DESPERATION O' A DYIN' CULTURE - 1990LP - LYT Records
Trashcans, Puddocks in the Mist, The Railway Beast Waltz, Release, Lifes Endless Grind, Flight of the Country Boy, Hills of new Galloway, Vexation, Lugton Junction, Sair Erse, Baith Sides of the Bed, Desperate Jig, Gambling Bar Room Blues
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More info and download tracks! NEW!

GRANPA CRAW (Jivarock) - 1995 CD - Danceteria/Jivaroc (France)
Jolly Walkers, Bullworker Jig, Slash & Burn, Foyled, Tres Crabbit, Lugton Lament, Safe as Houses, Granpa Craw, Good Times, MOR, Lightning Bolt, Away Away + Instrumental, Wendy Doon the Banking, Restless, Kirk ha' Jig.

click sleeve for details YOU CAN BUY THIS ALBUM ON CASSETTE (YES, CASSETTE!!!) ON THE TOPPLERS WEBSHOP! ONLY TWO QUID!!!

GRANPA CRAW (lyt) - 1995 CD - LYT Records
As above plus Campbelton Loch, Dub Housing & Ayrshire Boys are Swarming and a completely different version of Safe as Houses

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VARIOUS ARTISTS Never Mind the McBollocks
1 track on comp.of Scottish Punk Rock! Other bands include Machine Gun Etiquette, Ex Cathedra, Gin Goblins, Newtown Grunts etc - Runnin Feart Records 1999
Stomp Boy (unreleased elsewhere)

DUB SKELPER "Music, Dance and Alcohol" CD album
(LYT Records) 2000
This album sneaked out without anyone noticing. Some of the bands best songs and a HEAVY DUB production from Kenny Palmer!
The Oban Road, Liberty, Life of a Free Man, Movin On, Red Bandana, Tina Valeck, Whisky & Hooch, Shake the Devil, The Old Lady, Alicia, White Beer, Brenda, Jenny & Lemmy, oban Dub, Fleurs and Kilts

Junkmans Choir "The Junkmans Call" CD EP 2003
Features Davy & Stephen Feartie back together again for the first time since Granpa Craw! Also includes Kevin, the accordion King, from Dub Skelper.
Hey Joe, Sawney Bean, The Place, Shine On
www.junkmanschoir.co.uk

Junkmans Choir "Howlin Heavin Shanties" YONKO 001 2004
The definitive line up of the band as Davie, Stephen and Kevin are joined by DER on electric guitar! This is a stompin' good album, as energetic as any Fearties stuff.
Blood Special, Ragman, Open Road, Black Mill, Death in the valley, The place, Wild Rose, Afghan Highlanders, 1755, Whisky on the Wind, Whisky & Hooch, Movin' On
www.junkmanschoir.co.uk

THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE ALKIES Released in 1987 The band returned to Scotland at the time of this release, though three out of the four tracks were recorded in Manchester. This 12" vinyl LP contains a live recording of "Drunken Uncle" - one of the highlights of their live act in those days. The sleeve is an eye-popping, orange, psychedelic tartan! back to top

BARRASSIE
7" single. b.side was 'Motorway' and 'Puddocks in the Mist' which cropped up again on 'Desperation'.

GRAVESIDE/GRAHAMSIDE
This cassete only release was recorded in the byre and in the studio and was only on sale during a tour of Holland. Some tracks were a dry run for the next album though it contains a lot of songs unavailable elsewhere - Lullabye, Pagan Man, In the Forest(?), Lightnin' Bolt, Motorway, Barnweil Boy, Flight o' the Country Boy, Barassie, Mental Radiation Station, Friesian Lament (?), Sick Stomp (?), Puddocks in a Pond(?). It's a mixture of typical Fearties acoustic thrash with some wild electric slide playing and a good pummeling of the blatter cage!

DESPERATION O' A DYIN' CULTURE Released in 1990 This album was released as the Fearties returned to their native Ayrshire and was once again recorded in Brockwellmuir barn as well as the Dunlop Town Hall and the "Trashcan Sinatra's" Shabby Road studio in Kilmarnock. The first few hundred copies came in a hand painted polythene bag with booklets and badges inside, but the paint flaked off the polythene so the rest were released in a plain brown paper bag! The sound on this LP is much better, the songs more mature, and the musicianship excellent, without losing any of the first album's manic energy! The album includes a cover of "Gamblin' Bar Room Blues" which was a feature of their live set right up to their last gigs in 1995 and one of the few cover versions recorded by the band, although their live sets have included such diverse covers as "Stand by your man" and "Motorhead!" The tracks "Lugton Junction" and "Baith Sides O' The Bed" are Fearties classics! back to top

COLLABORATORS FAE ALBA
Drum machines replace the 'blatter cage' as Davie switched to guitar and Allan & Michael make their recorded debut. Also on some tracks is the electric guitar of Franny Lopez, a friend of the band who had released a 'one-sided' 7" single onder the name of "Catch-22" and wrote the 'Blah Blah Blah' fanzine. They toyed with changing the band's name to 'The Collaborators' but everyone else still called them Nyah Fearties so they used the name for the album. Once again this was a cassette only release and sold on European and Irish tours. Contains the first recording of Red Kola. The second pressing contains live recordings from a 1990 Dutch tour, the first pressing has the same songs on both sides. (Red Kola, International, Living Room Rock'n'Roll, The Journey, Lodger on the land, Freedom Train, A Toast, Bang tae Rights). Many of these electric tracks were re-recorded by Kenny Palmer in Newmilns for the aborted album that became A Keech in a Poke.

RED KOLA
The 'Big Hit' single. Probably the latter day Fearties best loved song and suggested by Radio Scotland DJ Pete Easton as the new Scottish National Anthem. Cassette EP features 'Rantin, Sonsie and Free', 'Kirk Hall Jig' (which was rerecorded for Granpa Craw) and 'Livin Room Rock and Roll' one of the first songs written by "the Collaborators" Red Kola is a bright red fizzy drink peculiar to Scotland! At the lyric writing session in Allan Fearties house a copy of REMs 'Orange Crush' single was sitting out (the Fearties were all big fans of Suicide and REM covered 'Ghost Rider' on the b-side) As the band were drinking a refreshing Red Kola at the time it was suggested that the song should be called after the drink in response to REM,s 'Orange Crush.' The rest of the lyrics are about the erosion of Scottish identity, the colonisation of the highlands by English settlers, the exodus of Scots to London and the American military presence in the west coast of Scotland!!! "Guts are dyed with Red Kola." back to top

A KEECH IN A POKE, FOR NOSEY FOLK! Released in 1994 Cassette album recorded in various locations at various times throughout 1993/94. The first track was recorded in 1990 and sent to the Scottish World Cup squad as a morale booster though never released. There were 3 versions of this tape all with different covers but the same tracks. A version of "Campbleton Loch" was recorded spookily on the same evening that Andy Stewart died! The best tracks from this appear on the "Skud" compilation but overall this tape is pretty patchy with too many instrumentals and an uneven sound. back to top

SKUD Released in 1994 CD compilation by French label "Jivaroc" which contains the best tracks from "Desperation", " Red Kola EP" and "Keech". The only track not available elsewhere is a version of "Bovis Blues" which wasn't very good anyway. This album was only released in Europe. back to top

GRANPA CRAW - Released in 1995 Two versions exist of this CD. The European version on Danceteria has a cover painting of Jocky Wilson by Tam McGibbon who did the artwork on "Tasty Heidfu" and contains the original version of "Safe as Houses" (which the Fearties didn't like!) and an instrumental version of "Away. Away". The LYT version has a picture of Lugton Kirk on the sleeve and contains a re-recorded version of "Safe as Houses" along with a dub mix, a live version of "Campbleton Loch" recorded in Hannover, and an alternative version of "Away Away'' with Kilmarnock FC's crowd chanting "Paper Roses!" This is the Fearties at their best. Energetic and mental, yet still tuneful. It is also the first time in their career that virtually the whole album is recorded in a studio with a professional producer! The money for recording was put up by the French label and therefore the album was recorded in Belgium. Both versions were released in the UK. back to top

Scotland's finest folk-punk, metal-bashin', noise merchants!

Nyah Fearties built up a loyal cult following from the late eighties until their demise in 1995 mainly due to their crazy live shows. It was often hard to believe how a band that used acoustic instruments could make so much noise, and the speed at which they played often approached meltdown! Their music was an original blend of chaotic sound played on acoustic instruments and "found" percussion! Although often classed as a folk/punk crossover, in their early days their sound was more feedback driven thrash, than anything resembling traditional Scottish folk!!!!!

The Fearties came from Lugton, a nowhere village buried in North Ayrshire, and the band started in the early eighties with the core members of David Wiseman on bass and Craig White on vocals. Influenced by punk, reggae, rockabilly and country, they developed a unique sound that spat in the face of eighties synth-pop and new romantics. Theirs was a primal, tribal broadside. With 'Treesy' on manic drums and David on fretless bass they recorded a guitarless track on an Ayrshire compilation tape in 1982 which left the rest of the bands on the cassette speechless! The band were soon joined by Lawrence Bryce on guitar and Alan Cook on drums and began a series of gigs that were always different, improvised and either compelling or awful! You either loved them or hated them - there was no middle ground. You would hear covers of Joy Division, Elvis, Leonard Cohen and reggae classics along with the Fearties own compositions which were angular and funky!

By 1985 this version of the band was in limbo and Davy began working with his younger brother Stephen and a friend from Lugton, Donald Sutherland. Rehearsing in Donald's parent's farm they created a range of drums from scaffolding, carpet tubing and oil drums which laid the foundation for the new Feartie sound. Donald was a skilled banjo player and Stephen created his own instrument 'the ganjo' [a five stringed acoustic guitar tuned like a banjo & played with a slide]. This line up debuted at the Gateway Centre in Kilmarnock as 'The Root Searchin', Metal Bashin' Fearties' and caused a sensation! Like the Sex Pistols 'Screen on the Green' gig, many more people have claimed to have been in the audience than were actually there but everyone who was had their life changed in some way. There were only a few gigs done using the full scaffolding and oil drums but each one was an ear shattering event.

Due to the impracticality of touring with tons of scrap metal Davy and Stephen began busking acoustically on the streets of Edinburgh and then moved to London. Stephen became a master of the wildly thrashed 'ganjo' and Davy got an acoustic bass which he played like a man possesed! Never before has a bass been played in such a style. Full barre chord rhythms and beautifully seductive melodies alternated from his rumblin' bass guitar.

By busking in London the Fearties met the Pogues who asked them to support them at Hammersmith Palais and then tour with them. The pairing was a fruitful combination and in 1986 the first Fearties album 'A Tasty Heidfu' was released. To record their unique style the band returned to the barns of Lugton with their producer and teamed up again with Donald Cuthbertson for banjo and 'blatter cage' percussion. A 1986 appearance on The Tube promoting their first LP exposed them to a wider audience, but their unique sound and over the top Scottish image was too much for most people and the Fearties found themselves forever on the fringes of alternative music culture.

They were always fiercely, independent, releasing almost all of their subsequent music on their own LYT Records, and refusing to compromise their sound for anyone. Their anarchic musical style won them many friends in Europe where they played regularly, and they often appeared at Celtic festivals in Wales and Ireland where they'd scare the shit out of the local folk music community.

Thir next release was a 4 track 12" EP recorded in Manchester by Neale Cairns. By this time the band was purely David and Stephen. This was followed by a 7" 'Barassie' and their next LP 'Desperation o' a Dyin' Culture' which is arguably the bands finest hour.

After touring as a two piece for a number of years the brothers took a break. David switched to guitar and began working with bass player Allan Henry doing experimental recordings. It wasn't long before they had a handfull of songs and Stephen was brought back in to flesh them out with banjo. A one-off live performance with extra musicians and fire-eaters proved a catylist in getting a new live band together and local musician and song writer Francis Lopez became a member of this new combo who giged under the name of the 'Collaborators'. Looking to augment the sound of the band, Michael Woods was drafted in to play fiddle, accordian and tin whistle when Frannie Lopez left, and this line up of David & Stephen Wiseman, Allan Henry and Michael Woods became Nyah Fearties until they dissolved in 1995. This version of the Fearties released 'The Collaborators' cassette, the 'Red Kola' EP, 'A Keech in a Poke' cassette and 'Granpa Craw'.

In 1994 French label Jivarock began releasing Fearties material in Europe starting off with a compilation CD "SKUD" and finishing off with the final Fearties CD "Granpa Craw". The band repackaged Granpa Craw and partially rerecorded it for release in the UK on LYT. After some very successful tours of Europe promoting the album and an apathetic return to Scottish venues, the Fearties stopped playing in the summer of 95, though Davie and Stephen (who by this time had moved to Germany) got together for a two man tour of Holland in December 1995 reviving a variety of classic Fearties songs!

In 1996 Davie and Michael, formed a new band "Dub Skelper" playing a slightly more traditional Scottish sound though still with the manic energy of the Fearties, and when that fizzled out around the turn of the century a new band called Junkman's Choir was formed briefly reuniting Davy with his brother Stephen on percussion!

The Fearties hold a unique position in Scottish music -
download some of their tracks and revel in their sound!

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