Portrait: Scottish singer Horse

By Chantal on Thursday, September 30, 2010 - 16:50

That Horse (born Sheena McDonald) would have a career in music seemed pretty much a given from birth; she was born on Saint Cecelia’s Day.

For those of you who don’t know – Saint Cecelia is the patron saint of musicians (and church music).

Horse hails from Newport-on-Tay, a small town in the north-east of the county Fife in Scotland. She spent her first two years in Anstruther, another small town in Fife, before she and her family moved to the town of Lanark in the Central Belt of Scotland. On her 10^th birthday Horse got her first guitar and the rest, as they say, is history.

 Photo: Fat Sams Live

She was already quite the performer in her school years; Horse made various appearances in school concerts. It wasn’t her only venture into the arts though. Next to her music, Horse would also draw and paint and was determined to go to art school and even prepared to set up her portfolio.

While in the midst of doing arts in a variety of ways, Horse met Sandy Ash and the two teamed up to work out a short set of covers and it wasn’t long before Sandy placed an ad looking for other musicians.

Angela McAlinden responded to the ad and the trio started talking and rehearsing. Unfortunately though, conversation was the main thing they did and Sandy fell away.

Angela and Horse still had some songs they wanted to collaborate on (Gibson St., Cinema Love Scenes) which turned into a writing partnership that lasted nearly two decades.

During this time Angela and Horse were known under various names including Rhesus Negative and Astrakhan, but it wasn’t until a few demos later that publishers began to take note. The demo You Could Be Forgiven (including the so-titled single) was singled out by Alex Radvanyi of EMI (then CBS Songs) and after a series of meetings and negotiations a deal was finalized and signed in 1986.

Angela suggested that they’d rename themselves ‘Horse’ and after various calls and minor setbacks that usually come with the territory, the group’s hard work was rewarded in the autumn of 1987 when Simon Potts (music director of the then fledgling Capitol UK) confirmed that he would be travelling to Glasgow for the ‘Third Eye Show’ where Horse would be performing, to note his interest in the group.

A new performance was scheduled for a few weeks later and a deal was finally signed on December 23, 1987.

But the hard work wasn’t over; the group needed to write their songs, gather them and decide which ones they would use for their first album. Pete Smith (a producer for, amongst others, Sting) and several others were brought in and the recording began. The first single would be Forgiven and just as the single was being released disaster struck.