\r AFTER 40 years of entertaining audiences across the globe, one of the Tartan Lads has decided to finally hang up his kilt.\r The world-renowned musical duo are known – especially to ex-pats living abroad – as being as Scottish as haggis and heather.\r However, after four decades on stage, singer Bill Moran, from Bathgate, has been ordered by his doctor to hang up his microphone for good for the sake of his health, leaving accordionist Ray Carse to try to carve out a solo career.\r It brings down the curtain on a wonderful double act, whose story began back in 1972.\r \r At that time, Bill worked in Easton Colliery pit and used to sing in the West Port Bar, while Armadale man Raymond worked as an electrician with the South of Scotland Electricity Board and was known to play in Menzies Jubilee Club.\r They got together as a duet to enter a Search for a Star competition.\r There were 360 contestants but the newly-formed Tartan Lads won the first heat of the competition held in a packed Brockville Stadium in Falkirk.\r “The Courier soon got wind of this and gave us a brilliant write up, which really was the springboard we needed to succeed in this business,” recalled Raymond.