WATCH: Black Isle musician releases Scottish football anthem
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A BLACK Isle musician has brought out a rousing Scotland football anthem and video with high hopes it will be adopted by the Tartan Army and spur the team to great things during the Euro championships starting later this month.
Innes Forbes, now living in the Algarve, Portugal, penned Up An’ At ’em 23 years ago in 1998 when the national side last qualified for a major competition – the World Cup in France – but it was never released.
Up An’ At ’em is performed by a music collective called Scotch Embassy.
Innes said: “It is an old school anthem which sounds like the Corries meets Tarantino film soundtracks.
“It is a call to activate Scottish sentimentality and also ramp up the spirits of the team and crowd into an impassioned frenzy.”
Innes penned the track when he was signed to Alan McGee’s Creation Records with Glasgow-based band Toaster. He added: “It was the last time Scotland played in a major tournament and it has been taken out of the vaults of my mind 23 years later to finally see the light of day.”
The reworked lyrics are accompanied by musicians living all over the world who were communicating solely online due to Covid-related restrictions.
Scotch Embassy consists of singer/guitarist Innes, bassist/drummer/engineer Peter Cornwall, Dave Beards on tabla, fiddle player Claire Campbell and guitarist Thomas Polychuck.
The video contains clips from a diaspora of Scots around the globe including Rory Hutcheson of Inverness band This Machine.
It will compete with the unofficial Scotland anthem Yes Sir, I Can Boogie which was a huge disco hit for Baccara in the ’70s.
A video of the Scotland team dancing to the song after they qualified for the Euros went viral online.
