The Proclaimers... another reason to love them

[AMouseWithValour]

Sunshine on Leith makes me cry every single time, but who would have thought that they would come out swinging for women's rights?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/efa9ba470db8e0cd

The interview is very punchy, and well worth a read.

'That, though, wasn’t the primary reason that, in May’s Scottish parliamentary elections, Craig didn’t vote SNP for the first time since 1983. That reason was “the anger that I still feel that they passed a self ID bill which was so badly [formulated]”. He’s talking about the 2022 Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill that makes it easier for individuals to change their legal gender. “It’s so badly done that it inevitably led to violent men, including convicted rapists, being sent to women’s prison. For me, that is unforgivable.”'

I'm going to stream the new album as soon as I can. And, as a side note I think they are one of the best bands I've seen.

https://louderthanwar.com/the-proclaimers-you-may-offend-album-review/

Oh, I’m so pleased for you @TheInvisibleWorm! I hope you go down the rabbit hole to explore his brilliantly creative back catalogue. He is just a wonder. And very easy on the eye

That's quite some review. I'm looking forward to the album immensely

I love Squeeze but will not be watching Billy Bragg - we had a slight spat on Twitter after he continuing ignored women on the subject of women’s rights but would answer men who copied and pasted those questions from women and who got responses! He didn’t like that being pointed out to him. So, no silly Billy for me

Love The Proclaimers, even more so for this! They’ve vocalised and got into the national press exactly how I feel right now about Scottish politics, the SNP and this issue. Common sense, no nonsense, and entirely correct re the three weans in the HP films 😂

Jesus he's even more of a misogynist than I thought. Horrible man, such a disappointment.

Yes, he had a few men who could see how women were getting responses so they would ask the questions that they had asked but weren’t answering. He seemed to go on a blocking spree after that and I was one of them. Bit like Jolyon ‘Michael Gaaaaaaaaaave’ Maugham who did similar. No loss to my life, but while he’s singing, I’ll be eating my chips and taking my time to get to my seat 😂

Brighton, sold out.
😂

Thanks to @ArabellaScott for posting the review.

In spite of what the review says, their accents do sound much, much softer to my ear - perhaps because they now live in Edinburgh?

When they first came to the fore, their Fife accent was much more noticeable than mine; now it's the other way round.

They seem to have lost the Fife "ü" and the "r" is much, much softer. (In choir practice in a Fife high school we were constantly being told "Round your lips! It's not ü!")

Love The Proclaimers. Any word from David Tennant? Billy Bragg?

I remember that. What a prize prick he turned out to be.

That's interesting. I'm going to listen to their albums over the next weeks and see if I can pick that up.

I've lost my Fife twang, left in 1993 and have never lived there since. 12 years in Edinburgh, then 20+ based on the Isle of Wight with quite a lot of time spent as contracting eurotrash in France and Austria.

I'm one of they ones that has a changey accent according to the people around me. 8 weeks in France and I was speaking English with French meter and intonation ffs lol

It goes the other way too, 20 minutes in the Kingdom and it's full "did ye deek the speed o thon vohn neebs, near couped the loddie off es bike"

My accent softened a great deal when I was at uni. Now that I'm retired and no longer in the classroom, A've gone full pelt intae Cowdenghelly.

Ha 😅

Somebody asked me where I was from and I told him then added "but I've been all over" (including Fife). He said he could tell as my accent had a touch of everywhere in it. I don't hear it at all.

The video @NameyMcNew linked to, I wonder if the the 'TRA' when the children were rearranging the letters was deliberate. I'd be surprised if not.

James Dreyfuss? Maybe not so much in a position of influence but he's fairly well known.

I've been pondering this, it's going to be a bit of a tricky one to stand up to Craig and Charlie baldly stating that convicted rapists have been sent to womens prisons, an eminently checkable fact.
It's surely not going to be easy to wriggle out of that one and emerge with the scent of roses?

I've always wondered if this whole tnhing will eventually eat itself as it creates more and more definitions of identities and argues over who is and who isn't really part of them. There won't be space for a fag paper between them and the absurdity just ramps up as it all frantically circles the gaping great big hole in the middle, no clear definition of anything to the point where people think it's ok to support a convicted rapist being in a womens prison.

I did a very progressive arts degree at a very progressive arts college and we played about a lot with post modernism and definitions, but that was always in context and we were never so stupid as to argue that a flute could be identified as a trombone. Call it what you like, it still sounds like and has the range of a flute.

Yes, good for James. But the numbers of influential men are vanishingly small.
All I can conclude is they either all believe what they say, or...um, the alternative is almost worse than them believing it. It would mean they know it's a crock of shit, but just won't call it as such.
#StunningAndBrave.

Yes, James Dreyfuss is great, along with the other GC men. But that's the thing, people on both sides of the culture wars are in a 'team' and it's a brave person who will break ranks with their team.

Most GC men are sort of on the right. Left leaning GC men are very hard to find but I think Charlie and Craig have always been independent thinkers who don't follow the herd.

I'll just leave this here

Just not true, though. Plenty lefty men.with gc views

I've been listening to the new album all morning. "There's No Plan" is screaming "Nicola Sturgeon" 😂 They're so good

Isn’t Jimmy Car GC?

The question now is whether they will be Roisin Murphy'd.

Any BBC plays of the new album?
Any more reviews? They've a sell out tour, they're obviously big names in music.

Also that the letters spelled out "TRANCE", which is quite a neat observation on the cult-like mentality. Trans/trance... Definitely not accidental.

https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/nicola-sturgeon-turns-proclaimers-against-37644864

'Prominent Nat band the Proclaimers revealed that they didn't vote for the SNP for the first time since 1983 - and it was down to Nicola Sturgeon. Craig Reid confirmed that he decided not to support the party at the Holyrood Election due to "anger" over the former First Minister's gender self-ID bill.'
...
'You May Offend is the album's title track and is about free speech. Craig compared this to the gender critical movement getting death threats. He said: "There’s women, actual women, who are threatened with violence – sometimes get violence – and de-platformed because they have the temerity to say that a woman is an adult human female. And they are shouted down by 0.5 per cent in a population who are male and who think that because they put on a dress, and they put on make-up, that that makes them a female.”'
...
'On claims he may be "right wing" on this issue, Craig said: I think it’s the Left losing their collective mind. JK Rowling: I think she was absolutely wrong on Scottish independence and has been proved wrong. But I think she’s absolutely right on women’s rights. You can agree with some people on almost everything, and you can agree with other people on maybe one or two subjects. But it doesn’t mean [you agree with everything]. You have to have freedom of thought.”'