Na h-Òganaich

THEY SING IN GAELIC

It's hard Gaelic to sing, and it's hard Gaelic to listen to!

THEY LAUGH

If that's the best you've got, then I don't think that's good enough.

THEY SING IN GAELIC

It was a new style that was just coming out,

they just hit it right on the head.

HE SINGS IN GAELIC

-Na h-Oganaich.

-APPLAUSE

Good to see you.

What do you do with this?

GUITAR BEING TUNED The tuner's not quite...

Of course, we have been meeting up and performing occasionally,

although we haven't done any recordings, um,

other than a bit of television work. So this is quite different.

But it does bring back happy memories,

because back in the early '70s,

when we were creating the music,

um, these were heady times. Exciting times.

And it brings a bit of excitement back.

-Headphones are still a wee bit dull.

-Are they?

-Yeah.

'When we recorded them in the early '70s,'

the recording business was quite different.

Standards have improved immensely since then,

so we're trying to have a more modern standard

of the recording process.

Basically, it's all the same, it doesn't matter

whether it's heavy rock, Celtic music, what kind of style it is -

the function of me involved in it is just to make it work comfortably.

OK, shall we try and take one?

Ooh, no. Oh, no.

'It was my girlfriend, Mairi, who'd suggested,

'"You should come and see this lot playing in Glasgow."'

She raved about them for years.

"Na h-Oganaich, they were great at their time,

"they were really cutting edge."

THEY SING IN GAELIC

I was really struck by the harmonies and the vocals,

particularly the unaccompanied ones.

And I thought, "I'd like to get involved with that."

Our childhood... Big family, mother from South Uist, dad from Barra,

and their generation, I think, music was massive.

No TV, entertainment, no this... Not the stuff today.

So, singing songs in the house was a major deal in our family.

And I think it was the early days of that that encouraged my mother

to insist that we all go and learn an instrument.

Unfortunately, for my sins, the accordion was strapped to my back!

I'll thank her today for it, but I wouldn't have thanked her back then!

Since I moved in here, I probably made about ten albums.

All different styles,

although I'm kind of focusing towards the Celtic, my old roots.

I mean, I can laugh about it and think it was funny at the time,

but I really feel it's in my blood - Celtic music. It always has been.

I ignored it for a long time.

Those years of the '80s when it was, like, just blaring,

you don't know what that racket is!

So, I'm beginning to appreciate it more,

I'm trying to work more on things like that,

which probably got me hooked onto Na h-Oganaich.

THEY SING IN GAELIC

I do this job because I really like it.

And I do it because I think I can contribute to it.

And that's what I thought, "Give me the vocals, nice and clean,

"and we'll see what I can do with them."

See, like, the other one, the a cappella one,

it's got no backing, when you say, "Let's really focus on that

"and make these harmonies absolutely perfect,

"so there's no mistakes."

And we take you individually, one at a time,

and get it right and track it up and do three, four takes of each of you,

make it sound massive.

Perfect pitch, fix all the bits that are a problem.

I think it'd be worth it.

I think you could come up with something totally unique.

And it would sound amazing.

And it does sound good just now, it sounds like you guys,

and you've kind of matured over time, or whatever.

It'd be nice to do one. Maybe...

-We could try.

-We have to do... Yeah.

-We could try that.

Have a think about it,

we'll have to come back to it and we'll look at it and just...

If you feel excited enough about that, yeah.

-I think it would be great.

-OK.

We're willing.

That was the secret at the time, the harmonies.

Everyone said, "What's this? It's different."

Even... Especially with the non-Gaelic speaking people.

Yeah. People would say, "Have you heard the new Na h-Oganaich album?

"It sounds really good." Or, "Have you heard that new album?"

LAUGHTER

You know, it's either pure duff, "Have you HEARD that?!,"

or it's really, really good.

-Where did you record THAT?

-LAUGHTER

Who did that?!

SHE SINGS IN GAELIC

THEY SING IN GAELIC

THEY SING IN GAELIC

Well, we used to have a band at, um...

Well, early days of high school, didn't we?

A covers band, almost, called The Etives, pre-Capercaillie.

And we just used to listen to the Na h-Oganaich records

and copy them, virtually.

-I wanted to be Margaret MacLeod. He wanted to be Donnie.

-Yeah, yeah.

Classic records that we'd have at home, like,

um, Calum Kennedy,

or Alasdair Gillies or people like that -

great, but you'd find they'd be

quite pompous and grand.

Na h-Oganaich were much cooler than the other kind

of Scottish music we'd listened to up to that point.

Much more appealing to a younger audience.

LUSH CHORAL MUSIC PLAYS

Put the vocal in.

Tight.

OK?

-Are we good with the direction?

-Yeah.

-Aye, OK.

-Yeah, love it.

-I'll do roughs on Noel and we'll...

-Yup. Send them up.

I just hope Noel likes them as well. That's great. Yeah.

Smashing. You've worked hard at that.

Well, you can vibe Noel up before he gets here!

He says, "What is this rubbish?!"

Ah!

'We're at the stage where we're batting it backwards and forwards,

'to come to some sort of middle ground.

'They've managed to capture that comfort zone

'of delivering the songs, still, 30 years on, or whatever it is.'

I think they've managed to capture that.

I can go anywhere with that if you've got another idea for it.

Yeah. Um...

-I'm really open with that one.

-OK.

I'm impressed with the sound, the vocals, you know?

The idea of the....the track there.

The thing is, we would just maybe have to wait and see

what Noel would think of that one, because he might have an extra...

-Yeah.

-..um, opinion on that, to be quite honest.

Because I remember he enjoyed, from the first album...

The strings were the one. It was the strings that...

-That's the track that stuck out...

-Yeah.

-..out of all of them.

That was the best track. So I don't know why I've totally avoided it!

Well, that's what's good about it, that's what's interesting.

Because if we're just going to...go that way,

I mean, there's three tracks already that are totally different.

In the early '70s, we had no say whatsoever in how it was sounding.

We just were simply in a room, in the studio, we performed,

they played it back, um, and that was it.

That was it, we never heard any more

until the actual final product came out.

But nowadays, it's much more hands-on.

We can contribute a lot more ourselves.

So I'm able to do some backing tracks to help the process along at home,

bring them into the studio

and we can use that as a kind of foundation to work from.

Speaking personally,

my main concern is for the people who remember the old recordings,

maybe have... Maybe their old records are played out or they've lost them

or they broke them.

And of course, we haven't had any records, any recordings available now

for, certainly, about 20 years.

So my first concern is for these people, that we can...

We can let them hear something similar to the original recordings.

But maybe a fresh take on them.

But not too different from the original recordings.

So that's the first concern. Um, we'll see what happens after that.

Um, the rest, we'll just have to wait and see.

But I think our main potential audience at the minute

is the older generation of people

that maybe want to do a bit of reminiscing or a bit of nostalgia.

Like ourselves.

THEY SING IN GAELIC

He was very much in the mould of traditional island singers,

so his renderings would be slow and lots of grace notes in them.

And we would sort of strip that out and take the bare bones of the song

and put guitars to it.

GAELIC SINGING

So, what's the song about, Mick?

There's not room for a breath in that,

I thought I could grab one in halfway.

I was desperate to have a...

The verse.

The verse is in a minor key, but the chorus is in a major key.

Full of surprises, typical of Murdo MacFarlane.

'I've got a feeling it's the MacFarlane stuff

'that's really dragged me in here.'

Cos they're tunes that... They sound familiar,

but you've not heard them before. That kind of feel, you know?

And when there's something that makes you feel good,

something that sounds familiar, you feel comfortable with it.

THEY SING IN GAELIC

I didn't feel there was enough punch in...

SHE SINGS IN GAELIC

-One of them was fine.

-Where?

-Just the last two verses.

The last two, Mick.

That's the last verse, that's the last chorus.

In there. The beginning of that one.

I'm out.

I don't come in in time there or something.

Let me check out the other take.

SINGING TRACK PLAYS BACK

-That's all right.

-That's better.

-That one.

-Aye, that's better.

-Use your bit from the other take. Where was the other part?

-Um....

Just check it here.

HE PLAYS PIANO TONE ON KEYBOARD

# Doo, doo-doo, doo, doo, doo-doo, doo, doo, doo... #

That's it. HE SINGS IN GAELIC

That's it, spot on.

Try it together?

Aye. I've just been doing it wrong for 30 years.

-Ready?

-Yup.

THEY SING IN GAELIC

TRACK PLAYS BACK LOUDLY

I need to do the beginning of my verse again,

it's a hard thing to sing.

It's hard Gaelic to do.

MARGARET SPEAKS IN GAELIC, NOEL COPIES

It's hard Gaelic to sing, and it's hard Gaelic to listen to!

THEY LAUGH

THEY SING IN GAELIC

We did, eh...we did lots of shows,

and by then, literally, the entertainment side of what we did

was subsidising the paper,

and I think it was very much their view as well

that that was a double good reason for...for working with us.

And we did them mainly in the paper's heartland,

in Skye and in the outer isles,

but we also did...I remember going to Portnahaven in Islay with them,

and we did all the halls.

Give me a village hall any day over an arts centre, just for atmosphere.

I've got a couple of wee stabs in there to highlight different sections

and bring out a bit of colour.

It's that sort of wee "Juunk!"

BURST OF MUSIC PLAYS

And that sort of bang. I'm going to take the vocal out of that.

BURST OF MUSIC PLAYS

So that's it on its own.

Add a bit of percussion in, maybe some timpanis, get a nice roll-up.

We've got a sort of...

PERCUSSIVE ROLL, THEN BURST OF MUSIC

There they go! Huuba, huuba, huuba!

Off we go! And we can just work the arrangement round that.

I would just have a few wee bits of that maybe on its own.

Think it sounds quite good. And then bring the vocals in.

VOCALS BEGIN

I'm no' sure whether one of them is so crazy

about where I'm going with this!

I don't know.

Maybe... We'll see.

Maybe I'm making a complete arse of it. I don't know.

HE LAUGHS

MARGARET SINGS IN GAELIC

MICK: Ready?

HE SINGS IN GAELIC

If you mix two tracks in one day, you're doing well,

-so...there's 20 days, just to mix it.

-Mm-hm. Mm-hm.

The first ten tracks or thereabouts.

I mean, a lot of them maybe will go faster than that.

-So...we need to get our finger out.

-Right. Uh-huh.

# The sun was setting in the west... #

# All nature seemed inclined for a rest... #

And they said, you know,

"Would you be interested?"

Would I be interested?!

You know, I dashed out

and got my passport ready.

They'd sing to me the pieces we were going to do

and I would write them down phonetically, as they sounded to me,

go away and work on them and come back, and then we rehearsed them.

Apart from the singing, I ended up playing whistle, bodhran,

mandolin and guitar,

but no' all at the same time, of course!

What I liked about it, it wasn't the kind of kitsch image of Scotland.

It was a really good image of Scotland.

And particularly with things like a band like Na h-Oganaich,

who were a very progressive...er...

sort of visionary band as far as Gaelic culture goes,

we were bringing them something

they probably wouldn't have seen otherwise.

SONG PLAYS FROM MIXING DESK

It's the general... HE LAUGHS

..general plot that I've come up with for this one.

-You don't look too convinced, Noel.

-It's good.

I mean, it's a brilliant arrangement,

but it's awfully, awfully different from the way we do the song.

That's the problem...MY problem with it, it's so, so different.

I'll play some of the mixes that I've got...

SONG PLAYS

I think that Mick's got this kindred spirit with Murdo Macfarlane,

you know, all that sort of stuff.

I think he's got this kindred-spirit thing going, you know. Erm...

SHE LAUGHS

SONG PLAYS

Noel's just a wee bit reserved about where this is going to end up,

and I don't blame him.

I mean, I can totally appreciate what he feels it should be like.

He seems to be a main contributor in the actual sound of the harmonies

and really involved in the whole sound of the band,

with the instruments, and...

Maybe he feels that I've sort of put a stop on his contribution to it,

because all I've been really asking Noel to come with is,

"Give me the vocals, please, and...don't play!"

HE LAUGHS So I would be upset.

SONG PLAYS

Can you get... Can you find that original bass again?

You think that's good enough? NOEL'S REPLY IS DROWNED OUT

MUSIC STOPS What?

You're not meant to sit and admire it, it's just a basic rhythm.

This is a recorded piece of audio file. This is a recording.

I wouldnae sit and edit that.

Listening to that would do my head in.

All the time, round and round for four and a half minutes,

it's too much. I'm sitting here working on this for days on end,

on files that quite frankly don't cut it, trying to make them sound good.

It sounds awful. It's out of time,

it's out of tune and it's badly performed.

And at the end of the day, that's where I'm going to come from.

Whether you feel we're moving forward with this

or whether it's going backwards, it doesnae really matter.

What matters to me is

we get something really good coming out of those speakers,

and I don't care where it comes from.

That's my problem.

So, if you want to get it the way you used to do it,

give it to me, and we'll do it, but right now, we've no' got it.

Unless you give it to me, I'm going to go ahead and do something else,

because I don't like that.

-Sorry.

-I'm with you. I'm with you, every word you say.

Sorry. I'm with you.

The old sound, today, 30 years on,

is not good enough at all.

And exactly as you said there...

it isn't good enough. We've moved since then.

It was good 30 years ago, it isn't...

What we had...

isn't good enough to put out 30 years on.

-I'm sorry.

-All the recordings I'm playing back, you've played....

Anything that I've no' played, you've played it.

If you like it and you think it's good enough, well, you say that,

but I'm saying it's not.

Well, I mean, if that's...

At the end of the day, Mick,

it's got to be... We've got to go along with you.

-Well, unless you can do...

-I hear what you're saying.

You do it, show me it.

Er, anyone I've said to that we're doing it,

er, I'll say, "But it's going to be down another road,"

everyone has said, "Great." That's been the...

-That's what they expected.

-I agree.

We progress as the years go on. Everybody wants to progress.

We don't want to look back every year as far as 30 years, surely.

I'm in a diff... I'm in a slightly different position,

because I live in Stornoway,

and on the island of Lewis, people do revere what we did 35 years go.

I know in the mainland it probably doesn't mean a lot anymore,

but it does mean a lot in Lewis.

You'd better move out of Lewis fast!

-No, I cannae do that!

-MICK LAUGHS

But, you know, really I'm trying to speak up for the people I know.

They keep on stopping me,

"You're doing an album? Great! When are we going to hear it?"

They're looking forward to hearing something they recognise,

and I don't mind giving them lots of contrasts and ideas as well,

but I do want to visit some songs that they can say,

"Yeah, that's Na h-Oganaich."

They've still got the original words,

they're still the correct Gaelic, the old Gaelic,

and it's married with the new sound of music.

I think...and it's a great...marriage.

Murdo Macfarlane would just be over the moon

with what he's hearing in some of his songs. In ALL of them.

No, I agree with you.

I've told you already I think Oran Cladaich is great.

If there are people in Lewis that are going to point the finger at us

and say, "It's not what we expected from you," so be it.

Have we got anything to lose?

There's maybe other people that'll come in

and maybe think that we've given them the wow factor.

-And that's certainly what I feel.

-SONG PLAYS

Whatever we do, it's not going to be

the way people imagined we were 35 years ago.

So I don't know if it's...if it's going to alienate the audience.

It may take a bit of getting used to.

It's taken US a bit of getting used to, some of the new directions.

We'll just have to wait and see,

but I think we are sticking to

exactly the same songs that we sang 35 years ago,

so that's a good start.

Er, OK, some of them are going to sound a bit different,

some of them will be recognisable,

I hope, and others will be, shall we say...erm...

wearing new clothes.

SONG PLAYS

Everything's going through this TG desk.

This has kind of been here since, like, 1972, '73.

I'm hoping we'll add a final kind of sheen to the mixes,

and it's the last stage,

or the last chance for us to kind of alter the sound.

I'm trying to find a bit of presence around the vocal,

because the bottom end's really nice on it.

I think there'll always be a place for a new Na h-Oganaich album.

I think there'll be a place for a LOT of new Na h-Oganaich albums.

There's a substantial audience that remembers them with great fondness,

and I hope it goes well.

I will rediscover my youth, listening to them again

and others will come to them the first time and be enthused,

so if I were a betting man, I'd put money on a really successful album,

and I really want to hear it.

SONG PLAYS

I hadn't heard the finished tracks,

and of course the great majority of people here hadn't,

so nobody knew what to expect,

so you could tell there was

a kind of atmosphere of uncertainty about it.

I was a bit worried about coming straight into the heart

of the stronghold for Na h-Oganaich here, their hometown.

Obviously they know the original band a lot more than I did,

and if they didn't like it, they wouldn't be slow in saying,

"Mick, you've made an arse of this."

It's fab. It's really good for, like, our generation especially,

as I'd only heard of Na h-Oganaich when they were performing live,

and as someone who loves traditional music,

it's really nice to hear it up to date and modern.

Mick did each of the songs in a fresh way,

and I think it's worked out pretty well, on the whole.

I was quite pleasantly surprised

to hear one or two little cues of the original arrangements

in Mick's arrangements,

so he hasn't totally neglected the original...

kind of sound and the original instrumentation and so on,

but he has added to it, he's come up with some fresh ideas of his own,

and at the end of the day, I think there's probably

something for everybody in it,

so...no, I think it's worked out very well.

We're still young and the world's still our oyster, you know?

There's plenty of singing in us yet.

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