Nestled in a remote corner of Scotland, the Fence crew are responsible for some of the best live events Clash have ever been to.
With the festival season fast drawing in, we asked Fence mainstay The Pictish Trail to talk us through some of the merry hi-jinks fans can expect from the year ahead.
Here’s what he had to say…
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Hullo. It’s The Pictish Trail. I’m perched on the island of Eigg at the moment.
Eigg is part of the Small isles, neighboured with Muck, Rum and Canna, located within the inner Hebrides of Scotland. My girlfriend is a farmer on the island, and so i’ve been spending a lot of time over here this past wee while. It’s an amazing place – really friendly community of about 60 or 70 folk, top-notch green eco-friendly credentials, and spectacular scenery.
It’s the silence I enjoy the most, though. Even the sea is silent, especially at night. It’s dark up here, too. Proper dark. There are no street lights, so when the sun goes down the entire island is submerged in black. On a clear night you can make out the lights from the mainland, or the blanket of stars above you … but if it’s foggy – which it regularly is – and you find yourself walking through the woods, staggering home in the pissing rain after a 10 hour session of boozes in the local tearoom, you’ll be praying that the battery on your iPhone doesn’t run out as you shine the backlit screen on the muddy pathway in front of you, a deafening silence all around. Yeah, it’s dark.
At the beginning of the year I invited my pal Sweet Baboo over, and he helped me record a new Pictish Trail album – which we completedt it in about 10 days, and i’ve just had it mastered. Praise the Lord. Now i’ve got to promote it. The best way of promoting your music, kids, is by playing live. And the easiest way of playing live is by putting on your own events. And so that’s what I’ve done. LET FESTIVAL SEASON BEGIN.
I’m “co-director” of Fence Records Limited, and since 2004 I’ve organised our annual event in our home town of Anstruther, Fife, called Home Game. It was a really successful event – sold out every year, and a great showcase for our thoroughbred roster of artists, as well as a magnet for some of the best names in modern music. However, Fence is not doing a Home Game this year. We’ve given a myriad of reasons as to why in various local publications – but most of that is bollocks, to be honest. The main reason was that I was a bit restless, and King Creosote wanted a break from the town.
Still, I’ve not stopped doing events. Nope. At the moment i’m up to my many chins in flagged emails and missed phonecalls relating to our new Fence event, Eye O’ the Dug – which is taking place just up the road in St Andrews. It’s happening soon. Like, really soon. And there’s still tons to do. At the same time i’m organising our second Away Game, which is taking place up on Eigg in July. At the beginning of May I’ve also got a Pictish Trail tour to sort out, festival appearances at Knockengorroch, The Green Man Festival and End Of The Road … plus a Fence showcase at Camden Crawl, and a bunch of launch parties for other Fence releases.
But I’m pretending none of this is happening. I’m safe and warm here, in my dark and silent Eigg-shell.
Until next time,
The Pictish Trail xx
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Eye O’ The Dug runs between April 14th – 15th, Away Game follows on July 20th – 22nd