Ruth Maguire MSP: 'I'm quite emotional so lots of things will get me'

What was the first record you ever bought? 
The first-ever record I was bought by someone else was Boney M, Nightflight to Venus, which my nan got me. I was only about four. I have strong memories of listening to that and thinking it was amazing. The first record I bought myself was one by Altered Images. I bought it with my own pocket money, probably from Woolies. I didn’t have full access to the record player, but I had supervised access. I remember having to be very careful putting stuff on, and if you ever scratched a record you were in bother. 

What song always gets you on the dance floor? 
I have thought about this question so much and I have got to be honest, most records do because I love dancing so much. The last thing I was at where it was everybody dancing was a wedding when Stevie Wonder’s Superstition came on. When you start hearing the bass come in...  

What was the first dance at your wedding? 
This is a bit of a story. We’ve been married for quite a while and we didn’t have much money when we had our wedding, but we really wanted to get a band so we got a really good one with a brass section, which was really cool. We wanted them to play Let’s Get Married by The Proclaimers for our first dance, but they couldn’t do it and didn’t do it, so our first dance was something really cheesy by Ronan Keating. I don’t even remember which song it was, I just remember Pete and me dancing around awkwardly and all our friends pointing and laughing. It’s actually quite a nice memory, but it kind of set the tone for the rest of my life. 

What songs do you remember from your reception?  
They played quite a lot of old R’n’B and dancey songs. My eldest, Amy, was four at the time and my youngest, Daisy, was a baby, so there was a lot of dancing about with children. I remember Amy sitting on our friend’s shoulders at one point when it was getting quite rowdy. 

What song always makes you cry? 
I’m quite emotional so lots of things will get me. The one I couldn’t listen to for ages was Son I Voted Yes by Stanley Odd. That really got me. It just captured that moment of hope [around the independence referendum] which was obviously not to be. I’m welling up thinking about it. 

What music do you associate with your childhood? 
My father [former MSP John Finnie] was really into folk music, so I have lots of memories of parties where that was played – songs by Silly Wizard, the Battlefield Band and The Corries, those kinds of classic trad bands. At parties, folk used to do a turn of The Portree Kid, a slightly comedic song from The Corries. I listen to everything now, but I still listen to that type of music, bands like Skerryvore and Niteworks. I’m going to see Trail West in a few weeks. We go to quite a lot of music festivals, and it’s always good to hear new bands come through. I’m going to see a local band from my constituency, Culann, launch their EP in a few weeks’ time. 

What record do you absolutely hate? 
There was period when one of the girls was into Rammstein, which grated on me a little bit. I’ve also sat through the Little Mix farewell concert with my youngest, who was quite emotional about it because she felt she had grown up with them. When I went to a festival recently, our neighbours were into happy hardcore and it went on for about 12 hours. I love dance music, but not anything a bit angry and that was quite intense. It was the Lindisfarne Festival, Primal Scream were headlining. We saw lots of unknown bands as well and I think it’s probably my favourite thing about festivals that one minute you’re in a tent listening to ethereal English folk music, then the next you’re watching a hip-hop artist with a DJ. 

What’s on your mix for your commute into parliament? 
I’ve got a ‘gee myself up’ mix and a relaxing one, depending on whether I need geed up or simmered down. The gee-up one is full of 90s and 00s dance music, the relaxing one is an R’n’B one with Stevie Wonder’s Hotter than July, Teardrops from Womack and Womack, and Randy Crawford.