Mr Luggs began his musical career as a teenager when he joined his brother's band Nyah Fearties in the early eighties, but he already had musical experience with his own imaginary bands Piles of Kye in the Fun Pasture and New Experience in Your Grannies Pants! The Fearties were a metal bashing band influenced by Einsturzende Neubauten, and Mr Luggs instrument was the Blatter Cage a monumental construct of scaffolding holding various oil drums, carpet rolls and shopping trolleys. His brother Davy played bass and their friend Donald played banjo. This line up of the Fearties made a fearsome noise but it was too impractical to take the blatter cage on tour so the band downsized to just Davy and Mr Luggs and they went acoustic!

The enigmatic and charismatic Mr Luggs (or Stephen Feartie as he was in those days). Left: South of France 1993, Centre: Brockweilmuir barn 1986, Right: Beauvais festival 1994. All these photos are with Nyah Fearties.

The two-man Nyah Fearties played acoustic bass and Ganjo (an acoustic guitar strung like a banjo) but they would still grab whatever metal percussion they found on stage and beat the hell out of it! Even when playing acoustic they were as noisy as their contemporaries and their gigs were often swamped in an earsplitting wall of feedback that would put the Jesus and Marychain to shame. A chance meeting with the Pogues in London got them a support slot on the Rum, Sodomy and the Lash tour and the Pogues arranged and financed the Fearties first album A Tasty Heidfu which came out in 1986.

Mr Luggs as Fearties Percussionist and Banjo player Dundee Art College (?) 1987 More Nyah Fearties info at www.nyahfearties.co.uk The site has been recently updated www.myspace.com/nyahfearties

A series of self produced albums and singles followed right through until their split in 1995 when they had expanded to a four piece and were a bit more tuneful. Sadly none of the band's albums have remained in print, although their final album Granpa' Craw (which was released by French label Danceteria) still crops up online. After the split Mr Luggs moved to Hannover and raised a family with his German girlfriend. He still remained musically active and played pubs and clubs with various German and Scots musicians.

In 2004 a friend who was into performance art asked Mr Luggs to create 15 minutes of music that she could use for a magic show. Armed with his mighty lime green Dussenberg guitar he got his friend Bag Heed (who was an accomplished fiddler) and Allan (bassist from the Fearties) and they came up with 17 minutes of spontaneous one-take recordings. In the cold, sober light of morning this music actually sounded pretty good - and so Mr Luggs solo career was born! For his next session Bag Heed and Allan remained and his nephew Cal was brought in on guitar. This spawned his now classic recording of Neeby Deep a song sung in some bizarre Icelandic dialect. A few other instrumentals and soundscapes were also composed! The two sessions were released on a Topplers Value CD entitled Callugula and it became a firm favorite with his fans! Whether the music for the magic show was ever used for it's original purpose, we never found out... The following year Mr Luggs had returned to Scotland and had joined up with his brother in a new band called Junkmans Choir.

Mr Luggs stuck to drums with this band and his distinctive rumbling beats lifted the Choir into a realm of their own. They even managed to team up with their old mates the Pogues for a few support slots in 2006. Mr Luggs second solo release was a strange affair. A series of jam sessions had been held in a local pub and the Junkmans Choir turned up and took over. The sessions were recorded and Mr Luggs used the tapes as a backing for some of his more bizarre poetry, stories and general madness. Allan from Topplers chopped and edited the tapes into some form of post-folk psychedelica and Mr Luggs rose to the occasion by recording versions of some of his recent compositions either with his guitar or over the top of the megamixed sessions. This album was released under the strange title of Tea Time Listening.

In 2006 Topplers released a different mix of Neeby Deep as a lathe cut 7" single. We though that Mr Luggs' rough and ready style would suit the rough and ready sound of the home made records! This has been the only Topplers 7" to sell out (OK, we only made 30 copies!) In 2008 we deleted all the previous CDs but we have repackaged the best of Mr Luggs and added a half dozen brand new recordings in his new CD Luggness... This is the definitive Mr Luggs album... no fillers, just driller-killers and the sleeve will literally rub you the wrong way!

click the picture to download and listen

	How would we describe his music? Well, it's RAW, unusual, NOISY, experimental, MENTAL, challenging and FANTASTIC! Is it Folk Music? Is it Folk! Junkman's Choir may be at the vanguard of new, exciting folk music but Mr Luggs takes all styles and mashes them into a big bowl of musical stovies* served piping hot with a wee dram of Islay's best! There are elements of Scottish traditional music but it's served up with punk guitars, wild drumming, reggae basslines and vocal pyrotechnics that will leave you either stunned or laughing or disturbed!!! *Stovies; a Scottish dish similar to 'hot-pot', where anything can go into the pot! : LUGGNESS : TRACKS : 01. Dafty Duck From the 2006 7" single. This is the bluegrass side of Mr Luggs (he is an excellent banjo player) Listen to Dafty Duck - this is the most mainstream track on the record!!! 02. Rattlin, Roarin' Wullie This is about as close as Mr Luggs gets to traditional Scottish Folk music. The lyrics for this may, or may not, have been written by Rabbie Burns, the Scottish National Bard. Listen to Rattlin Wullie 03. Pick Your Eyes A complete change of style! The Bass and Drums are to the fore in this trippy dance track... and that is the daughter of Mr Luggs on vocals! 04. Miss Maverick Originally on Mr Luggs' 2nd album "Tea Time Listening." This is a strange Scots poem... with banjos! 05. Happy in My Hut This was the stand-out track from "Tea Time Listening," it's a big beefy pop song. Listen out for the crazy guitar break half way through! 06. Inst ANT An instumental break, leading up to... 07. Import ANT A srmon on the dangers of buying cheap alcohol! 08. Chickens Mr Luggs exposes his poetry... 09. Heeby Deep This is the classic song from Callugula (where it was called Schmaldaheidh, also released as Neeby Deep on the 2006 7" singls. Now it's remixed and edited into a smappy punk rocker. Who knows what Mr Luggs is singing about? We don't! 10. Nich Der Fugg Traten Spending a few years living and working in Germany has influenced this song... Whats a Fugg? We don't know! 11. Don't Kick the Fugg We could hardly contain the power of Mr Luggs drums on this one! The snare drum is lkike a rifle shot to the head. Our technic`al boffins could't compress the sounds so we have left it distorted... hope your speakers can handle it! 12. Ukranian Girls Back to Tea Time Listening for this jangling pop song. Junkman'd Choir also did this live... listen to Ukranian Girls [live with Junkmans Choir] 13. Baister Luggs A quick instrumental knocked out of a half sized acoustic bass. 14. Livin' Oan the Brink Another song from Tea Time Listening, this is quite a poignant ballad! 15. Depressed Accordian led blues with interjections by Mr Luggs about the state of his home town! 16. Musique Magique. In 2004 Mr Luggs was commisioned by a Magic Theatre in France to compose some music to accompany their show. Given a free hand as to style and content, Mr Luggs went crazy and with the help of two ex members of Nyah Fearties he produced 17mins of magical mayhem. Five short slices of music creating one huge pie! It ranges from swampy surf music to disco hillbilly via percussive thrash to classical string quartets! You will love it, and you can hear the sounds of women being sawn in half and rabbits being pulled from hats!!! Hilarious!!!
	ROUGH MUSIC AND ROUGHER PACKAGING!!! The Luggness CD comes in a special SANDPAPER wallet with deluxe colour photo inserts and protective outer casing... a beautiful package!
OTHER SITES OF INTEREST:	www.nyahfearties.co.uk www.junkmanschoir.co.uk http://www.myspace.com/nyahfearties

Mr. Luggs "Tea Time Listening" CD From Topplers, the torch-bearers of the modern UK DIY scene, comes Mr. Luggs, also of the Junkman's Choir. Pulling together Scottish ranting, bagpipes, and weird jams, while throwing out what one might consider a song, this Scotsman comes up with something that is certainly punk, in his determination to stand at the margins and wave his cock at the crowd. Maybe this is the demented stepbrother of the Country Teasers, a thing that owes more to Celtic jigs than the Fall. It is certainly not the ol' 1-2-3-4 with distorted guitar and backbeat. In fact, as a whole I really can't figure out what this is other than one guy's take on what his idea of music is. In that way, this totally fits into the spirit, if not sound of Mr. Luggs' DIY forefathers. Great while sober and I'd imagine even better drunk.(SSR)

Mr Luggs - Neeby Deep Ma Gubboch 7" + CDR (Topplers)
Mr Luggs is my fave Topplers artist. Not only is there no one like him on the label, I haven't heard anyone play music like he does. The closest I can describe him is a Celtic Butthole Surfers but that really isn't close. Let's just agree that Mr Luggs plays a mean fiddle and he is quite a man of his own. For those of you who dig the stranger stuff that I pimp, go for it. (Scot Sorianno, S-S Records)

Mr. LuggsÊÊ Neeby Deep Ma Gubboch 7" Ê (Topplers) My black heart warms whenever the postman brings me a package with Topplers as the return address. And this time a few inches of tar melted upon removing this 3 song lathe cut 7" from the package. Mr Luggs has released two great CDs on Topplers and other stuff with the Nyah Fearties and the Junkmen's Choir. These three songs are in the same vein as those on Luggs' CDs, a combination of bluegrass, found sounds, experimental DIY punk, and Scot weirdness. Call this a bog stomper's take on Eugene Chadbourne's C&W LSD and I wouldn't argue. It has the same kind of playfulness, outsider approach and reverence for music. Good stuff. Only a couple hundred made, if that. -SS Z-Gun

Mr Luggs Live in Stewarton - August 30, 2007. Mr Lugg's Scottish brogue is so thick and his ranting fueled on that this live set comes off as - at least at its head - a demented attack. Apparently, this pub was expecting a pleasant evening of sing-a-long and got instead a spirited snarl. At first, Mr Lugg's set is quite exciting, a liquored up gorge of Scot spittle & wicked pickery. But as the evening wears on, the audience's bitterness has turned to boredom and you can hear their chit chat above Lugg's strum strum. Perhaps not by coincidence that the audience gets bored about the same time Luggs softens his attackÉand where I also start to get bored. Fans of Mr Luggs and the Nyah Fearties should track this down, as this will probably be as close as they get to seeing Luggs live. Those unfamiliar, you get the hesitant advice to find and listen to the first five or six songs and walk away rattled. ÐSS Z-Gun Oct 2007