AHEAD of a long-awaited return to an international competition for Scotland's male national team, a Scots band have released a song to inspire the team and fans.
The last international competition Scotland's male team were in was the 1998 world cup, where they were knocked out in the group stages after losing to Brazil and Morocco and drawing with Norway.
Fife-based band Rudebeard hopes that their new song will reverse fortunes for the national team in the upcoming Euro 2020 competition, which has been rescheduled to this year with venues across Europe due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The song was originally written after Scotland's loss to Brazil in the 98 World Cup and following a poor performance in the Euro 1996 competition by Rudebeard's vocalist Rod Drysdale with his former band, the Newtown Grunts.
Drysdale described the song as a "loving lament for defeated heroes, that struck a chord on the Scottish underground scene, where football songs usually die unloved".
After Scotland defeated Serbia on penalties in Belgrade to qualify for Euro 2020 in November, the Newtown Grunts' drummer, Adam Lawson - who also plays with Rudebeard now - demanded that Drysdale revisited Toepokes and Tragedies again.
The past tense was removed and a "new spirit of optimism" was added so that it might help "add a wee bit to the breeze blowing up the pitch towards the opposition this summer".
Drysdale said: “We are not trying to make any money from it and it is for zero profit, we just want it to be in the hearts and minds of the Tartan Army when Scotland play.
"Throughout Covid, there has been some crazy results for the underdogs in football and I wouldn’t rule anything out when it comes to Scotland – there is no expectation for us so there is no reason that we couldn’t pull it out of the bag.
"We will be playing England at Wembley which will be a tough match, but we always turn up against them so everything is up for grabs.
"If Scotland qualifies for the World Cup in Qatar in 2022 we’re going to shoot a new desert themed video for the song.”
Rudebeard formed in 2018 as a Ska group, inspired by bands like Madness and The Specials.
Toepokes and Tragedies is from the band's upcoming EP One Big Yes.
Watch the full music video for the song below:
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