AN Australian pop star surprised Scottish fans with an acoustic cover of The Proclaimers posted on TikTok.
Calum Hood, bassist of pop-rock band 5 Seconds of Summer, shared his rendition of Sunshine on Leith whilst wearing a Hibernian FC jersey.
Scottish fans reacted with pride in the comments section, with one calling the video “a win for the Scots today” accompanied by Saltire emojis.
Others shared their own memories of the song, with one fan commenting: “I think it’s a universal Scottish child experience to well up hearing Sunshine on Leith.”
Another added: “As a Hibs supporter from Edinburgh, seeing Calum Hood wearing a Hibernian top and singing my grandad's funeral song was not something I ever anticipated and I am in fact sobbing.”
The video was accompanied by a lengthy caption, in which Hood talked about his childhood links to The Proclaimers through his Scottish father David.
@looseunit123 I remember being 8 years old. It was 8pm, or 10, or 12. Laying dormant in the bottom compartment of my metal framed bunk bed. My dad used to waltz home from the pub and sit outside in a camp chair under the tin roofed awning we had. He’d put The Proclaimers ‘Sunshine on Leith’ CD into our player and let it run all the way through. Sometimes twice. Harping and humming along like no tomorrow. The sound would crash through my window and set up camp in my small shipping container of a room. Guess I’m not sleeping for a couple more hours. If you asked me back then I’d probably say he did it because he was a little buzzed and wanted to let off steam from working long labored hours. But if you asked me now I’d say that it reminded him of home. I don’t blame him, I do the same for both reasons and loose change. I think Sunshine On Leith was track 4 or 5. From then on it became his own. I won’t ever associate this song with anyone but him. Flooding my CPU with pictures of his slight crooked smile on one side. Or the sound bite of his laugh where at the end the inflection of his pitch goes up just a touch. Or how he used to talk through his teeth whenever he was seething. All pretty much a carbon copy of what I do now. It makes me think of him as a child. Blue eyes and blonde hair weaving through the Scottish wind. It makes me wonder of what he was like when he was my age. What does he love? Who does he love? What’s he afraid of? There’s so many things I won’t ever get to ask that version of him. It’s hard now to sing the song without tearing up. In fact I’m tearing up now as I write this. Maybe it makes me feel closer to him. Maybe it humanizes him. Maybe I’m just emotional. A parent is likened to some sort of guardian angel. And although that maybe an unrealistic expectation as a 29 year old man I’m going to call him now and tell him he did a good job. I hope you have a song that reminds you fondly of someone.
♬ original sound - Calum Hood
He wrote: “My dad used to waltz home from the pub and sit outside in a camp chair under the tin roof awning we had.“
"He’d put The Proclaimers’ Sunshine on Leith CD into our player and let it run all the way through, sometimes twice, harping and humming along like no tomorrow.”
Hood noted that he now believes his father’s listening habits were related to a sense of homesickness for Scotland, rather than being “a little buzzed” from the pub.
The bassist wrote that the song makes him think of his dad as a child, “blue eyes and blonde hair weaving through the Scottish wind”.
