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“It wasn’t difficult at all for him to blend in with us. It’s strange but there are so many similarities between Scottish reels and jigs and a lot of African music. There’s a similar pace to it, particularly with the 6:8 thing – I could pick out a track from almost any African album, find the key and play a reel or jig over most of it. It fits very well.”
“We did a workshop in Namibia or Botswana – I can’t remember which – with a local drummer and bass player and three singers and we did a Highland Gaelic tune as a kind of reggae thing and we taught these lassies the lines and they started singing three-part harmonies and every- thing in no time and the drummer and bass player were straight on it. It was just totally natural to them. The roots of the music are so similar.”
They are quick to emphasise, however, that whether utilising African textures, reggae rhythms or even a smidgeon of hip hop, they don’t believe in forcing the issue.
Morrison: “We’ve never ever said
‘right, let’s do a reggae track or some- thing now’. Everything starts with the tune. We sit down with an acoustic guitar, work out how to play it in a session, sort out rough chords, get together, put on a bit of keyboards and start changing things around. It’s all very natural – we never put a track together and put a tune on top of it. You can make a good dance track that way but you always notice the tune is compromised and you miss the wee chord changes the tune is crying out for in certain parts.”
Hutton: “I listen to the radio and a track comes on and you can always tell if someone has put a tune on top of a pre- made track. You know it because it doesn’t work with the bloody tune! They miss all the nuances of the tune.
T
“Even though some of our stuff is route one with a basic format, we could take all that music away and just use the pipes and whistle and play essentially what I do on the bass on the acoustic gui- tar and it would sound like we were just playing in a session… because that is where it all comes from.”
he latest among the ‘countless’ fiddle players who’ve graced the Peatbogs is Ross Couper who represents the other extreme of the spectrum. A
Shetlander, he’s been imbued with tradi- tional music since birth via his family, and indeed the profound musical culture of the islands which remains strong through their isolation and resistance to the homogenising march of time and technol- ogy that’s afflicted Skye like almost every- where else in Britain. Couper’s entire fam- ily were born into the music and he still plays tunes written by his grandfather.
“He never had the problem of the strict Protestant ethic,” laughs Innes. “Everyone and their granny can play like hell up there and yes, I’m jealous!”
Playing with Bodega when he first encountered the Faeries at the Milwaukee Irish Festival, Ross was initially introduced as a temporary replacement for Peter Tick-
ell (who had himself previously depped in the band for Adam Sutherland) who had been invited to join fellow Geordie Sting on tour. Tickell originally anticipated returning to the band but the lure of Sting ultimately proved irresistible and very pos- sibly highly lucrative (“it’s a bugger that Sting plays bass,” mutters Innes, wryly) and he trained up Couper instead as his successor. They also point out that, apart from being a brilliant fiddle player whose vibrant style is central to their strength on stage, Ross is only 26, thus considerably lowering the band’s average age.
The current Peatbogs line-up is com- pleted by two Geordies. Keyboard player Graeme Stafford, who now lives on Skye, comes from a background in jazz, rock and theatre; drummer Stu Haikney is an ex- ballroom dancing champion (!) and experi- enced drummer – albeit with no previous experience of Celtic music – who has toured with, among others, ex-Frankie Goes To Hollywood singer Holly Johnson.
The basic six-piece is often supplement- ed at larger gigs by the brass section that first came seriously into play on their fourth album Croftwork. Again, that came about through pure chance. Two widely experi- enced jazz/world/pop musicians Rick Taylor (trombone) and Nigel Hitchcock (sax) were living on Skye at the time and, given that their combined CVs included work with everyone from the Spice Girls and Atomic Kitten to Mark Knopfler, Gil Evans, John Surman, Elton John and Robbie Williams, the band weren’t about to look a gift horse in the eye and made their acquaintance
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