Video: Duo record Edinburgh tram parody song

IT’S more ‘The Tram-Machine’ than ‘The Man-Machine’ but a London-based musical comedy duo have created a parody song in the style of Kraftwerk about the much-maligned Edinburgh tram network.

Ms Hypnotique, one half of Eccentronic, pictured at Shandwick Place. Picture: YouTube

Eccentronic - comprising John Callaghan and Ms Hypnotique - describe themselves as ‘an electronic, eccentric musical comedy duo’, who deal in ‘comedy cabaret’.

They’ve already released a song in tribute to the Croydon tram network, but have reimagined the tune to fit Edinburgh’s project on the day the trams began test runs on the city’s streets.

Containing lyrics such as ‘And it’s fun, fun, fun / On the Edinburgh tram, tram, tram / Let’s go from Shandwick Place, it’s ace / to Gogarburn, it’s fun’, the song pokes fun at the project’s lengthy construction, and makes reference to the fact that the price of a tram to the airport would be £1 more expensive than the Airport Bus.

Ms Hypnotique, one half of Eccentronic, pictured at Shandwick Place. Picture: YouTube

Filmed as part of a ‘flashmob’ during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival earlier this year, the video shows the duo - plus a number of helpers - performing in the style of the German electronic music pioneers at Haymarket, Princes Street and Shandwick Place.

Although initially due to start running in 2011, the trams have suffered endless delays and costly increases, largely down to the bitter dispute between former council tram development firm TIE, and the tram-line builders.

Costing £776 million, the target for the trams to start running is May 2014, but the capital’s Transport Convener Lesley Hinds today said that this would be brought forward if possible.

Lyrics in full

Let’s go from Princes Street to Edinburgh Gateway

Balgreen to Gyle Centre have you been there lately?

Wave as we pass Ingliston Park and Ride, no need for cars, by tram we can glide.

It’s the newest kind of public transport, just 30 minutes from Haymarket to the airport

Take a flight to Frankfurt or Lanzarote, or the sunny East Midlands, it’s not grotty

Ministers, get the tram project back on track - or let’s take the 100 bus and give us our money back

Every journey an adventure, and so it’s the only way to go

And it’s fun, fun, fun, on the Edinburgh tram, tram, tram

And it’s fun, fun, fun, on the Edinburgh tram, tram, tram

Let’s go from Shandwick Place, it’s ace, to Gogarburn, it’s fun

And it’s fun, fun, fun, on the Edinburgh tram, tram, tram.