The Abbotsford Session

WAR ZONE

ABERDEEN'S dockland area is like any other in the world. It's a place where men come to shag and drink and women to work. Wedged between the thronging pubs and condom-littered wasteland are warehouses, great stone caverns which date from the 18th century. It was in one of these that The Trees came to record their classic EP: The Abbotsford Session.

Of course their mums and dads offered to run them to and from the studio, but the band - now rapidly maturing into immature men - were determined to carry their instruments through these grizzled streets.

The Abbotsford studio had been recommended by Mark "Sparkles" Ewen. He had recorded there with part-time Runrig player Bryan Freele when he was just 15. Freele had jetted into Aberdeen to team up with legendary Cults guitarist Alasdair McWalters, best known for his ravishing sister Rachel. The session proved disappointing. Sparkles didn't rate Freele who incessantly sang: "Woke up this morning with a head like a busted skunk." Fortunately for Freele, "The Great Dictator" was behind the drums rather than the desk, otherwise he might have found himself doing 100 sit-ups.

The same producer would also take charge of the Trees' session. He was Graeme Ross, husband of Runrig's manager Marlene. The Trees referred to him as the "wizard", not because of any technical prowess he possessed but because he had a very long beard. McPherson, for one, was very taken with it and grew his own one later which he kept hidden from his parents under a surgical collar.

From The Trees only appearance on Top of the Pops - live at Aberdeen Harbour

The session began inauspiciously when the band discovered the studio didn't have a guitar tuner. For 45 minutes Rat struggled with his strings before sending out for help. Just when it looked like the session would have to be cancelled, the "wizard" conjured a 1963 Gibson Les Paul from a guitar case. To this day Styx swears he heard bells jingling as it appeared. Rat, meanwhile, was inspired. Not only was this the best guitar he had ever played, even the lead worked. But the magic had not yet started - at least not until Rat let rip one minute 32 seconds into "The Abbotsford One". It was a searing solo, a manic contortion of notes that would make critics reassess his place in the pantheon of guitar greats.

"The Abbotsford One" also featured the full Tree Orchestra and was the first time any pop band had dealt with the Falklands War. Once again McPherson was ahead of his time, and on this occasion ahead of the war itself, by three weeks in fact. "You could see it coming," he told the Ministry of Defence when taken away for questioning on the day of the EP's release. Years later he recorded a charity record for Gulf War veterans a full month before the conflict started. He denied willing it to happen, telling friends: "We needed the single in the shops early to have a crack at the Christmas Number One."