International entrepreneur challenges Proclaimers to change their tune and help celebrate the hundreds of jobs created in the Highlands.
International entrepreneur Sanjeev Gupta has challenged Scottish musical icons The Proclaimers to change their tune and help celebrate the hundreds of jobs his company is bringing to the Highlands.
The band’s song Letter from America, about Scots leaving their homeland, contains the phrase “Lochaber no more” – but to mark the start of work on his new car wheels factory, near Fort William, Mr Gupta has called for a chorus of “Lochaber once again”.
The businessman’s multi-national metals, industrial and energy group, GFG Alliance, stepped in to save the UK’s last aluminium smelter, near Fort William, from the brink of closure in 2016. Now his plans to add a plant employing 400 people producing alloy car wheels at the site are sparking a new industrial revolution in the West Highland area.
With planning permission granted earlier this year, the company is on course to start building the £120million factory in September. And, to mark the occasion, Mr Gupta hopes to lure The Proclaimers north to perform a concert to featuring an updated version of the 1987 hit.
Issuing the friendly challenge to the brothers, Mr Gupta said he had become aware of the song, about the Highland Clearances and the 1980s Scottish industrial decline shortly after his company acquired the smelter.
He said: “It’s an amazing story and an amazing journey for the Highlands and Islands. They had big industry and it declined. Now for it to come back, it’ s reclaiming the heritage
“We are thinking about commissioning The Proclaimers to do a new song that says ‘Lochaber once again.’ When we do the ground-breaking we want them to come and do a concert and sing it.
“What’s happening in Lochaber is literally in the face of the industrial decline in the song. It would be great – the end of summer and a nice concert. We would love to do that, so this is an open challenge and invitation to them.”
In July the Proclaimers, Craig and Charlie Reid, embark on a major UK tour, which includes sold-out concerts at Inverness Leisure Centre and Aberdeen’s BHGE Arena in November. No-one was available from the band yesterday to comment on whether they could fit in a visit to Fort William, or would be willing to re-write their song.
Mr Gupta, who now lives in Australia, has paid around a dozen visits to the Lochaber site since buying it, including one when he joined staff there for a barbecue.
He was speaking after meeting First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and briefing her on GFG Alliances plans to double its investment in Scotland to £1billion in the coming years.