I’m proud to be taking part in Paul Haig Day II, wherein we pay tribute to one of the most talented singers and musicians ever to emerge out of Scotland.

Paul Haig was the lead singer in Josef K, the seminal Edinburgh band, who were at the forefront of Scotland’s post-punk scene, along with bands like the Scars, the Fire Engines, Orange Juice, Aztec Camera and most famous of all, the Associates, featuring Paul’s best friend, the late Billy Mackenzie. When Josef K split in 1981, the band’s guitarist Malcolm Ross joined Orange Juice. It was that sort of scene.

Paul Haig has had a fine solo career subsequently, and the last decade saw Josef K start to get their dues as Franz Ferdiannd, probably the most important Scottish band of the decade, paid tribute to them (and indeed the Fire Engines). The sleeve notes to the fine Entomology compilation album pay tribute to Franz Ferdinand ‘without whom this release may never have seen the light of day.’

In March 2009, my friend JC, who writes The Vinyl Villain (who single-handedly has got me into Mr. Haig’s solo career) found himself the subject of a DMCA take-down post. Both Paul and his manager Euan got in touch with Jim to say they were bemused by this, as they had not asked for a takedown. In fact, Paul was totally up for bloggers to make tracks of his available for download. So April 6 2009 became the first Paul Haig day, and because of the success of this, JC has repeated this and made today Paul Haig Day II. no less than thirty five blogs are taking part.

In the time between, Paul has released another fine solo album , entitled Relive and I was dead chuffed to be the first person to interview him about the album (this was according to the man himself. It was chance rather than design, but pretty cool, nonetheless). He’s a very friendly person in the flesh and a pleasure to chat to.You can read the review of the album here, the interview here and my review for Go Out Tonight over at Is This Music?

So…some mp3s, then!

First up, the opening track on his most recent album:

Paul Haig -‘Trip Out the Rider.’ mp3

An remix of the track being made available through bloggers this week:

Paul Haig -‘Trip Out the Rider (remix).’ mp3

and a Josef K classic:

Josef K -‘Sorry For Laughing.’ mp3