The Blue Nile: The Scottish band name-checked by Taylor Swift 20 years after their last album

Glasgow trio propelled back into the limelight

Taylor Swift has named-checked Scottish band The Blue Nile on her latest album. Picture: Gie Knaeps/Getty Images

To their devoted fans, they are Scotland’s greatest musical treasures for decades, even if it is 20 years since their last album and even longer since they last performed live.

But now The Blue Nile, one of the best-known bands to emerge from the musical melting pot of 1980s Glasgow, have been propelled back into the limelight - thanks to Taylor Swift.

The American singer-songwriter has emerged as a fan of the band after name-checking The Blue Nile on her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department.

Taylor Swift has named-checked Scottish band The Blue Nile on her latest album. Picture: Monica Schipper

The Blue Nile are mentioned in the ninth track, Guilty as Sin?, along with one of their best-known songs, The Downtown Lights, from their acclaimed second album, Hats.

It was released in 1989, the year Swift was born and five years after The Blue Nile’s debut record, A Walk Across the Rooftops.

In Swift’s new song, she suggests that listening to The Blue Nile track, which Annie Lennox and Keane have previously recorded cover versions of, makes her cry.

The song has been widely interpreted as being about a previous relationship with Matty Healy, the singer of the band The 1975, who has cited The Blue Nile as his favourite band of all-time.

Taylor Swift has named-checked Scottish band The Blue Nile on her latest album. Picture: Andre Csillag/Shutterstock

Healy has previously told how The Downtown Lights had inspired The 1975 song Love If We Made It.

Swift's lyrics in Guilty as Sin? say: “Drowning in the Blue Nile, He sent me Downtown Lights, I hadn’t heard it in a while, My boredom’s bone deep, This cage was once just fine, Am I allowed to cry?”

The Blue Nile were formed in 1981 by Glasgow University students Paul Buchanan, Robert Bell and PJ Moore. They last toured together in 1997, including an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival, although a fourth album was released eight years later.

Buchanan, the band’s singer, released a solo album, Mid Air, in 2012, has worked with artists like Peter Gabriel, Texas, Craig Armstrong, Jessie Ware, Paula Cole and Michael Brook, and makes occasional live appearances, most recently at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow earlier this year.

Swift has emerged as a fan of the Scottish band less than two months before she arrives in Edinburgh for three eagerly-awaited sold-out shows at Murrayfield Stadium.

The 34-year-old US singer-songwriter released her 11th studio album to critical acclaim on Friday. Rob Sheffield from Rolling Stone magazine suggested the album may be the “most personal” yet from Swift.

Hours after releasing the 16-song edition of the album, she announced an expanded version with an extra 15 songs, titled The Anthology.

The original album appeared to be leaked online 24 hours before its scheduled release, it features collaborations from Post Malone and Florence + The Machine.