Findlay Napier

Winner of the MG Alba Composer of the Year 2025 Findlay Napier is widely regarded as one of the finest performers on the UK music scene. He is as comfortable on the main Stage of Cambridge Folk Festival with folk rock supergroup The Magpie Arc as he is in an intimate acoustic show in the back room of a pub.

This fact was further highlighted when Napier was the first solo act ever to be nominated for Live Act of the Year at the Scot’s Trad Music awards in 2018. Tirelessly creative he has been touring and releasing music since the early naughties. First with groundbreaking trad folk band Back of the Moon, then with Nu-Folk pioneers Findlay Napier and the Bar Room Mountaineers and most recently as a solo act working under the guidance of legendary songwriter Boo Hewerdine.

In 2025 he was chosen, alongside Kate Rusby and Richard Thompson, to compose an original song for BBC Radio 2’s “21st Century Folk”. He performed his song “Firecracker” on live on The Jeremy Vine Show and BBC Radio 4’s Front Row.

His breakthrough solo album VIP: Very Interesting Persons, produced by Boo Hewerdine, was number 2 in The Telegraph’s top folk albums of 2014. He followed it with 2017’s Glasgow described by The Scotsman as “a paean to his adopted home town” which led to a number of high profile gigs including a five tours as the opening act for Eddi Reader.

In 2021 he released It Is What It Is a collaboration album in all but name with producer and multi-instrumentalist Angus Lyon which Folk Radio UK called, ”A captivating, indispensable work; it is what it is and what it is, is magnificent."

Described as a “miracle lyricist’ by the Sunday Herald and “an original and engaging treat” by The Telegraph his skills as a songwriter and collaborator have led him to work on some surprising and interesting projects. In 2017 he was invited to take part in Greg Russell’s ‘Shake the Chains’ project with Nancy Kerr and Hannah Martin where they toured, recorded and released a double live album.

After meeting award winning songwriter Megan Henwood at an EFDSS songwriting retreat he formed the duo The Story Song Scientists writing songs about science releasing two EPs and touring the UK. In late 2021 he joined folk rock supergroup The Magpie Arc with Martin Simpson, Tom A Wright, Alex Hunter and Nancy Kerr performing on festival main stages and arts centres across the UK. Their debut album Glamour in the Grey, featuring three of Napier’s original songs including a co-write with Maz O’Conner was released in October 2022.

He is often commissioned to write songs including one for The 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, two songs for Morgan Fisher’s Miniatures 2020 and more recently penning the anthem “Union Strong” for the 125th anniversary of the Scottish TUC.

As a teaching artist he regularly runs songwriting workshops. He set up Glasgow Songwriting Festival in 2016 and consults on various other songwriting events and festivals around the UK. He has hosted many songwriting retreats at Moniack Mhor (Scotland’s Creative Writing Centre) alongside Boo Hewerdine, Karine Polwart and Bella Hardy and works with Vox Liminus and Feis Rois delivering music and songwriting workshops in Scottish prisons.

Findlay lives on the Isle of Arran with his family. His latest album Outsider was released in April 2025 as a CD and an incredible 154 page coffee table book featuring augmented reality content.

PRESS FROM EPK:

"... one of the finest songwriters and storytellers of the contemporary Scottish folk scene." Folk Radio UK (Glasgow)

"Coming on like a Caledonian Loudon Wainwright ... A superbly crafted compilation of Songs" Acoustic Magazine (Glasgow)

 

 

"Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice" is a humorous Scottish folk song that uses the phrase "cod liver oil and the orange juice" as a recurring, nonsensical refrain to mock the gossiping and social judgment surrounding a young woman's unconventional pregnancy. 

Song Meaning and Context

The song, written by Ron Clark and Carl MacDougall and popularized by Scottish folk singer Hamish Imlach in the 1960s, tells the story of Hairy Mary and an unnamed man (known as "The Hard Man") in Glasgow's working-class Gorbals neighbourhood. 

• The Narrative: The lyrics follow the man's clumsy attempts to pick up Mary at a dance hall, their brief sexual encounter in her tenement's outdoor toilet (the "dunny" or "cludgie"), his panicked escape when Mary's mother interrupts them, and the aftermath where Mary is pregnant and the man has joined the French Foreign Legion.
• Social Commentary: The song is a satirical take on the judgmental, gossipy community that watches the events unfold. The "glory hallelujah" and the title refrain are used mockingly throughout the song, highlighting how community members might use religious platitudes and moralizing language while eagerly sharing salacious details.
• The Title's Origin: In post-war Britain and Ireland, cod liver oil and orange juice were government-distributed supplements given to pregnant women and young children to boost nutrition. The phrase in the song is ironic; instead of the wholesome, government-approved image of the supplements, it symbolizes the "unconventional" and chaotic situation of Hairy Mary's pregnancy outside of marriage.
• Banned by the BBC: The song was briefly banned by the BBC due to its innuendo and "erotic content," further highlighting its playful, risqué nature for the time it was released.

Key Slang Terms

The song is rich in Scottish slang (Glaswegian), which contributes to its humor: 

• Sannies/Sandshoes: Scottish slang for canvas tennis shoes. The man offers to "run her home," which would usually imply a car, but he sarcastically reveals he only has sandshoes, meaning he will literally run her home on foot.
• Dunny/Cludgie: Slang for an outdoor toilet or lavatory, common in old tenement buildings.
• VP and cider: A specific, potent mix of fortified wine (VP stands for Veritas Philosophia) and cider, described in the lyrics as "a hell of a mixture" that gets the man "paralytic".
• Lumber: Slang for a casual romantic or sexual encounter.