Billy Sloan: Horse, The Same Sky - Released – 1990

But the track, which closes The Same Sky is much more than that. In the last 30 years, the Scottish singer has felt it touch the hearts of audiences across the world.

There is one performance of Careful that stands above all others, however.

In 2007, Horse gifted the song to her mother Vicky during the final days of her battle with ovarian cancer.

In a room at a hospital in Lanark, she sang Careful to the most important audience of her career.

“People interpret my songs as they will. When I first sang Careful it was a pop love song,” she revealed.

“But when my mum had ovarian cancer I wanted to give her something before she passed. I said to my family … ‘I want to sing for her.’

“They replied, ‘How will you be able to do that?’ I told them, ‘I just will.’

“I sang it a cappella quite literally just before she passed away. Awesome is the only word I can use to describe it. And I don’t mean that in the crass American way.

“She couldn’t talk, but she was smiling. I could see it in her eyes.

“That changed the song for me. When people ask, what does it mean? It means everything now because I have that bond.

“It’s a bittersweet memory. You are lost. You don’t know what to do. I just wanted to give her something. There was nothing material in that situation. So it really was a wonderful gift. I feel blessed to have been able to do that.”

The Same Sky was released on Capitol Records, the first of ten albums by the singer.

She will celebrate its 30th anniversary by performing it on tour next spring.

“To be running parallel with the anniversary and still be writing and creating – and being excited about it – is a real joy,” said Horse.

“In 2019, I did a gig at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh playing the album in order. That was a bit of a moment for me to be looking through all the old songs again.

“The show was one of my best gigs ever. But then came lockdown.”

The roots of The Same Sky stretch back to a tough adolescence. The singer was bullied at school and was also coming to terms with her sexuality. But music provided a release.

“Writing songs in my little back bedroom was a way to close the door on all of that and escape to another world,” admitted Horse.

“It became a means of taking care of myself and also releasing lots of unhappiness, anger and tension. What began to happen was a kind of osmosis, almost. My emotions became the root of the songs, which makes them all quite heartfelt.”

In the late Seventies, Horse met guitarist Angela McAlinden. There was an immediate chemistry.

“We began to write together. One of the first songs was And She Smiled, the opening track on the album,” she recalled.

“There was a real weight and credibility to her writing. Over time we began to develop a way of working. I was like Elton John to her Bernie Taupin. She is a phenomenal lyricist.”

The pair touted their demos around music publishers and landed a deal with SBK Songs in London.

“Our journey was similar to a lot of our peers, although I don’t know if they’d have sat on a Stagecoach bus for months on end. It’s never an overnight success, is it?” she said.

They also recruited guitarist George Hutchison, bassist Graham Brierton, keyboard player Alan Dumbreck and drummer Tony Soave to form a band.

In 1988, their first big break was an appearance on The Tube.

“It was a real catalyst for us to be on such a big TV show, growing in experience and building our confidence,” said Horse.

They also staged a showcase at The Third Eye Centre in Glasgow, which led to EMI Records offering them a deal, signing the contract on Christmas Eve that year.

But disaster struck. Horse had suffered from recurring throat problems and required urgent medical attention.

“I knew something was wrong. I had an operation on my vocal cords and couldn’t actually talk for 10 days or sing for two months,” she revealed.

“It was a huge trauma for me. In the middle of making my first album I had no idea how my voice would sound when I came out the other end.

“When I went back into the studio I had lost notes at the bottom, but gained notes at the top. We continued to record the music, but I didn’t do the main vocal wasn’t until several months later.”

The band recorded the single You Could Be Forgiven with producer Pete Smith at Wessex Studio. He brought in musicians such as Neal Conti, Molly Duncan of The Average White Band and Dee Harris of Fashion to beef up the track.

Their working relationship proved so productive that Smith was retained to do the full album at Picnic Studio in Kent.

“I did feel a little bit overawed when I first went into the studio,” admitted Horse.

“But my usual thing would be to roll up my sleeves and fight for what I thought was right. Pete was a real battler as well. He was hard on the band, particularly our guitarist George. At times, he was quite crushing on people. Some work well in that situation, others don’t. So it became a balance between what both parties were thinking.”

Horse also found herself unwittingly caught up in record company in-fighting.

“We didn’t have management and labels don’t like dealing direct with an artist,” said Horse.

“One classic moment came while recording Sweet Thing. Simon Potts, who signed us, called Pete and said: ‘I don’t know what she’s singing or what she’s saying’.

“He wanted me to change one line of lyric. It was so insignificant I can’t even remember it. That’s how innocuous it was.

“It was a control thing. A power trip. The song was eventually covered by Jennifer Rush which was pretty cool.”

Smith also pushed Horse hard when recording her vocals at Sarm West and Utopia studios in London.

“He would have me in the studio for five hours at a time. I was tired. I used to wonder, how is my voice?” she recalled.

“When I do a take it’s a total performance. I can’t do it any other way. On one song, he said: ‘Horse, I don’t know what you’re singing ... you’re talking in Russian’. So the balance between my natural performance and my diction was a bit of a work in progress.

“But if you take The Speed Of The Beat Of My Heart it was hard to say those words, let alone sing them. Thanks, Angela. I almost had to bite them out. They’re such brilliant lyrics, I wanted to get them right.”

The album was mixed by Michael H. Brauer, a New Yorker, whose studio credits include Aretha Franklin and Coldplay.

“He brought all these effects into the studio in a massive flight case and wouldn’t let me anywhere near the place for over a week,” revealed Horse.

“He then summoned me, sat me in the middle of the desk and played the album.

“My first thought was … I sound like God. Michael absolutely loved my voice. This was a guy who’d worked with Aretha Franklin, so that was good enough for me.

“I could not believe the transition from scatty demos to something that was so unique, exciting and proper. It was mind blowing. I was thrilled to bits.”

When The Same Sky was released in March 1990 it reached No. 44 in the UK charts. The band was confident You Could Be Forgiven or Careful would provide an all-important first hit single.

But again they were victims of music industry politics.

“You had to hit the Top 40 mark, it was so important. For a start, it got you on Top Of The Pops,” said Horse.

“You Could Be Forgiven was heavily ‘weighted’ by the people who compiled the charts. They discounted more than 25 per cent of our sales because they came from Scotland.

“Excuse my French, but what the f***! We were a Scottish band. Where else would most of our sales come from?

“For that reason, we didn’t get into the Top 40. So you don’t pass ‘Go’ and don’t collect £200 and start moving further around the Monopoly board.

“There’s a part of me which still feels slightly bitter and aggrieved. We were watching our music not going forward through no real fault of our own.”

But Horse is rightly proud that The Same Sky is regarded as one of the finest debuts in Scottish music history.

“I’m very fond of the album. Although some of the synth sounds are very much of their time, I think the songs and performances still stand up,” she said.

“We really grew as a band on that record. I fight to keep people aware of me because I feel duty bound to all those who have followed me for 30 years. It’s something I don’t take for granted. So every time I play songs from it, I try to do them justice. I always want to give it my best.”

HORSE adopted her distinctive name in a bid to step away from her past life.

The singer – born Sheena McDonald in Newport on Tay, Fife – now barely recognises her former self.

“Sheena doesn’t still exist. She’s long gone. There was part of me who wanted to remove myself from being an ordinary person and safe,” admitted the singer.

“Occasionally somebody will put that name in a message or email. They think they’re being insulting by calling you Horse. Or they’re being clever … hey, I’ve Google-ed you. But I’ve been known by that name for years.”

Her earliest bands were Rhesus Negative and Astrakhan. Things changed when she signed to EMI in 1988.

“Angela said: ‘We need to call the band Horse’. “When we were doing the album artwork our logo became a seahorse. It removed us from the four-legged variety.

“The male seahorse also gives birth to the babies. I kept to a very androgynous middle ground, neither one thing or the other, which meant I couldn’t be controlled in a lot of ways.

“I see the name Horse as being soft and strong at the same time. So that’s definitely me.”

But in less enlightened times, her bold decision could have been career threatening.

“This androgynous person, who seemed unapproachable, was tied up with a major record label,” recalled Horse.

“I could have been dynamite. There was nothing else out there like me. Not even K.D. Lang, she came along later.

“They were shying away from me. We were touring in America but they didn’t book any gigs in the southern states due to a fear of me being attacked. Or possibly endangering the commercial side of things.

“It was very short sighted. Bottom line was I just wanted to sing and make music. Any other stuff was political. It was another hurdle to jump over.

The songs on The Same Sky took her around the world and the band toured with B.B. King and Tina Turner.

“It was an incredible experience. We played major venues like Wembley Arena, Birmingham NEC and the SECC in Glasgow,” she said.

“To step on stage at that level every night means you learn your craft even more.”

HORSE plays Strathearn Arts, Crieff on October 22, The Rockfield Centre, Oban (23) and The Burgh Hall, Cove (29). The Same Sky 30thanniversary tour is scheduled for spring 2022.

* THE Billy Sloan Show is on BBC Radio Scotland every Saturday at 10pm.