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The Documentary: Soul Music : Sunshine on Leith by The Proclaimers

Sunshine on Leith by The Proclaimers

22/03/2023 GMT

Soul Music

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Soul Music, Sunshine on Leith by The Proclaimers

Why Sunshine on Leith is a love song to humanity

Sunshine on Leith was released in the UK in 1988 but didn't become the big hit  the Scottish band The Proclaimers had hoped for. However it has endured and become an anthem of love and a celebration of life. It is the song played at Hibs Football Club matches and has come to symbolise the sense of community felt by supporters. 

Margaret Alcorn recalls how she and her husband were involved in the Hibs Supporters Club organising and taking part in social events for local people in Leith. When their club came under threat from a merger with rival Edinburgh team Hearts, she and her husband worked tirelessly to preserve it. Craig and Charlie Reid played a benefit concert for the Club. Sunshine on Leith became the song that expressed the emotions of the fans during that time and has remained the song they still sing at the football ground. When her husband passed away the song played at his funeral was Sunshine on Leith.

Musician Ross Wilson grew up in Leith and is also a passionate Hibs Supporter. The feelings of comfort and solidarity he experiences at home games led him to create his own version of the song which he performed with a choir to celebrate one of his favourite songs that reminds him of home and that he calls true soul music.

Melinda Tetley's family would always sing Proclaimers songs at home in Edinburgh while her three children were growing up. But when her teenage son fell ill with leukaemia Sunshine on Leith took on a special significance for them culminating in a spontaneous joyful singalong on a walk along a lochside.
The human rights lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith is a big fan of The Proclaimers and remembers seeing them perform Sunshine on Leith in New Orleans, just days after 9/11, to an audience of exactly eight people - half of whom were the prosecuting team in a Death Row murder case he was defending. And musicologist Dave Robb who toured with The Proclaimers explains the song's lasting emotional appeal and spiritual beauty.

(Photo: Craig Reid, Charlie Reid of the Proclaimers performing during The Isle of Wight Festival 2022 in Newport, Isle of Wight. Credit: Mark Holloway/Redferns/Getty Images)

The Documentary: Soul Music 

Soul Music 

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.

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