Nyah Fearties were a Scottish music band from the village of

Lugton Lugton is a small village or hamlet in East Ayrshire, Scotland with a population of 80 people. The A736 road runs through on its way from Glasgow, to the north, to Irvine in North Ayrshire. Uplawmoor is the first settlement on this 'Lochlibo R ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, that created a near-unique brand of anarchic modern folk between 1982 and 1995. Combining the rich traditional music and storytelling culture of its native

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

, with a jarring

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

ethos, madcap humour and improvised acoustic instrumentation (though usually amplified), the band made a significant contribution to the British

folk-punk Folk punk (known in its early days as rogue folk) is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was popularized in the early 1980s by the Pogues in England, and by Violent Femmes in the United States. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in ...

scene of the 1980s and 1990s. It often tested live audiences with a feedback-laced aural assault, more akin to experimental rock groups like

Velvet Underground Weave details visible on a purple-colored velvet fabric Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabri ...

The Jesus and Mary Chain The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid. After signing to independent label Creation Records, they rele ...

, than an acoustic folk act. In addition, Nyah Fearties were known for utilising all manner of improvised and imaginative musical paraphernalia. Examples of the latter included bashing upturned metal dustbins to create percussion, and the use of an archaic gramophone upon which Andy Stewart records were 'scratched' in the style of a hip-hop DJ. Nyah Fearties have been described as a kind of hybrid between Celtic folk-punk outfit

The Pogues The Pogues were an English or Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band fronted by Shane MacGowan and others, founded in Kings Cross, London in 1982, as "Pogue Mahone" – the anglicisation of the Irish Gaelic ''póg mo thóin'', meaning "kiss my arse". T ...

, and

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

-based

industrial music Industrial music is a genre of music that draws on harsh, mechanical, transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music" that was "initiall ...

band

Test Dept Test Dept, sometimes credited as Test Department is a British industrial music group from London, England, that was one of the most important and influential early industrial music acts. Their approach was marked by the use of "found" material ...

. Yet this is a somewhat misleading analogy. As Stuart Cosgrove noted in the ''

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'' (March 14, 1987): "''The Fearties are more critical than The Pogues, their Scotland is not a place to be eulogised… it's a home whose myths are savagely demolished…they use found percussion but stripped of Test Dept's artiness''…" Nyah Fearties had at its core the brothers Stephen Wiseman and David Wiseman, although the pair were often joined - both in recorded and live performance - by a wide and varying ad hoc circle of guest musicians, friends and acquaintances. The band were championed by, among others,

whom they supported on a tour of

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after an impromptu 1986 pavement audition outside the Devonshire Arms pub in

Camden Town Camden Town (), often shortened to Camden, is a district of northwest London, England, north of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Camden, and identified in the London Plan as o ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. In addition, Pogues drummer Andrew Ranken made a cameo vocal appearance on Nyah Fearties debut album ''A Tasty Heidfu
recorded that same year. During a 13-year career Nyah Fearties barely emerged from its underground roots, enjoying little or no commercial success while maintaining a loyal cult following. The band did, however, make a live appearance on primetime United Kingdom, British television music programme '' The Tube'' and hosted a one-off ''Lugton Loonie Show'' for

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scottish radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same name from 23 November 197 ...

. Following Nyah Fearties demise, David Wiseman went on to help found a new band Dub Skelper, while more recently the Wiseman brothers were reunited in yet another musical project, Junkman's Choir.

Discography

Albums * ''A Tasty Heidfu (1986) * ''Desperation o' a Dyin' Culture'' (1990) * ''A Keech in a Poke'' (1994) * ''Skud'' (1994) * ''Grandpa Craw'' (1995) EPs * ''Good, Bad and Alkies'' (1987) * ''Red Kola'' (1993)

References

{{Authority control Scottish punk rock groups Scottish post-punk music groups Celtic punk groups