Exclusive:Scottish singer to relive 'scary' stage moment which bagged her place on Sex and the City film soundtrack

An award-winning Scottish trad singer is to relive the “scary” stage moment which bagged her a place on the soundtrack of a major Hollywood film.

A Fringe show by Mairi Campbell will see her tell the audience about a moment on stage in the US, when she blanked - and later recovered, resulting in her song later being used in the iconic Sex and the City film.

Ms Campbell is to perform the full version of her acclaimed Pendulum Trilogy, one part of which was featured in a New Year’s Eve scene in the the 2008 spin off of the hit TV series for the first time at this year’s Fringe.

In 1999, Ms Campbell was performing Auld Lang Syne, one part of the trilogy, at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington DC with her husband, David Francis, before an audience which included Bill Clinton, Sean Connery as well as Sex and the City actress Sarah Jessica Parker.

Mairi Campbell's Auld Lang Syne was in the Sex and the City film. | Mairi Campbell

As a result, the track was used in the Sex and the City soundtrack nine years later.

Ms Campbell said: “It was a scary stage moment of losing it and we’re bringing that back on stage.”

She will also recreate the moment she and her husband found out their music was to be used in the film.

She said: “It shows me walking into the living room, where Dave is watching TV and just being like, ‘Hi Dave, what are you watching?’ and then the phone rings. I pick it up and say, ‘What? Oh my God, we’re in the movie!’”

She added: “I went to see it on my own at the cinema in Edinburgh, it was very surreal. I sat there and then I heard the beginnings of Dave’s guitar. I think it has brought our music to a wider audience.”

In the show, she plays various “characters” who have featured throughout her life and also uses movement in addition to her music.

Celebrating the tenth anniversary of the first performance of the first chapter, Pulse, Ms Campbell will also perform the rest of the work - including Auld Lang Syne and Living Stone - at the Scottish Storytelling Centre.

Ms Campbell, who will turn 60 during the Fringe run, directed by Kath Burlinson, said: “I’m very proud to present this body of work. It’s been sweat, blood and tears, but the reward is gorgeous and I'm so enjoying the journey of showing them, now the hard work's been done. The three shows mark forty years - from ages 19 to 59.”

She added: “Pulse takes the audience through the challenges of finding my feet through traditional music in my twenties. Auld Lang Syne pulls back and yet forward - a timeless song, unpacked and finally understood. Finally Living Stone is the journey of meeting my Talisman, the millstone that is present throughout all the shows.”

Ms Campbell will perform at the Scottish Storytelling Centre from 2 - 17 August.