FIRST MINISTER

What are your earliest musical memories?

My early childhood musical memories would be from what my dad used to play in the car – everything from The Corries to Simon & Garfunkel. That’s really the soundtrack of my youth.

But the first song I remember when I was a wee girl was Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks. I identify it with being at my grandparents’ house. It would often be playing in the car on the long winding road from Ayr down to Dunure where my grandparents lived. And it sparks emotions too. I remember knowing it was a sad song, despite the fact it had a really happy tune, but not really understanding it. So whenever I hear it not only do I get transported back to my grandparents’ house, those emotions come to the fore.

What other songs do you recall?

The other song that I have childhood memories around – happy and comical – is Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison, below. My dad used to sing that to me when I was wee and I’ve got a distinct memory of dancing around our living room with him as he was singing it and he went over on his ankle. I remember thinking he was kidding on. He was writhing in agony on the floor and I was laughing at him and trying to pull him up. And it turned out he’d broken his ankle in two places and spent the next six weeks in plaster. I’m not sure that’s a good memory but it’s a distinctive memory!

When you get home from a long day do you listen to music to relax?

No. Music is not unimportant to me but books are far more important. If Nicola Sturgeon with Stephen Kirkwood, director of music production company SKapade, who deliver workshops for the Prince’s Trust

you were asking me to choose between a list of books that meant something to me in my life and a list of songs, it would be the former. Music is important to me in more of a subconscious way than an overt way.

Is there any other music that is important to you?

Yes, but most of it is deeply embarrassing! My teenage years spanned the ’80s so my musical preferences from that era are Wham!, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, all these greats of that era. Those are the bands that I identify with my angst-ridden teenage years. But me and my husband had some Eddi Reader singing Burns played at our wedding. So that’s special.