Here’s a never before released demo version of Nick’s song, The Heron, from 2000. This track appeared on Nick’s 2001 solo release, Rumours of Snow. The Heron is a perfect observation of the countryside, dating from when Nick lived in a remote location in the borders.
The Rumours of Snow sleeve notes state “For a while, I lived in Wormiston, above Eddleston in the Borders, just by the black and white Meldon Hills which face each other across a glen dotted with iron age and roman forts and burying places”.
In early October 1963, a popular beat combo took to the stage at the Carlton Cinema, Park Road, Kirkcaldy. The band – 4 gentlemen from Liverpool – were supported by Andy Ross and His Orchestra, The Fortunes and Houston Wells and His Marksmen. They had already played 166 dates that year and were on a 3 data Scottish mini tour before returning south to play the London Palladium on the following Sunday night.
The gig was ranked Fife’s #1 of all time by fifetoday recently. Nick, aged 10 at the time, had a friend who was there and who told him about trying to recreate the concert later with a pile of records to try and impress a girl. As he used to say, the Dansette was an early version of the iPod shuffle.
Far Down The line appeared on the All Over This Town album – a song of friends leaving to find their fortune in London and the last shared pint in one of Nick’s favourite pubs Leslie’s – a perfect gem on Edinburgh’s Southside.
Leslies opened in 1896 and its interior remains largely unchanged. It can be found at 45-47 Ratcliffe Terrace, Edinburgh EH9 1SU.
You’ll drink a last pint up in Leslie’s on the way,
They say the beer will taste more bitter from today,
You’ll take a long look at the skyline from the bridge,
And watch the morning sun explore the Old Town’s ridge.
You’ve heard it all, you’ve said it all, it’s time to go,
You’ll find a better life in England, sure you know,
You had to smile when old friends sadly shook their heads,
“Come on, it’s no the moon I’m going to”, you said.
Now you’re waiting on the London train,
And it won’t be long before you leave it all behind,
There’s no pipe band playing ‘Will ye no come back again’
Far down the line, far down the line
It’s not for long you’ll make your money and return,
But in the morning light you watch the Tweed bridge burn,
You dream the South will give you all the things you lack,
And you can scarcely hear the land that calls you back.
And when the team in blue run out you’ll raise a cheer,
You can sing ‘The Flower of Scotland’ once a year,
Though you promised that you’d always keep in touch,
Well you were never one for writing very much
Now you’re waiting on the London train,
And it won’t be long before you leave it all behind,
There’s no pipe band playing ‘Will ye no come back again’
Far down the line, far down the line
And will you hang arround the pubs of Camden Town?
Will you let them call you Jock, the tartan clown?
And when you’re drunk at Hogmanay, will you believe,
That you still mourn the land you were so keen to leave?
And there are thousands, many thousands of your kind,
Perth and Stornoway and Kirkwall left behind,
And if they ask you why you took the long road South,
You’ll say you had no choice, there’s nothing left there now.
Now you’re waiting on the London train,
And it won’t be long before you leave it all behind,
There’s no pipe band playing ‘Will ye no come back again’
Far down the line, far down the line
Nick’s song, Festival Lights was perhaps the unofficial anthem of the Fringe. The words can be seen painted on the wall of Edinburgh’s famous folk music pub, the Royal Oak (1 Infirmary St, Edinburgh EH1 1LT).
Festival Lights – Nick Keir
The Folks out here are kind, They let me sleep all day,
They don’t seem to mind I’m dreaming my life away,
There’s traffic jams near The Hague, we’ll have to leave here soon,
Sing our songs and go, by the light of a lowland moon,
And it seems like I’ll miss Autumn in Edinburgh,
That’s the one I should have spent with you,
With the rain lashing down, a fog on the Meadows,
As the Festival lights, as the Festival lights go dim.
Been wandering round this town trying to pass some time.
It seems I know these streets, as well as I know mine,
The clock has turned to Five,perhaps you’ll be home soon.
I’ll call and say I’m missing you, and then hang up the phone.
And it seems like I’ll miss Autumn in Edinburgh,
That’s the one I should have spent with you,
With the rain lashing down, a fog on the Meadows,
As the Festival lights, as the Festival lights go dim.
And everybody’s written a song, which says
You’ve been on the road
Been on the road so long.
From the 2004 “All Over This Town” album. “…A brilliant and witty evocation of growing up in 1960s Edinburgh, listening to Radio Luxembourg and wanting to be like Bob Dylan…”
Mississippi MacDonald
In 2004, Nick asked me to play guitar on the All Over This Town record – I was honoured to have the opportunity to do this and delighted to be able to spend time with him in the Studio. I had a brand new and shiny Candy Apple Red Nashville Telecaster which I used on two tracks, “All Over This Town”, and “American Accent”. Of the time that I spent with Nick in London and Scotland, one of my favourite memories was that session, and particularly standing at the mixing desk and hearing the extraordinary and beautiful harmonies on “The Heart”, on the same record.
Nick was someone who I admired hugely – his warmth, humour and world class musicianship. It was wonderful to be with him and to learn from him and I think of him and listen to his music often.
After Nick passed, I wanted to record “American Accent” with my band. We put together a new arrangement – part acoustic to start with, and then with as much “electric gospel” as we could for the outro – horns, hammond organ, backing singers and of course, a Candy Apple Red electric guitar. I remember standing in the studio at the mixing desk playing the outro, and wishing that he could be there to hear it.
American Accent
I loved it then and I love it noo,
The Country and the Cajun and the Delta Blues
There’s nothing like the tapping of a blue suede shoe,
When it’s done in an American Accent.
I loved the Memphis and the Nashville sound
I tuned to “Lux” when the lights were down
I sang like Elvis on my paper round
And I sang in an American accent
Chorus:
Doesn ‘t matter if it’s fast or slow
Kind of high or way down low
They’ll never play it on the radio
Unless you sing in an American accent
They’ll never play it on the radio
Unless you sing in an American accent
I bought a guitar when I was just 14
I wanted to be groovy on the party scene,
Looking kind of chubby in my Parker’s jeans
I sang in an American accent
Bobby Dylan he was all the rage,
The denim-clad hero of the modern age
Guess I was going through an awkward stage
When I sang in an American accent
I sang a song on the BBC…
They let me keep the tape for free
I played it back: it didn’t sound like me
I sang in an American accent
Opened the curtains and I looked outside
Saw the reality I could not hide:
This isn’t Memphis, this is Morningside
And I don’t have an American accent
Crooked Smile was the opening track on Nick’s 2012 album, The Edge Of Night. The song is based on based on a school friend, with whom he like to go stravaiging down the Royal Mile, but who met an untimely end.
To “stravaig” is to wander, or ramble, derived most probably from an 18th / 19th century term “extravage”.
Crooked Smile
Don’t know what it was today that made me think about him,
I was walking down Great Stewart Street, I thought I heard his voice
And I couldn’t say exactly when his singing turned to shouting
He swore he’d give up whisky, as if he had a choice
Maybe I’m the only one around who can remember
How we ran through the long grass laughing at the sky
And through our eighteenth summer seemed like everyone was leaving
And late September vanished in a cloud of pale goodbyes
But If I had a day I’d love to walk with him and talk with him,
And we would go stravaiging down the Royal Mile
But if you asked him a straight question he would never give an answer
He would always turn away and give a kind of crooked smile
He would always turn away and give a kind of crooked smile
Rumours came from far away of broken glass and fighting
Of lovers left and leaving, and broken lost weekends
And it seemed he climbed the highest hill just to chase the lightning
And stand shouting at the midnight just to rail against his friends
But If I had a day I’d love to walk with him and talk with him,
And we would go stravaiging down the Royal Mile
But if you asked him a straight question he would never give an answer
He would always turn away and give a kind of crooked smile
He would always turn away and give a kind of crooked smile
The autumn leaves they jewel the ground, we used to sing they jewel the ground
And leave behind some sort of sad whispered sound
Don’t know what it was today that made me think about him,
I was walking down Great Stewart Street, I thought I heard his voice
And I couldn’t say exactly when his singing turned to shouting
He swore he’d give up whisky, as if he had a choice
But If I had a day I’d love to walk with him and talk with him,
And we would go stravaiging down the Royal Mile
But if you asked him a straight question he would never give an answer
He would always turn away and give a kind of crooked smile
He would always turn away and give a kind of crooked smile
Nick Keir 