Revellers revelation

The Revellers are a conundrum. Unusually for a UK band they are startlingly better live than on CD. They support bands bigger than them but have infinitely more enthusiasm and talent. And they are possibly Shetland’s biggest musical export- if they wish to be.

The Mareel has only one thing, and one thing only, going for it. Its sound system! Which is just as well because on the stroke of eight, chords echoed out of the main hall into the bar, which signalled the beginning of what for me was a revelation.

Seven guys on stage who played the tightest music I have heard since ELO. The guitar playing was outstanding, the Muppets’ Animal never knocked hell out of a set of drums with more enthusiasm, the banjos rocked and the fiddle soared in perfect timing. It’s not easy to play the fiddle at this speed in front of a live audience; it is even harder to keep time with six other band members. Not for The Revellers!

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These guys take you on a rollercoaster of sheer musical pleasure, building crescendos at breathtaking speed and just when you think there is no more it soars again. You just don’t want this to stop. Think Roll Over Beethoven, high-speed classical rock, and then crank it up a level, and you get these guys.

They thanked us for coming into the hall so early.
They thanked us for our applause.
But it is us who should be doing the thanking.

Big Country are average size now.
The Revellers can be as big as they want to be.
For that they need new recording studios, a new promoter and a willingness to go to the top.

Could they perform the Mareel as headliners? And get £20 a ticket? Of course they could. Brilliant band!

However, three places I have spent queuing for more than 30 minutes in roped off lines: Disneyworld Florida, Terminal 5 and the Mareel bar.

Yours faithfully

Douglas Young
Sumburgh