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n part, the magnetic force drawing musicians to Glasgow must be a result of the double whammy of music courses taught at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and at Strath- clyde University. About half of the band attended one of the courses, although only Innes actually finished! Another factor is the annual winter festival, Celtic Connections, which launched the Orchestra. “We inveigled our way into the Festival Club on the final Sunday in the final slot one year,” I’m told. “Bizarrely, Donald Shaw [of Capercaillie] did our sound. He was very into it and gave us a good offer of a gig at the ABC, so we thought we’d better take ourselves a little more seriously. We put on a big show and that started us on our crazy path.”
The next time I see the Treacherous Orchestra it’s in London’s Hyde Park. The band’s crazy path has found them opening BBC Radio 2’s Festival In A Day. It’s an unlikely scenario that finds them billed alongside James Blunt, Jessie J and Smokey Robinson.
I’m right at the front and, turning around I get a panoramic view of the enormous crowd. “Easily 10,000 people” is Martin O’Neil’s estimate. “As soon as they opened the gates it was like a herd of wildebeest!” An early start on a festival stage is never a nice slot, and I doubt if many in the crowd have ever heard any- thing quite like the Orchestra. Yet as the band pump out their tunes, I see blank expressions on sleepy faces transform into looks of surprise, amusement and then appreciation. By the end, a few were even dancing.
Speaking after the event, Éamonn explains how they got the
gig. “We got on very well at the Radio 2 Folk Awards. That had an influence on the whole BBC route. We met people like Zoë Ball and Mark Radcliffe; they’re both big fans of the band.”
Martin considers that it went well. “That was the biggest by far gig we’ve ever done and we had the best of the weather: it was sunny for us and for the rest of the day the heavens opened. We had a lot of good feedback.” Footage was filmed and stayed up on the BBC iPlayer for a long time after. It was an extraordinary profile-raiser for a band of their ilk, and one that no doubt secured new fans and album sales.
The band and I have already discussed its origins, but I’ve yet
to ask about Origins, their debut album. Released in February 2012 on Navigator Records, it was produced by Duncan, Ali and Spad from the group. “They have all worked on and produced other projects,” John tells me, “and two of them are engineers who work in studios in Glasgow as well. We’ve already got a wealth of experience there so it would seem silly to outsource that side of things. The first section of recording was done in Watercolour Stu- dios in Ardgour, which is just outside Fort William. We were all there for that, but from then on it was just a case of getting peo- ple together in dribs and drabs. With such a monster band getting people together is a nightmare; there was no other way we could have done it. It took probably the best part of a year to record from start to finish. A lot of long hours.”
The album contains only one traditional piece, the reel Sheep-
skins Beeswax. They also do Irish musician Brendan Ring’s Maverick Angels, but the other twelve tunes are all original compositions by band members Adam, Ross, Innes, John and Kevin. “There’s a huge wealth of material in Scottish, English and Irish traditions but the tunes didn’t write themselves,” Adam points out. “I think it’s important that people in all traditions feel free to come up with their own tunes, and fortunately none of us seem to have a prob- lem with any creative flow in that respect. We all love writing tunes, it’s very exciting creating something new out of nothing.”
Éamonn chips in on the subject. “As someone who doesn’t write as much, I really enjoy when we get together and arrange everything. The tunes are from individuals in the band, but we have a set up in the band that the arrangement is equally as important as the tune. We have that set down in the way we credit the music – half to the composer or composers, and half to the arrangers. It’s very much a collective and team effort from that point of view.”
Jumping forward in time again, and I’m now in Edinburgh at the threshold of 2014. The Treacherous Orchestra has been booked to close the Scottish Stage of the world famous Hogmanay street party. Whereas the energy of the band has been slightly mis- matched to the audience on the last two occasions I’ve seen them, here, with an up-for-it, young, nationalistic crowd the group is in its element. I’m right at the front again, the pipes are blaring, the crowd is moving, someone from Fiddler’s Bid has given me a tot of whisky out of his hip flask, my cousin is Scottish dancing exuber- antly up and down in front of the stage, Martin O’Neil has just taken a bodhran solo that has given anyone standing too close to the speakers a bit of a funny turn, and it’s not even raining!
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