Lochaber is a name applied to a part of the Scottish Highlands. Historically, it was a provincial lordship consisting of the parishes of Kilmallie and Kilmonivaig. Lochaber once extended from the Northern shore of Loch Leven, a district called Nether Lochaber, to beyond Spean Bridge and Roybridge, which area is known as Brae Lochaber or Braigh Loch Abar in Gaelic. For local government purposes, the name was used for one of the landward districts of Inverness-shire from 1930 to 1975, and then for one of the districts of the Highland region from 1975 to 1996. Since 1996 the Highland Council has had a Lochaber area committee.
Stealers Wheel were a Scottish folk rock/rock band formed in 1972 in Paisley, Scotland, by former school friends Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty. Their best-known hit is "Stuck in the Middle with You". The band broke up in 1975 and re-formed briefly in 2008.
Barbara Ruth Dickson is a Scottish singer and actress whose hits include "I Know Him So Well", "Answer Me" and "January February". Dickson has placed fifteen albums on the UK Albums Chart from 1977 to date, and had a number of hit singles, including four which reached the top 20 on the UK Singles Chart. The Scotsman newspaper has described her as Scotland's best-selling female singer in terms of the numbers of hit chart singles and albums she has achieved in the UK since 1976.
The Proclaimers are a Scottish rock duo formed in 1983 by twin brothers Craig and Charlie Reid. They came to attention with their 1987 single "Letter from America", which reached No. 3 in the United Kingdom, and the 1988 single "I'm Gonna Be ", which topped charts in Australia, Iceland and New Zealand. The duo's biggest album, Sunshine on Leith (1988) has been certified multi-Platinum in Australia and Canada, selling over 2 million copies worldwide, including around 700,000 in the United States. The Proclaimers have sold over 5 million albums worldwide.
"Stuck in the Middle with You" is a song written by Scottish musicians Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan and performed by their band Stealers Wheel.
Gerald Rafferty was a Scottish singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He was a founding member of Stealers Wheel, whose biggest hit was "Stuck in the Middle with You" in 1973. His solo hits in the late 1970s included "Baker Street", "Right Down the Line", and "Night Owl".
Johann MacDougall Lamont is a Scottish Labour Co-operative politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2011 to 2014. She was previously a junior Scottish Executive minister from 2004 to 2007 and Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2008 until her election to the leadership in 2011. In addition to her ministerial and leadership roles, she has been a campaigner on equality issues and violence against women throughout her political career.
"I'm Gonna Be " is a song written and performed by Scottish duo the Proclaimers, and first released in August 1988 by Chrysalis as the lead single from their second album, Sunshine on Leith (1988). The song reached number 11 in the UK Singles Chart on its initial release and topped the charts of Australia, Iceland, and New Zealand.
Joseph Egan was a Scottish singer-songwriter. Along with Gerry Rafferty, Egan was one of the two main members of the folk rock band Stealers Wheel, and co-writer of their hit song "Stuck in the Middle with You".
"Baker Street" is a single by the Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty, released in February 1978. It won the 1979 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically and reached the top three in the UK, US and elsewhere. The song is known for its saxophone riff, written by Rafferty and performed by Raphael Ravenscroft.
The Humblebums were a Scottish folk rock band, based in Glasgow. Its members included Billy Connolly, who later became a renowned stand-up comedian and actor; guitarist Tam Harvey; and singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty. The band was active from 1965 to 1971.
City to City is the second solo studio album by Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty, released on 20 January 1978 by United Artists Records. It was Rafferty's first solo release in six years—and first release of any kind since 1975—due to his tenure in the band Stealers Wheel and subsequent legal proceedings which prevented Rafferty from releasing any new solo recordings for the next three years. The album was well received, peaking at No. 1 in the US and going Platinum, as well as reaching No. 6 in the UK Albums Chart and achieving Gold status. "Baker Street", "Right Down the Line" and "Home and Dry" were hits on the American charts.
"Night Owl" is a song by Gerry Rafferty. It is the second track on his 1979 album of the same name. It features a Lyricon solo played by "Baker Street" saxophonist Raphael Ravenscroft. An edited version, omitting one verse, made the top five in the UK Singles Chart, and along with "Baker Street" is one of two solo efforts by Gerry Rafferty to accomplish this feat.
"Right Down the Line" is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty. Released as a single in the US in July 1978, it was the follow-up to his first major hit as a solo artist, "Baker Street", and reached No. 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100, No. 8 on Cash Box and No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary charts.
This Is the Story is the debut studio album from Scottish rock duo The Proclaimers, released in 1987. It was originally released with 12 tracks but after the success of the Gerry Rafferty-produced full band version of "Letter from America", which reached number 3 in the UK Single Chart, it was re-pressed later that year with that track added.
Sunshine on Leith is the second studio album by Scottish folk rock duo the Proclaimers, released in September 1988 through Chrysalis Records. The record spawned four singles: "I'm Gonna Be ", which topped charts in Australia, New Zealand and Iceland; "Sunshine on Leith", a ballad that has become an anthem for Scottish football club Hibernian F.C.; the No. 3 Australian hit "I'm on My Way"; and the Australian-exclusive "Then I Met You". The non-single "Cap in Hand" also came to prominence in 2014 with the Scottish Independence referendum.
"I'm on My Way" is a song by Scottish folk pop duo the Proclaimers from their 1988 album Sunshine on Leith. It was released as a single in 1989 and reached number 43 in the United Kingdom and number three in Australia. The lyrics "I'm on my way from misery to happiness today" differ from "I'm on My Way", the spiritual of the same name.
"April Skies" is a song by Scottish alternative rock group the Jesus and Mary Chain and the first single from the group's second studio album, Darklands (1987). The song was released by Blanco y Negro Records in April 1987, reaching No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart, No. 6 in Ireland, and No. 16 in New Zealand, making it the band's highest-charting single in all three countries.
Betsy Cook is an American-born singer, songwriter and musician. Since the late 1970s, she has worked mainly in the United Kingdom and collaborated with various British artists such as Gerry Rafferty, Ray Jackson, Lindisfarne, George Michael, Paul Young, Seal and Marc Almond. She later became affiliated with the acclaimed producer Trevor Horn and worked on several of his projects in the late 1980s and early 1990s before releasing her own album, The Girl Who Ate Herself, in 1992. As a songwriter, Cook was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1988 for the song "Telling Me Lies".
Jennifer Maidman is a British musician, singer, producer, songwriter, actress and author who has collaborated extensively with many internationally well known groups and artists. Her work appears on hundreds of recordings from 1976 onwards and she has received numerous awards, including a platinum award from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for the album 'Hormonally Yours', on which she worked as part of the band Shakespears Sister. She was a core member of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra from 1984 until 2007. She is best known as a bass guitarist but also sings and plays guitar, keyboards, drums, percussion, ukulele, cuatro and Chapman Stick. In June 2016, her website announced that she was working on a solo album in Woodstock, New York featuring amongst others, Jerry Marotta, Annie Whitehead, and David Torn. The album, entitled 'Dreamland' was released on 1 August 2017 and features Marotta, Torn and Whitehead, with guest contributions from Paul Brady and Robert Wyatt amongst others. Since 2017, she has also been collaborating frequently with New York-based arts cooperative The Secret City. In 2021, she reunited with Joan Armatrading for a live stream concert at the Asylum Chapel in London. In 2022, the concert was broadcast in the UK by the BBC and released as a double album on CD and streaming services.
