Post by valerie davenport on Nov 9, 2007 11:53:58 GMT -5
Twins play blinder to delight home crowd
BARRY GORDON
The Proclaimers ****
Playhouse
THE first thing you had to ask yourself was this: was this The Playhouse at 8.45pm on a Thursday night or was it 3pm on a Saturday afternoon at Easter Road stadium?
With lager-fuelled chants of "Hibees!" reverberating around the auditorium, and with the entire Hibernian Football Club team up on the balcony, such is Craig and Charlie Reid's association with Hibs (Sunshine On Leith is played at every home match), when The Proclaimers came on stage you half-expected them to be wearing Hibs replica jerseys.
Sadly, for the many Hibs supporters in the audience, they were not.
Rather aptly, though, the band played for ninety minutes, the atmosphere remaining at fever pitch throughout. Whole families were keen to enjoy a good night out and the band obliged.
All the hits got an airing, less popular numbers were encouragingly supported, too (though you could tell which songs the audience liked the best by whether they sat or stood to listen). However, the main source of bemusement came at the surprising addition of Wreckless Eric's 1977 punk song, Whole Wide World: it was the only song no-one knew the words to.
And that's what a Proclaimers gig is all about: singing along. Middle of the road, straight ahead, undemanding - the Reid brothers' songs might not be innovative or complex, but nevertheless they write some of the most accessible tunes just about everyone can participate with. They're also some of the most abrasive.
I'm On My Way became a battle cry, Letter From America a bellowing shout across the Atlantic. Let's Get Married didn't so much ask the big question as shout it fiercely down your ear and Sunshine On Leith must be the only ballad ever sung along to with clenched fists raised in the air.
Yet, despite dominating the set with songs written before 1989, a couple of tracks from the band's 2007 album Life Without You proved how prolifically literate they still are.
Towards the end, an encore of four songs that included King Of The Road suggested, just like the Bay City Rollers, Scotland's most famous bespectacled twins deserve to be honoured by Edinburgh like The Beatles are in Liverpool. And who could argue? Three years ago, the band's best-loved song, (I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles, was played on a Mars rover. As last night attested - The Proclaimers are out of this world.
BARRY GORDON
The Proclaimers ****
Playhouse
THE first thing you had to ask yourself was this: was this The Playhouse at 8.45pm on a Thursday night or was it 3pm on a Saturday afternoon at Easter Road stadium?
With lager-fuelled chants of "Hibees!" reverberating around the auditorium, and with the entire Hibernian Football Club team up on the balcony, such is Craig and Charlie Reid's association with Hibs (Sunshine On Leith is played at every home match), when The Proclaimers came on stage you half-expected them to be wearing Hibs replica jerseys.
Sadly, for the many Hibs supporters in the audience, they were not.
Rather aptly, though, the band played for ninety minutes, the atmosphere remaining at fever pitch throughout. Whole families were keen to enjoy a good night out and the band obliged.
All the hits got an airing, less popular numbers were encouragingly supported, too (though you could tell which songs the audience liked the best by whether they sat or stood to listen). However, the main source of bemusement came at the surprising addition of Wreckless Eric's 1977 punk song, Whole Wide World: it was the only song no-one knew the words to.
And that's what a Proclaimers gig is all about: singing along. Middle of the road, straight ahead, undemanding - the Reid brothers' songs might not be innovative or complex, but nevertheless they write some of the most accessible tunes just about everyone can participate with. They're also some of the most abrasive.
I'm On My Way became a battle cry, Letter From America a bellowing shout across the Atlantic. Let's Get Married didn't so much ask the big question as shout it fiercely down your ear and Sunshine On Leith must be the only ballad ever sung along to with clenched fists raised in the air.
Yet, despite dominating the set with songs written before 1989, a couple of tracks from the band's 2007 album Life Without You proved how prolifically literate they still are.
Towards the end, an encore of four songs that included King Of The Road suggested, just like the Bay City Rollers, Scotland's most famous bespectacled twins deserve to be honoured by Edinburgh like The Beatles are in Liverpool. And who could argue? Three years ago, the band's best-loved song, (I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles, was played on a Mars rover. As last night attested - The Proclaimers are out of this world.
