Queensferry Crossing immortalised in song by Tayside musician

Award-winning Eddie Cairney releases new EP dedicated to bridge

An award-winning Tayside songwriter who immortalised the 50th anniversary of the Tay Road Bridge in music last year has released an EP which pays tribute to the newly opened Queensferry Crossing over the Forth.

Perth-born Eddie Cairney, 65, who now lives in Arbroath, has released an album called Sketches O’ The Q.C which includes songs dedicated to the “isolated” workers who were employed during construction and contrasts the old Forth Road Bridge to the new crossing with its wind shields designed to keep traffic flowing during storms.

Eddie, who delayed the release of the album due to family illness and bereavement, said: “It’s just another quirky album like I did for the Tay Road Bridge.

“As you can probably imagine, how do you write six songs about a bridge?

“I usually end up using a process of creative journalism. I get a few facts or even just a single fact and then I let my imagination take over.

“With each album early on in the writing process I draw a blank and think there’s nothing here I can write about but there’s always something to write about.

“I was going to call the album The Queensferry Crossing but thought that was a bit boring so I went for Sketches O’ The Q.C.”

Eddie was inspired to write Columba Cannon after reading an article about the general foreman for the foundations and towers.

Eddie said: “It was the name that got me and that gave me the first line of the song ‘He is a bridge builder wi a missionary zeal’ – has to be with a name like Columba!”

“Fishnet Bridge was set in a meditative light, describing the bridge as a “thing of beauty that looks like a big fish net glistening high above the Forth.”

“Midday Starvation came from an article which highlighted the isolation of the workers working high up on the bridge,” he added.

“If you forget your piece you’ve had it and you starve for there’s no nipping round to the corner shop for a pie. The article also said that a local pizza delivery firm regularly delivered a pallet load of warm pizzas to the bridge so that was ‘midday salvation’.”

Perth-born Eddie Cairney pays tribute to the bridge in his new EP Sketches O’ The Q.C.

The record features six songs describing the new bridge over the Forth and the workers who built it.