This sound palette was pioneered by early 1980s artists (SPK, Einstürzende Neubauten, Die Krupps and Test Dept), who relied heavily on metal percussion, generally made with pipes, tubes and other products of industrial waste.
Nyah Fearties have been described as a kind of hybrid between Celtic folk-punk outfit The Pogues, and Glasgow-based industrial music band Test Dept.
Angus Farquhar re-established the ancient Gaelic Beltane Fire Festival, held yearly on the night before/morning of the first of May on Edinburgh's Calton Hill.
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The group were noted for large-scale events in unusual site-specific locations, such as Waterloo station, Cannon Street station, Stirling Castle and the disused St Rollox Railway Works in Glasgow.
Created by NVA, a Scottish environmental arts company directed by Angus Farquhar (formerly of Test Dept) and designed by a team including "
Test cricket | Test | Crash Test Dummies | test pilot | River Test | test | Common Admission Test | Turing test | Test Pilot | Rorschach test | Old Dalby Test Track | Woomera Test Range | The Old Grey Whistle Test | Test Match Special | Test Valley | Test pilot | Test Icicles | Test Dept | SAT Reasoning Test | Hate Dept. | women's Test match | Winkler test for dissolved oxygen | Test of English as a Foreign Language | Sacramental Test Act 1828 | Peter and the Test Tube Babies | Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty | National Test Pilot School | Johnny Test | Janka hardness test | Fyre Dept. |
As Stuart Cosgrove noted in the New Musical Express (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…"