Celtic Kings Of Rock was a side project of Boxcar members David Smith and Crispin Trist.
The project came about while the band were between albums – the period between the releases of “Vertigo” and “Algorhythm” – and some of the other members were working on side projects.
The duo had the one track, “Rave The Brave”, featured on the “High – A Dance Compilation” double CD (VOLTCD88) and double cassette (VOLTC88).
Crispin Trist: “I can’t really remember whether we made a conscious decision that it would be a one off, but Boxcar was the first priority without a doubt.
I was chatting with Dave over a drink about an idea I had that we could perhaps work on together. I had been watching, and listening to, a lot of Scottish comedy. I am Scottish after all. So I took a load of Scottish samples round to his home studio in Sydney and we played around with various ideas. It just unfolded the way it did.
The Scottish marching drum samples loaned themselves to a kind of techno like rhythm which, when played repeatedly, helped to establish the groove. Dave ran Cubase and added his parts and together we both bounced ideas off each other. The name of the project was inspired by one of the samples.”
David Smith: “I think it was always intended as a one-off; I’m still very proud of it.
We wanted to make something ravey and silly, since rave music does tend to verge on the ludicrous sometimes. The idea of bagpipes, I can’t remember who suggested it… Andrew or Crispin, but Crispin brought all the great Scottish samples and ideas to it, it was a very quick fun process. I remember us laughing when we looped the military tattoo drumming in.”
The track was unique enough to be released as a single on vinyl 12″ (VOLT67) and CD single (VOLTCD67).
David: “Reviews were good. I’ll be honest I think it was a little ahead of a curve that came not long after. I remember doing a remix for a Groove Terminator (Australian star DJ/producer) nom-de-plume, with Pocket (Sameer Sen-Gupta of Southend), of a rave version of the can-can a couple of years later, and thinking, “Been here, done that.”
Crispin: “I seem to recall that feedback was positive about the track, as indeed it was for the “High” album as well.
I moved back to the UK in 1993 to reconnect with family at the time, so I wasn’t actually in Australia during the release of the album.”
Beyond the humorous elements of the track itself, there is waggish wordplay with the titles of the single’s mixes and the personnel involved.
The various mixes are playfully titled “Clash Of The Tartans Remix”, “Highlander House Mix” and “Bagapella”.
David: “[Engineer] DJ 2 Minute Noodle was Stewart Lawler of “Algorhythm” (Boxcar’s 1994 album) era Boxcar. We used to have stupid names for everyone. That was a piss-take on all the silly DJ names that were coming out everywhere. Engineer Adrian Bolland was called Lord Banana Lid because it’s an anagram of his name.”
The tongue-in-cheek humour even extends to the music video, where bagpipes take on the form of alien creatures, and a computer rendered Loch Ness monster hurtles through a tartan lined wormhole.
Crispin: “My sister Fincher Trist worked on the video. I played a starring roll dressed in a kilt and holding bagpipes. I couldn’t actually play the pipes so mimed. I can still taste the leather from the pipes that day because that is what real bagpipes are made of. I was getting a sound out of them, but it wasn’t very pleasant!”
VOLT 2023: Volition Archive 