Fife songs: from That’s Fife to I Don’t Like Methil and Dancing In The Streets

The phrase was never verified or claimed by any commentator or broadcaster but often quoted and regularly discussed. I was interviewed by BBC Radio Five as the song demo was recorded in my kitchen. Available only for a short time on cassette only, it has become a rarity but at one time could be purchased in local bars and record shops.

At number seven comes That’s Fife, as written and performed by broadcaster and panto villain Grant Stott. First recorded at the Radio Forth Awards in 2011, the video now has over 270,000 views. His parody of the Frank Sinatra song That’s Life mentions Jackie O’s.

Next comes I Don’t Like Methil from the late Michael Marra. Once a member of Dundee band Skeets Boliver they played the Dutch Mill in Kirkcaldy but his tongue in cheek song was a familiar inclusion to his great shows all over Scotland.

Top Five then and to the late Nick Keir who passed away in 2013. His song The Beatles Played Kirkcaldy was first heard on his 2008 album Fishing Up The Moon. I loved it and invited him into Leith FM to record a session which he did.

The ballad reflects on that rainy night in 1963 when The Beatles came to town and the song finishes with lines from I Saw Her Standing There. As a member of The McCalmans he extensively toured and regularly played the Elbow Room in Kirkcaldy. Solo shows continued when Ian McCalman retired.

In the 1940s and 50s a children’s playground chant of The Grand Old Duke Of York accompanied by a Strip The Willow type couples parade became universally popular. A local version had a bridging chorus about Coals For Dysart (Dysart Coal) and makes our number four.

With the computer age this has been lost to generations and even I doubted its provenance, but then I then found that the great Sir Jimmy Shand, he of East Wemyss and resident of Auchtermuchty actually recorded it on a 10” shellac 78 rpm disc for Beltona Records around 1936 with Margaret Low on piano and Len Kidd on drums. Some 26 years later he would be in the pop charts with Bluebell Polka, produced by George Martin.