I remember well when The Proclaimers burst onto the scene in the mid-1980s. Even though they looked as if they should be mocked with their geeky specs and extraordinarily strong accents, there was something undeniably compelling about their music.
Most people remember ‘(I’m Gonna Be) 500 Miles’ and ‘Letter From America’, which was, indeed, their breakout hit and the one that firmly entrenched them into the hearts of most British music-lovers.
However, I was always more taken with one of their follow-up tracks, Sunshine On Leith. Far more poignant and elegiac, it seemed to sum up the Proclaimers for me far better.
The only recording I ever had of it was a dodgy home-taping from a R1 Simon Mayo show (I know because his voice comes in over the start of the song), so I finally downloaded it recently and can’t stop listening to it. If you’ve never heard it before, or even haven’t for a long time, give it a listen. Beautiful.
did Sunshine on Leith ever make the UK charts – if so how high?
It was released as a single in 1988, but only reached No.41 in the UK, so never featured on Top of the Pops.