The Proclaimers conquer the Castle

WHEN Craig Reed reveals that he's "not confident", and isn't getting his hopes up, it's hard not to conclude things must not be going to plan ahead of The Proclaimers' biggest ever Capital gig, in front of 8500 fans at Edinburgh Castle's famous Esplanade tomorrow night.

As it turns out, though, he isn't even talking about the gig. He's bemoaning the lack of signings made by his beloved Hibs, predicting no better than a mid-table finish, unless there's activity in the transfer market soon.

"No. Yeah. Maybe. My daughter's pestering me to go," he says, when asked if he'll at least be attending the club's game against Barcelona at Murrayfield Stadium on Thursday evening.

Normally, this Hibees die-hard would be relishing such an occasion but, such is his pessimism for the coming season, he isn't even that excited about the Easter Road side's glamour pre-season friendly with the Catalan giants.

"To be perfectly honest with you," he explains, "after all the touring we've done this year, all I really want to do is sit on the house. Saying that, I reckon I'll get dragged along anyway.

"But from what I've seen, I can't say I've got a whole lot of confidence for the coming SPL season – let alone playing against Barca."

Like his brother Charlie, you get the impression Craig, the younger twin by 30 minutes, would happily talk football all afternoon.

Fun as that might be, there's the small matter of tomorrow night's gig to discuss.

"It's going to be the biggest show that we've ever done," he enthuses, when, eventually, his attention turns to tomorrow's Castle concert. "Before, the biggest gig we'd ever played was the Playhouse - remember, when we did couple of nights there at the end of last year?

"That was fantastic, but this is something else entirely," he continues. "It's easily, far and away, the biggest single show we've done. And because of the size of the place we were a little bit worried at first that tickets wouldn't sell.

"In the end, it sold really fast," he adds.

A gig of the magnitude of tomorrow night's would have most bands locked away in the rehearsal studio for weeks – not so this pair.

The Proclaimers will go through their set today and that's all the fine-tuning they require.

"For something like the Castle, obviously a lot of what goes into the preparation for the gig is nothing to do with us," he explains.

"A lot of it is to do with the promoters, the people doing the PAs, whatever it is. But given that we've almost never stopped gigging for the last 13 months, and never stopped promotion for the last 18 months, we're fairly well rehearsed. I don't think that we've done any midweek rehearsals on these dates for weeks now.

"Obviously this is a special thing, though, so we'll do a rehearsal on Friday and get the set sorted. We'll try and agree on the set we think is most suitable for the Castle - just take a bit of time to make sure everything is covered."

Bigger now than they've ever been in their 21-year career, the bespectacled Reid twins never dared dream they would one day be playing at a venue like Edinburgh Castle.

Indeed, when the late Paula Yates first introduced the world to the delights of the Leith-born duo during an episode of Channel 4's The Tube back in 1987 with the words, "And now for something really weird", Craig and Charlie were hoping more that their music "could get us off the dole" and see them "scrape a living".

Scrape a living? They've literally sold millions of records around the world; had their songs turned into a hit musical; been asked to play their biggest tune before a Champions League Final at Hampden; and made musical appearances in Hollywood blockbusters Shrek, Dumb And Dumber and Benny And Joon.

"I think that, live-wise, this probably is the best year that we've ever had," agrees Craig, when asked if the Proclaimers have ever had it better.

"On the tour last year we played to more people than ever before, played more gigs. So yeah, this is probably the best it's ever been.

"The live thing has been building up the last few years," he continues, "and I think any band that's worked hard has been able to build up its audience. Live music has got bigger and bigger, and things like festivals have become much more prevalent.

"I think that's probably peaked now with the way the economy is going," he muses. "It's been an expanding thing the last few years and anyone who's been out there – and not just us – who has played and worked hard, has probably seen an increase in its audience."

After dropping off the radar for a few years, it was early in 2007 when the Proclaimers came storming back into the limelight.

In March last year they topped the UK singles chart with a rousing new rendition of their classic singalong anthem I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), a collaboration with comedians Peter Kay and Matt Lucas for Comic Relief which raised over £1million in the process.

With the twins' profile higher than it had been in years, EMI relaunched their 2002 Best Of collection, which re-entered the album charts at No 5. Then, in April of last year, Craig and Charlie headed to the legendary Rockfield Studios to begin recording a new album.

The Proclaimers released Life With You last September in the UK to fantastic critical acclaim and great commercial success with album sales beyond silver status. October saw the brothers kick off their biggest ever UK and Ireland tour – 44 dates to over 100,000 fans. And then came the award-winning, critically acclaimed musical Sunshine On Leith, which raised their profile further still.

With help from some of The Proclaimers greatest hits, the musical – which returns to the Capital over Christmas at the Festival Theatre – proved to be such a massive success, even Craig admits it took him by surprise.

"To be honest, when we first heard about it we thought 'it'll never happen'," he admits. "We thought 'they'll get 20 minutes or half an hour and they'll realise it's not that good, not a great idea. But they kept on doing it, they built it up, and then they said they were booking up all these theatres – you know, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen.

"When I heard that, I thought 'they're going to lose their shirts here'. I thought, 'there's no way they're going to get big houses in to see it'. But it was sold out almost every night. Obviously, that's why they're doing it again," he laughs.

And did he rate the show? "Loved it," he enthuses. "I saw it the second or third night it was on, and the last one when it was in Glasgow, because we couldn't see it in Edinburgh as we were doing the last album.

"It's fantastic. I really thought it was great. I think they did a really good job on it."

With the year they've just had, the sun certainly seems to be shining on the Reid brothers right now – but do they have unfulfilled ambitions beyond their gig at the Castle tomorrow?

"Oh aye," grins Craig, seemingly keen to get back on to his favourite subject – Hibs.

"We'd like to play Easter Road – that would be the icing on the cake."

Well, obviously – so why haven't they?

"Because we've never had an offer," comes the reply. "I noticed they were trying to do gigs there a couple of years back, but, I think, when you're playing football stadiums that are in use all the time, you've got to be careful, because it does affect the park. There's not much of a growth period.

"In all honesty, you got to watch the park, because it's a long season," he trails off, voicing a concern for the Easter Road pitch that, you suspect, you wouldn't have got from Elton John when he played there a few years back.

• The Proclaimers, Edinburgh Castle Esplanade, Castlehill, Royal Mile, tomorrow, doors 7pm, returns only, 0131-225 9846