The Proclaimers are busy with a round of recording and performing. Charlie Reid tells Charles Hutchinson why music still makes sense.

THE Proclaimers are on a roll again.

Scottish brothers Craig and Charlie Reid took seven years to follow up 1994's Hit The Highway with Persevere in 2001 but there has been no tardiness in returning to the studio this time.

Last month, the Reids released their fifth studio album, Born Innocent, and in between the studio sessions came a compilation, The Best Of The Proclaimers, 87-02.

A world tour of 168 dates in 2001 and 2002, festival appearances, the Edinburgh Hogmanay headline slot, an arena tour of the United States with Barenaked Ladies, and a Scottish island itinerary this summer have led to this month's tour of Britain and Ireland. There are 24 dates in all, among them York Barbican Centre on Sunday.

On the evidence of Born Innocent, recorded in the retro London studio of fellow Scot Edwyn Collins, the Reids have returned to full musical health.

"I just think we're reinvigorated," says Charlie. "Maybe after a long period we want to get back to doing it again, as things have eased family-wise and business-wise.

"We make our albums when we have enough songs, and for this record we had enough songs after seven months, so that's why we made the album now."

The years between Hit The Highway and Persevere had been dominated by family matters.

"Our father dying, our kids being born, things never happened for The Proclaimers. We never got together, but for the last three years, we've been touring, recording and writing a lot," says Charlie.

There is a minimum of fuss to the recordings on Born Innocent, a title that captures the naked sound of the pugnacious music.

"I think it was perhaps the case that Persevere was over-produced, but you could never accuse Edwyn Collins of over-producing a record. Though I think the last album stands up and I still like it, we really suit Edwyn's form of production, recording as a live band as much as possible. The immediacy comes through, recording this way," says Charlie.

"We chose Edwyn partly because of his reputation, partly because of his track record, and we just really liked him and his studio, where we'd done a couple of tracks there last year for the Best Of album. I think he's done a great job. He doesn't try to overcomplicate and he understands the mood of a band."

Not for nothing do The Proclaimers call their record label Persevere Records. "The question is, when you've sold a lot of records and made a lot of money, and are no longer having the hits, do you still want to do it, and we do. This is what we want to do," says Charlie. "I've never been tempted to do another job, though I did work in hospitals, building sites, just bits and pieces, when I was on the dole years and years ago, but I never, never wanted to do anything else but music."

That intensity of purpose, and righteous zeal, has always marked out The Proclaimers. "It's just the way we are, and that's the way we always wanted to perform. With the people we've liked, from Elvis to James Brown to The Beatles and Dexys at their peak, their songs stood for what those people were.

"If you lose that energy and ability to put it over, you should stop. You need that physicality, that vigour, without still trying to be young."

How Reid, how right.

The Proclaimers, York Barbican Centre, Sunday, 7.30pm. Tickets: £16 on 01904 656688.

Updated: 09:14 Friday, October 17, 2003