THEIR sing-a-long tracks are, for many, the sound of a good time.

But this Hogmanay, Proclaimers Craig and Charlie Reid will avoid the stage, preferring a quiet night after a gruelling 70-date tour that made 2015 their busiest year to date.

Craig said: “I think we had a couple of weeks off in September.

“There’s been a lot of festivals, a lot of places we hadn’t played before, including a lot of places in England.

“A lot more people in England want to see us than ever before. The live audience has been growing for the last 10 to 15 years but I think the film definitely had a big effect.”

Released in 2013, the jukebox musical Sunshine on Leith featured 14 of the duo’s tracks and took about £4.8 million at the UK box office.

With a cast including Peter Mullan, the movie was welcomed with largely positive reviews and introduced the Leith-born twins to a new audience, building on a popularity that had already seen their upbeat tracks become favourites at weddings, parties and other celebrations across Scotland, including Hogmanay.

Charlie said: “With Hogmanay, I think the general perception of the band now is that we have become linked to it. The sing-along element has got something to do with it.

“The pub element, the drinking probably has something to do with it as well, but hopefully it’s because the music is inclusive.

“I go to the football matches at Easter Road and they play it probably most games. When I was younger it felt like a bigger deal and I felt self-conscious, but I think your music does become public property and it’s something to be shared.”

Craig added: “I was thinking back to the first big tour we did with a band in 1988, just after Sunshine on Leith. We were much younger, the audience was much younger, we were playing small places.

“The audience now is much bigger – we’ve got songs that are in people’s psyche. We get two, sometimes three generations of the same family coming along.

“Someone said all our songs are happy – they’re not, but they are accessible and they are meant to be sung. They are singable songs.

“It’s good people play our stuff but when you are standing there it can get a wee bit awkward.”

Famous fans include Bathgate-born actor David Tennant, who calls The Proclaimers his “favourite band of all time”, praising them for writing “the most spectacular songs, big-hearted, uncynical passionate songs”.

Meanwhile, Little Britain comedian Matt Lucas said their music makes him feel “euphoric”, writing: “Sunshine On Leith says more to me about my life and the way I feel than anything Morrissey or Cobain ever wrote.”

Another anthem, Cap In Hand, shot up the download charts in the run-up to the referendum, its impassioned criticism of the union striking a note with Yes voters.

Topping the Amazon singles chart at the start of September 2014, it outsold releases by chart acts like Taylor Swift and Maroon 5.

Charlie said: “It was good people wanted to use it, but my dearest wish was that we’d never have to play it again."

On independence, he said: “We’ll get it next time, but it’s not my generation to do it now, it’s people in their 20s and 30s that are going to take us there.”

Despite the popularity and plaudits, the Reids – whose back catalogue contains 11 albums – remain humble about their success and say they still cannot tell when they have a hit on their hands.

Craig said: “You know when you’ve got something that is probably going to be the first single or the first one on radio, but you can’t tell when you’ve got a big hit.

“When we wrote Letter From America we had it acoustic, and the record label said if we rerecorded it, it might get played. It sold a lot of albums, but it wasn’t that big a hit.

“The words are more important than the music – you want to be singing about something. We’re always looking for different subject matter and we believe in what we sing.

“But sometimes I’ll get the music and spend weeks trying to find the words, then you get a couple of lines and it all falls into place.”

For the Reids, conviction is one of the key elements in music, and something their favourite performers share.

To Craig, Sam Cooke, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Specials are key to a good time, while Charlie rates James Brown and Dexy’s Midnight Runners, with his current favourite being English duo Slateford Mods.

He said: “They’re my favourite act of the last 20 years, they’re one of the most original things I have ever heard.

“They are the most interesting act to emerge in Britain since The Smiths, and in terms of the poetic and lyrical element every bit as good. But what I like about all these acts is they sound like the mean it.”

Taking a festive break before heading off for dates in Australia and New Zealand in the spring, the Reids are not performing tonight and will instead celebrate the bells away from the spotlight.

Charlie may go to watch his son’s band, who he would not name because “I don’t want to spook it for them”, while Craig will spend the night in front of the TV.

He said: “I’m 53 now, I did going round the houses and being out all night. My kids go out, but unless we are working now I take it quite quietly. We’ve been out so many nights playing. It’s been a very busy year.”