IT is roughly 500 miles from The Proclaimers' home town of Auchtermuchty in Fife to Warrington and back again.

And although Charlie and Craig Reid will probably not be walking the distance to the Parr Hall in tribute to I'm Gonna Be, they admit they have a lot to be thankful for when it comes to their 'indestructible' song.

Between 1988 and 1993, it slowly but surely became a hit all over the world.

The twin brothers readily admit the song is bigger than their band but they say they have never fallen out of love with it.

"The great thing about that record is that it keeps coming around," said Charlie.

"It comes back in waves and it’s almost bigger every time it comes back.

"Certainly at the beginning of the century it was a bigger record than when it first came out in 1988.

"It became that classic thing when 10 years after a record comes out someone is around who goes: ‘I remember that when I was kid’ and puts it on at a students’ union or club night."

Fans might also remember when Charlie and Craig recorded a Comic Relief version in 2007 with Matt Lucas and Peter Kay as Little Britain's Andy Pipkin and Phoenix Nights' Brian Potter.

"It’s kept coming back in different guises," added Charlie.

"Somebody sent me a link of Bono doing it for some guy at an ice hockey game. The truth is the song is far, far bigger than The Proclaimers are, or will ever be.

"It’s three and half minutes of a one and half hour set so that’s about right.

"If it was like old time variety shows and you went on and did that every night for the rest of your life that would be depressing but it’s a great high point of the show.

"It’s been such an advantage to us to have a record as big as that. There are bands that have sold many, many more records than us and have had far more hits but they’ve never had a song that will hang around like that

"It seems to be indestructible so we’ve got our fingers crossed."

But, of course, to define The Proclaimers for one song would do the duo a disservice.

They have been writing music and performing for more than three decades and their 10th album, the acclaimed Let's Hear It For The Dogs, shows they are still not short of ideas.

Or energy – their UK tour last year took them to 68 venues.

What is their secret?

"I think it comes down to nothing but desire," said Charlie, 54.

"The desire to do it, the desire to write new songs, the desire to perform – it is a combination of all those different desires.

"I’ve never wanted to do anything else. When we realised we could do it and didn’t have to do anything else like sign on a dole or do other jobs we couldn’t believe our luck.

"We never wanted to let that slip. There were a couple of periods – one in the 90s and one in the early 21st century – where we didn’t have a lot out but a lot of that was due to personal stuff.

"Our wives were having kids and we wanted to be home for a bit. Other things took over for a few years but as the kids got older we focused on the music again.

"I missed it very much during that time away but the advantage was it stopped us from becoming jaded."

Interest in The Proclaimers is also at a high thanks to Sunshine on Leith.

In an unexpected but hugely successful move, Scottish playwright Stephen Greenhorn transformed the songs on Charlie and Craig's 1988 album of the same name into a musical.

It was later turned into a film that made more than £4.8 million at the UK box office and became the fifth highest grossing independent UK film of 2013.

Charlie, who recently performed at the Hong Kong Sevens and Sydney Opera House, added: "When they said they were going to develop it into a musical we had to look at the date to check it wasn’t April 1.

"But Stephen Greenhorn, who wrote play, had really listened to the lyrics and woven a story around the themes. The story and the songs were well matched.

"They did three tours of theatres in Scotland playing sell-out shows every night. There’s talk of re-doing it as a stage show next year possibly starting in Leeds and then moving on to the West End.

"It is unconfirmed but it will be great if they do it."

Charlie and Craig were originally inspired to become musicians by the punk and new wave movements.

"We were 14 or 15 so it had a massive impact as that’s a really impressionable age," Charlie said.

"Our heroes became The Clash, The Jam, Buzzcocks and Joy Division.

"We took it from there. We wanted to do our own thing so we started writing songs and defining ourselves as a duo.

"It was good as it was just the two of us so we could do it in the flat we lived in – we didn’t need a rehearsal rooms or anything."

The Proclaimers' first taste of success was when Gerry Rafferty re-recorded their song Letter from America making it reach number two in the charts.

They then toured with the Housemartins which opened their eyes to the life of a musician.

Charlie added: "We’d never played to more than 30 or 40 people at that point and the first night we went on in Birmingham it was to 2,000 people.

"We were terrified. We thought we would be bottled off each night but the crowds were great. It certainly opened our eyes to the touring thing.

"We had an old beat up guitar and we were always worried that the pick-up wouldn’t work but we got by..."

- The Proclaimers are at Parr Hall on July 29. Visit pyramidparrhall.com or call 442345

DAVID MORGAN