Aiken Promotions PresentTHE PROCLAIMERS

Vicar St, Dublin, Friday November 20thMandela Hall, Belfast, Saturday November 21st

Tickets on sale from www.ticketmaster.ie & outlets nationwide on Thursday May 21st @ 9am

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 with a welcome return to Dublin and Belfast.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 its 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.   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 GUARDIANMatt 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."www.proclaimers.co.uk