After a whirlwind romance Marion Fellows’ wedding to her late husband George didn’t quite go to plan.
The Motherwell and Wishaw MP has admitted that she can’t remember their first dance song, there wasn’t a hotel room booked, and they managed to lock themselves out of the car.
The SNP politician revealed the issues in an interview about her love of music with Holyrood magazine – which covers Scottish politics and current affairs.
When asked about her first dance song, the MP replied: “We didn’t have a first dance, that’s a lot more modern. I sound like Methuselah! We had a band at the wedding but they came with the hotel, so you got what they played and I can’t remember it.
"My wedding day was like no other, though. We ended up locked out of the car with the keys in the ignition and they hadn’t even booked us into the hotel. We got married very quickly; we were only out two or three times before he asked me to marry him and then we moved to London.”
Mrs Fellows loves Scottish storytelling current artists such as The Proclaimers and Eddi Reader who was performing in Lanark at the last live gig she attended, but also admits that 60s music and Abba are the tunes most likely to get her up on the dance floor.
The first record (vinyl) she bought was Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys but it was a gift for her then boyfriend.
“I’ve always loved the Beach Boys,” she said. “It’s hard to imagine now, but I grew up in a house that didn’t have a record player, so it was the radio that was on and that’s how you would listen to music. I had to fight my parents to be allowed to watch Top of the Pops.”
Brought up in Ayr, the MP recalls attending folk clubs and listening to protest songs in her younger days.
A fan of music streaming service Spotify while at home Mrs Fellows enjoys more than one genre of music and anything with a “good beat”, but can’t single out a favourite track. However, there is one song that she can’t now bring herself to listen to due to the emotions it evokes.
She said: “When I met my husband George, who was a bit older than me, we loved live music but there wasn’t always a lot of cash going round to go to gigs. But we had our song, Love Letters in the Sand by Pat Boone. That was a side of us that a lot of folk didn’t see. After he died, I still can’t listen to it.”
She added: “George and I went to see Les Misérables, because we loved the music in that.”
There is one particular song that is guaranteed to lift the MP’s spirits after a day in the House of Commons: “Don’t Worry, Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin. That’s something that really is mood-altering. Sometimes after a hard day in the chamber, that’s what you need.”
The MP also enjoys listening to music with her grandkids but admits their favourites are not entirely her usual cup of tea.
“The three-and-a-half-year-old likes Baby Shark, and for the five-year-old and eight-year-old it’s We Don’t Talk About Bruno from the Disney film Encanto,” she said. “The 11-and-a-half-year-old is too cool for any of it”.
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