Angry Cyclist The Proclaimers

• 1 Angry Cyclist 02:26
• 2 Stretch 02:55
• 3 Streets of Edinburgh 03:46
• 4 Then It Comes to Me 03:06
• 5 You Make Me Happy 02:27
• 6 Looted 03:00
• 7 The Hours Between 03:16
• 8 Information 02:43
• 9 Sometimes It's the Fools 02:57
• 10 A Way with Words 02:11
• 11 Classy 02:38
• 12 The Battle of the Booze 03:34
• 13 I'd Ask the Questions 02:28
• Total Runtime 37:27

Info for Angry Cyclist

Angry Cyclist finds The Proclaimers at the peak of their songwriting prowess. Instantly catchy hooks and melodies, gorgeous close harmonies, moving, as well as clever and subtle, biting lyrics, great arrangements and fantastic production (produced by Dave Eringa), all on a perfectly sequenced album.

The album opens with the title track (also the first single). Strings soundtrack a song full of Craig and Charlie’s unique and impassions vocals and a lyrical metaphor about the reactionary and bigoted times we live in. Their sharp, coruscating and dry observations continue on songs such as Looted, a song about the theft of the British Empire, and Classy, which takes a wry look at the ludicrous strata of the British class system.

Elsewhere on the album, Charlie and Craig are at their romantic and anthemic best, particularly on songs such as Streets Of Edinburgh, an incredibly moving paean to their hometown city. The song is destined to become a classic in their incredible canon. Other joyful moments come courtesy of You Make Me Happy and Sometimes It’s The Fools.

The Proclaimers have always been politically and socially aware artists. On many of Angry Cyclist songs they further skewer the hypocrisy and inequities that they see around them. What is remarkable about their writing is, after 30 years, it would be so easy for them to be cynical, but Angry Cyclist is incredibly positive, hopeful and optimistic: a life-affirming listen. Its’ vitality and passion easily puts many artists half their age, or younger, in the shade.

Strikingly individual, twin brothers Craig and Charlie Reid emerged 31 years ago with their debut album This Is The Story and Top 3 single Letter from America. Since then their enduring appeal across generations has have over the years seen them enjoy huge success across the globe.

The Proclaimers songs are timeless, capturing a gamut of human emotions, written with poignancy, emotional honesty, political fire and wit. Their songs feature at weddings, funerals and everything in-between and there is one song, an early celebration of falling head over heels in love that is known the world over and has become a staggering global anthem. There are many others that have gained great popularity in different parts of the planet and then there is a wide cross section of sublime songs embraced by a multitude that has kept up with The Proclaimers studio albums, compilation collections and extensive touring over three decades. They have even inspired a musical, the play and film Sunshine on Leith. The movie was the fifth highest grossing Independent UK film of 2013. The musical has its fourth UK run from April to June this year, with its biggest production to date by West Yorkshire Playhouse. The show has had fantastic audience and critical acclaim and now seems destined to head to London’s West End in 2019.

"My favourite band of all time. They write the most spectacular songs, big hearted, uncynical passionate songs." (David Tennant)

“Incredible passion. They inspired me. To me they were like a conscience… They were so honest, they were so genuine.” (Kevin Rowland)

The Proclaimers

The Proclaimers
After completing a 2-year World tour late in 2013, Craig and Charlie took 2014 off to focus entirely on writing a new album. They headed to Rockfield Studios in December with their band and producer Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers, Wilko Johnson & Roger Daltrey, Idlewild, The Who) and recorded their 10th studio album ‘Let’s Hear It For The Dog’s’ released by Cooking Vinyl on 27th April this year.

The Proclaimers return to the road and will be touring throughout the UK in 2015 from May through to December with 66 shows confirmed so far playing to over 270,000 people. Festivals announced to date include Wychwood, T In The Park, Cambridge Folk Festival, Carfest North, Belladrum, Cropredy, and V Festivals. Lots of regional & Seaside summer dates feature then their main UK tour runs from October until December.

Live plan’s for 2016 include tours of Australia/New Zealand, USA and Canada.

April 2013 saw The Proclaimers out on a three week USA acoustic tour before joining up with their live band for a host of UK festivals and concerts over the summer including their fifth Glastonbury appearance, Cornbury, T In The Park, Camp Bestival and a Canadian tour in August. The Proclaimers returned for more UK dates and their final concert this year as the first Scottish band to play at the newly opened Hydro Arena in Glasgow in early October. 1st July saw the release of a thirty-track compilation selected by Craig and Charlie from their 9 studio albums to date. ‘The Very Best of The Proclaimers’ (25 Years - 1987 to 2012).

Following on from the theatre success of the musical drama featuring songs by The Proclaimers ‘Sunshine On Leith’, the movie version had its UK release in October (Entertainment Film Distributors) and was hugely popular, opening at number 3, moving up to 2 in it’s second and spending another month in the top ten, generating over £4.8 million at the UK Box office. Sunshine On Leith was number 5 in the highest grossing Independent UK films of 2013. The movie was released in the UK on DVD/Blu-ray on 27th January 2014. It has its international releases across the globe throughout 2014 and is released in USA/Canada in 2015.

Screenplay by Stephen Greenhorn, directed by Dexter Fletcher, produced by DNA Films & Black Camel Pictures and starring Peter Mullan, Jane Horrocks, George MacKay, Antonia Thomas, Kevin Guthrie and Freya Mavor.

Strikingly individual, twin brothers Craig and Charlie Reid have over the years enjoyed huge success across the globe as the emotional honesty, political fire, wit and sing-along raucousness of their songs and their extensive touring has enlightened and entertained fans new and old. The Proclaimers have carved out a niche for themselves in the netherworld where pop, folk, new wave and punk collide. In the process they have enjoyed Gold and Platinum singles and albums in UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Born in Leith in 1962, Craig and Charlie Reid grew up in Edinburgh, Cornwall and Auchtermuchty in Fife. At home, they listened to early rock 'n' roll and country greats such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Merle Haggard and Hank Williams. At school they played in punk bands and formed The Proclaimers in 1983. With a fervent live following growing in Scotland, particularly in Inverness where they performed regularly, their first big break came late in 1986 when they were invited to tour with The Housemartins. Then in January 1987 they made a now seminal appearance on the Channel 4 pop programme The Tube, performing Letter From America & Throw The ‘R’ Away. Singing in regional accents about Scotland - its emigration and its politics - they were a far cry from the mid-Eighties playlist staples of Rick Astley and Sinitta, and became a phenomenon almost overnight, signing to Chrysalis within a month and recording their debut album acoustically, This Is The Story, a week later, produced by the man who also signed them to Chrysalis, John Williams. Voted NME Readers Best New Band that year, they toured the UK extensively and a new ‘band’ version of Letter From America, produced by Gerry Rafferty went Top 3 in November.

Complementing their raw, stripped down delivery with the greater musical scope of a full band, they then embraced country and rock on their second album, 1988's Sunshine On Leith produced by Pete Wingfield, which also saw them form their first full live band and go on a 9 month World tour.

In addition to the deeply moving classic title track which has gone on to be an anthem for Hibs fans, the album featured hit singles, the raucous, euphoric I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) and I'm On My Way. In 1989 ‘I'm Gonna Be’ spent 6 weeks at number 1 in Australia and a was a top 10 college radio hit in USA. The song went on to soar to No. 3 during a 6-month reign in the US Billboard Singles Chart in 1993 after appearing on the soundtrack of the Johnny Depp film Benny And Joon. I’m On My Way also re-emerged in 2001 when it subsequently accompanied one of the pivotal scenes in the hit movie Shrek.

In 1990, The Proclaimers had a huge UK & European hit with their King Of The Road EP. The Proclaimers returned in 1994 with Hit The Highway, an album that featured a three-piece brass section yielding the hit Let’s Get Married. A longer than intended break then ensued before a fourth album, 2001's Persevere, was cut in Minneapolis. Produced by Chris Kimsey with an all star American musician line up, another fantastic collection of Reid/Reid songs re-established The Proclaimers as they went back on another mammoth year long World tour.

Since then, the band have barely stood still, following the 2002 release of their Best Of they continued to tour extensively and one of that year’s more unusual highlights saw them perform on the pitch at Hampden Park to over a billion TV viewers before the 2002 UEFA Champions League Final between Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen. Two more acclaimed studio albums followed, 2003's Edwyn Collins produced Born Innocent and 2005's more soul orientated Mark Wallis/David Ruffy produced Restless Soul. 2005 saw another live career highpoint, opening the bill at the Live 8 concert at Murrayfield Stadium. 2006 also saw a notable appearance in an episode of Family Guy.

In March 2007, they topped the UK singles chart with a rousing new rendition of their classic anthem I'm Going to Be (500 Miles), a collaboration with comedians Peter Kay and Matt Lucas for Comic Relief, raising over a million pounds for charity in the process. EMI relaunched their 2002 Best Of collection, re- entering the Album Charts at No 5 with sales soaring beyond platinum. September 2007 saw The Proclaimers release their seventh studio album ‘Life With You’ (Universal) in the UK to fantastic critical praise and great commercial success. The Proclaimers kicked off their biggest ever UK & Ireland tour in October, 44 dates to over 100,000 fans. In Scotland, they sold more gig tickets than any other single act in 2007.

Touring continued in 2008, with a huge 129 date, yearlong World tour, across Europe, two months coast to coast across the USA & Canada, followed by a variety of shows from Muscat to Bermuda, alongside English seaside resort gigs and European festivals including their fourth Glastonbury appearance and all brought to a triumphant conclusion with a concert at Edinburgh Castle.

In 2009, The Proclaimers released their 8th studio album ‘Notes & Rhymes’ (Universal) and hit the road for another 95 date World tour. In March, Craig and Charlie headed over to Austin, Texas to make their debut at SXSW where they performed a series of seven acoustic showcases, including a one-off Scottish extravaganza, sharing a bill with Glasvegas and Primal Scream.

Whilst 2010 was spent mainly writing, The Proclaimers performed at 21 summer dates in Europe climaxing with a main stage T In The Park performance.

In October 2011 special editions of The Proclaimers first three albums were released on Chrysalis (This Is The Story, Sunshine On Leith, Hit The Highway), each containing the original album plus a bonus disc containing B-sides, live tracks and previously unreleased radio sessions, all newly remastered at Abbey road Studios, London.

With producer Steve Evans at the helm, The Proclaimers released their 9th studio album 'Like Comedy' in April 2012 to great acclaim by leading independent label Cooking Vinyl. One of their greatest fans, Matt Lucas made his director's debut on the video for the single 'Spinning Around In The Air' where he wrote a script for a Golden wedding anniversary descending into drunken mayhem and in the process managed to persuade Craig and Charlie for a career first, dressing them up as elderly ladies.

The Proclaimers were then back out live with a busy summer in UK which included headlining the Hebridean and Big Tent festivals in Scotland, followed by another headline slot at Cambridge Festival, main stage appearances at the V Festivals in England and three shows at the Singapore Grand Prix. Another unique appearance occurred when The Proclaimers appeared on ITV’s Emmerdale – as headliners at Home Farm’s music festival, in an episode marking the beginning of the soap’s 40th - birthday celebrations.

October 2012 saw The Proclaimers head out on an eight week, 36 date UK tour, before finishing the year in style with a Hogmanay concert on the esplanade of Stirling Castle.

The last few years has see The Proclaimers grace main stages at the likes of V Festival, T In The Park, Isle Of Wight Festival, Womad and Glastonbury in-between regular touring across the globe. Craig and Charlie have reached the rarefied status that few have been able to achieve: with nearly three decades of career longevity, they are as innovative as ever and with every album and show played, they’ve continued to garner new fans. Their songs have been used extensively in adverts across the World and the list of movies they have featured in includes The Commitments, The Crossing, Mama’s Boy, Bottle Rocket, Benny & Joon, Shrek, Dumb & Dumber, Bye Bye Love, Burke And Hare, The Angel’s Share, Bachelorette, Perfect Pitch.

The Proclaimers songs, too, provided the inspiration to an enormously successful, highly acclaimed, award winning new musical, Sunshine On Leith, put together by the Dundee Rep Theatre. Written by Stephen Greenhorn. The drama follows the highs and lows of 2 soldiers returning home from Afghanistan. Families, relationships and life in Leith are not all plain sailing in this exceptional love story about everyday life in Scotland. Directed by James Brining, the musical first toured Scotland in Spring 2007, returning in November 2008 for a 4 month run in Scotland and its first foray into England. The musical had its third outing a 4 month theatre tour (3 months in Scotland, 1 month in England) in Autumn 2010 with the cast for this run starring Billy Boyd, most widely known for playing the Character ‘Pippin’ in the movies The Lord of The Rings and ‘Barret Bondon’ in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Why did it take 20 years before anyone noticed The Proclaimers were born to be turned into a musical? Not since Willy Russell came up with Blood Brothers has Britain produced such a perfect marriage of music and theatre. Had playwright and screenwriter Stephen Greenhorn done nothing else, he should be declared a genius for spotting that the songs of Craig and Charlie Reid - with all their emotional honesty, singalong raucousness and political fire - are a true gift to the stage. THE GUARDIAN

Matt Lucas is a huge fan and in the sleeve notes of their Best Of compilation he writes of Scotland's finest Celtic soul brothers: 'I find it hard to put into words quite how the music of The Proclaimers makes me feel. It makes me laugh. It makes me cry. It just makes me generally euphoric ... Sunshine On Leith says more to me about my life and the way I feel than anything Morrissey or Cobain ever wrote.'

On BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island discs, David Tennant describes his first track by The Proclaimers - "I could have chosen any and every track from this band, probably my favourite band of all time. They write the most spectacular songs, big hearted, uncynical passionate songs."

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