Scottish music, song and dance in Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France.
The mountains, the sea, the forests and wild-life of the Aquitaine and of Scotland are akin.
Scotch Mist translates this affinity into music and dance blending in a miscellany of musical talents and integrating it with traditions from horizons oceans apart.
Story behind the song
Vive La France
No-one, who was caught up in it, can have forgotten the huge wave of joyous, tartan bonhomie that swept France during the 1998 football World Cup; notably around my adopted home town of Bordeaux.
For our part, Scotch Mist was involved in the around town entertainment and our participation was capped by playing in front of a multi-ethnic sea of 25,000 singing, dancing, smiling, happy football fans hailing mainly from Scotland, Norway, Brazil, Morocco and the host country of France.
A few months after the last foam of this wave had washed itself back onto Scottish shores I received a big brown envelope from a very nice man called Stuart Logan. The envelope contained an incredibly heartfelt saga which he had written, in prose, of the whole of the Scottish football pilgrimage of 1998. Its simplicity made it the more poignant.
The months and eventually the years passed with myself and Stuart (not very regularly) keeping in touch; usually to bemoan the Scottish teams’ lack of success.
At the beginning of 2007 Stuart got in touch to say that he had written a song based on his prose and he wondered if the band could do something with it. I was very busy at that moment and so didn’t have time to take the song into account. It wasn’t until I was driving back to Bordeaux from a gig in Toulouse several months later that a little light in my head turned itself on. I dug out Stuarts' CD from my enormous “come back to later” pile and had a listen. Immediately images of the Mondial ’98 came flooding back. All those different people jigging and reeling in the streets, catalysed by "a pacific army in tartan", created something that was both euphoric and surreal for all those privileged enough to have taken part in it.
So I customised the lyrics, re-harmonised the melody and sent it off to Stuart who gave it a very favourable nod. I felt though that it was blocked in the past and that it needed either an ending or something to complete the circle. There never will be an end to the support for the Scottish teams as the fans in tartan will always unconditionally follow the fortunes of Scotland wherever, whenever, whatever. The game in Paris on the September 12 2007 completed the circle. In the city where this song was born the Scots met the French, the perfect hosts, themselves. I wrote the last half verse with these images in mind. The eternal optimist that is the Scot who, whatever the result, will keep the party going. The historic extraordinary outcome of the match added fuel to the occasion and the Franco-Scottish conviviality that was created in 1998 was relived to the full.
This song is dedicated to those who sang and danced, to those who sing and dance and to those who will sing and dance.
Vive la France, vive l’Ecosse, vive le football
Martin Neish
Lyrics
Vive La France
From the club sides of Scotland from the green and the blue,
Under one flag all part of the same crew,
From the Highlands and the Lowlands from all over they came,
Even the Tartan Navy was moored on the Seine.
The world’s best behaved fans we danced in the sun,
Brazil took the points and we all had fun,
All through the night the party went on,
The Parisians could here the World Cup had begun.
Vive la France sing the Marseillaise,
Swinging ‘oor kilts along the Champs Elysee,
Ooh, la, la let’s go to St Denis,
In the Stade de France for the world to see.
Bonjour to Bordeaux ’’Comment t’aller vous’’,
You better come to our party before it comes to you,
There was singing and dancing ‘neath the Aquitaine sun,
Thousands of fans were just having some fun.
Songs round the fountains the notes spiralled high,
Lion Rampants and Saltires hoisted to the sky,
Surrounded by friends who shared the same dream,
In the colours of Scotland we’re all part of the team.
Vive la France sing the Marseillaise,
Swinging ‘oor kilts along the Champs Elysee,
Ooh, la, la let’s go to St Denis,
In the Stade de France for the world to see.
It’s a wonderful life when you’re far, far away,
Sunny memories to keep for a rainy day,
Oh Paris, Bordeaux and St Etienne,
When will we see your likes again.
Now we’re on the trail with a glint in our eyes,
Just maybe this time we’ll give them a surprise,
We’ll sing our songs again and dance together,
“Ca va nos amies” we’ve relit the heather.
Vive la France sing the Marseillaise,
Swinging ‘oor kilts along the Champs Elysee,
Ooh, la, la let’s go to St Denis,
In the Stade de France for the world to see.
Beautiful.....GREAT SOUND....Drumnjon