done. I think it's the most complete album we've done, probably since the first or second. It gives the right songs on it as well, some love songs, some more political songs and fantastic play in the production as well. So we're very happy with it. I'm hopeful it's going to be our most successful record for a number of years."

You've been going for twenty years now. What do you think it is about The Proclaimers that seems timeless and why do you think you've been so successful?
"I think there's a sing-a-long element to what we do and I think that helps. If you're getting played on the radio, there are two or three records that get played occasionally on the radio - that keeps you in the public eye to some degree. I think the thing of student nights and karaoke, particularly with the 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)' song, I think that's definitely kept us in the public eye. I also think that in the last six years we've been touring in Britain or abroad, there's never been one of those years that we weren't doing gigs somewhere. So I think the visibility in the last few years has been great, particularly in the festivals in Britain. There's so many more festivals to play in Britain now than there was twenty years ago, I think that that's been one of the major factors as well."

Comic Relief's cover of '500 Miles' was the catalyst to bring you back into the spotlight. Do you ever tire of the song?
"I won't tire of the song. I think if we were doing nothing but - if it was the only thing getting played, then certainly we would tire of it. But we've got a tour coming up, probably the biggest British tour we've done, certainly the biggest in twenty years and that's coming up at the beginning of October. The show that you're doing, maybe a one and a half hour show, maybe a bit more on the night - you're playing maybe three or four songs that people know that are well-known songs to the public and the rest of it that you've done over a twenty year period, and you want to play stuff from your new album. I think if you're only ever playing one or two songs then that would be a problem, but I think we do it as part of our set that we play every night. Fundamentally what we are is a touring band, we're playing a set every night and within that there's a few things people know and we've been playing for twenty years."

Did you have any reservations when Matt Lucas and Peter Kay approached you about bringing back the song?
"I think the only reservation would be - I don't know, would it be too much? Would people take it wrongly? I think there was no hesitation in saying yes, if there were any reservations they were certainly very minor ones. I think it did well in that it came out at the right time. It was three weeks at number one, it wasn't twenty weeks at number one, you know. I think it raised a lot of money for the charity, it certainly raised our profile and let people know that thought we were dead or given up that we were still going. It did a lot of good for the charity, the money that was raised, so I think fundamentally it was a good thing to do. I think if there was any reservation it would be that it would destroy peoples memories of the song, but I don't think it came anywhere near doing that. I certainly hope not."

Have you been enjoying showcasing your new material when you've been performing at gigs this summer?
"Very much so. We've done a number of festivals in Britain and Ireland during the summer. We've also done a number of radio gigs for a radio award show, things in the last week and the recognition has been very good. So obviously some of it's getting played, tracks are being played. Certainly the lead single, 'Life With You', is being played on some stations. For the last twenty years down the line, just the fact that a new record is getting some attention as opposed to old material is absolutely fantastic."

Is it strange being back in the spotlight because for years now you've been working under the radar?
"It's fantastic because it's the most in the spotlight that we've been for 15 to 20 years. So I certainly think - I'm not saying it feels like the old days, I'm not saying it's like that because in the old days I don't think we appreciated or enjoyed the success as much as we do now. I think at the age we are now you really do feel 'well this is the last go around', or it could be and yet you're more relaxed with what you're doing at the moment. So in that way when you're relaxing you're enjoying the whole ride of success much more. When you first had it you're always worried about your next position in the chart and what's going to happen next year. After twenty years we're a bit more relaxed with the whole thing and I suppose we feel that we do have a career."

Some of the songs on the album are fairly political, is this a conscious decision?
"It's not a conscious decision, but it's certainly conscious that if political songs come through you don't censor them and you don't take them off of the album because not everyone will agree with the sentiment. Throughout our career we've always done a certain number of political songs. In the first record there was probably quite a few, the second record a couple, subsequent records one or two songs as well. It's just that I suppose on this one there will be four songs that I guess would be considered in some way political. It's just the way it comes through you know, the writing process is not something that you sit down and we carve up a certain percentage for love songs, it just doesn't work like that. It's how the songs come out in the preceding ten months and that's what you put on the album, so that's just the way it happened. It just so happened on this one that there was a higher percentage this time."

There's a musical out in Scotland called 'Sunshine On Leith' based on your songs, have you seen it yet or what do you make of it?
"My brother went to see it, I've not seen it. It was extremely successful, it toured in the 14 cities in Scotland, they performed a week each in theatres around Scotland and they did very well. A lot of people came along, it got very good reviews. My brother went to see it in Glasgow and was very struck by how well they'd used the songs. It's not a Proclaimers musical as such, it's a play about two guys returning from the army and what happens to them and they wrap The Proclaimers songs around it. God forbid it's not a musical based on the lives of The Proclaimers, it's more subtle than that. I think from what Craig said the songs are used appropriately and well and the reaction to it has been very very good. I'm hopeful it will tour again next year and I'll get a chance to see it."

There's rumours that Mika wants to work with you, would you consider this or is there anyone in particular in today's music who you would especially like to collaborate with?
"There's plenty of people I'd consider working with. I think he's a very, very talented guy and we've considered work with people in the past and I would consider doing it in the future. I think it creates a different kind of dynamic, I suppose what we do is fairly closed. Craig and I work on songs, we rehearse and rehearse before we even demo them for the guitar and then you bring other people in. So it's always a kind of two-man thing right up until the minute you walk into the studio with it and the other guys and the producer. It would be nice to work with other people [but] it's the usual story; it's just getting the time to be able to do it, we're so busy on the road. Actually putting some time aside to work with someone always seems a bit like it's never been a good time."

What do you think of the current acts coming out of Scotland, do you wish more talent would come from there?
"There's the Fratellis and that, I think there have been a lot of acts that are either based in Scotland or Scottish... Snow Patrol I know were based in Dundee and Glasgow, although they were Irish lads themselves. KT Tunstall, obviously very successful being from Fife. I think Scotland punches well above its weight in music and has done for a very long time. I think what happens is you tend to have periods where there are a bunch of bands coming out of Manchester or Scotland or Liverpool and it's considered some sort of scene. But I think Scotland, for its size does pretty well."

As you mentioned briefly before, you've got your biggest ever UK and Ireland tour coming up, are you looking forward to it?
"Very much, I mean since 2001 we've always been on as I say a continuous tour. We've been doing gigs either here or abroad every year. It's the main part of what we do, it definitely increases our support and people see that we're a live act, I think a very, very good live act. So I think it's the single most important thing that we do is a tour."

Is there anything else you and Craig would like to achieve?
"I think we'd like to develop what we do and get better at it. I don't think we have a great desire to move on to something else. Some people want to move onto TV or God knows what - I've no desire to do that. I'd like to carry on writing and performing as long as we can. There will come a point when the public will tire of you because you can't get the same number of gigs. If and when that happens we'll face it, but up until it does we'd like to just develop what we do and hopefully take the audience with you and write songs for people."

The Proclaimers' new album Life With You is out now. Their UK and Ireland tour starts on October 3.