‘Britain’s old and rather thin,” are the first words out of the mouth of Craig Reid at St George’s Hall as the Proclaimers perform the title track from their latest record, Dentures Out. From an album they describe as their most political in years, the track – propelled by a breezy and melodic guitar line – explores notions of a fading and deluded country. “The theme of the album is people dreaming of an England that is gone or perhaps never existed,” they said recently.
Despite its never-more-relevant backdrop of a Britain in “terminal decline”, the new album is represented minimally tonight. Its fairly light touch and broad anti-rightwing politics are largely outweighed by crowdpleasing favourites, be it about ageing sexual decline on Over and Done With or an ode to love on Let’s Get Married. On the latter, the pair manage to take what feels like an intimate arms-around-one-another pub singalong and amplify it into every corner of the room, delivered punchily by a band who spend the evening swinging between classic rock, country, folk and pop.
The Proclaimers have never been one to get lost chasing zeitgeists, instead remaining almost defiantly out of sync with musical trends – something that is reflected as they hurtle through their near 40-year catalogue, playing 20-odd songs in 90 minutes. Charlie and Craig Reid’s voices are in great shape, overlapping and interlocking in mellifluous harmony as they glide from quiet croon to rousing boom, often while creeping up and exploding in unison with the band, who are a forceful, almost rigidly tight unit. While the formula can get a bit repetitive, the tenderness of a track such as Sunshine on Leith, dripping in melancholic lap steel, radiates timelessness.
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) does its job of sending the room into a lung-busting singalong, rounding off an evening of unashamedly earnest pop-rock. Be it touching sentiments about their beloved Scotland, their withering disdain for Tory Britain, or the lengths one would go to for love, the Proclaimers still sound unapologetically themselves.
