WELL DONE: Celtic Artist of the Year, Murphy’s Pigs. Pic: Katherine O’Mahony/Supplied

A big, 10-piece band making a big sound, Murphy’s Pigs have won the title of Celtic Artist of the Year 2013 at the first-ever Australian Celtic Music Awards.

They were also finalists in the Best Song and Best Album categories. 

The Australian Celtic Music Awards are held in Glen Innes, New South Wales, during the Australian Celtic Festival. The festival has been held annually for 21 years. 

The band’s John Graham, originally from Atherton Tablelands,  told Irish Queenslander that they were quite shocked when they won the award.

“There was a really high class of acts in a number of catergories. There were 300 musical entries judged, I’ve been told. So we were chuffed. It’s always unexpected, we were convinced a band from Melbourne was going to take the award.” 

With 10 in the band, you might wonder who gets to bring the trophy home. John has no quibbles about that question. “ME! I do all the work,” he laughed. 

“Running this thing is more stressful than the day job.” 

The day job is no piece of cake, John and two other members of the band are police officers. 

Surprisingly, none of the members are Irish, so why choose to play Celtic music?

John says: “Our accordion player, Domenico Taraborrelli, tries to assure us he’s Irish but we’re not convinced. Celtic music is very tribal. I grew up singing Irish music around the piano, I grew up watching the Irish Rovers as a kid.”

With 10 people in the band, the proceeds of gigs are spread thin. 

“People ask why don’t we chop the band down and make it smaller but we can’t. 

“The reason our sound is so unique is because we have 10 people on stage and nine vocalists singing. It’s this massive wall of sound that really sets us apart from a lot of the other good bands in Australia. 

“A lot of people from Ireland tell us that they’ve never seen anything like this.”

Murphy’s Pigs will play at Scots In The Bush festival on August 17 and festiValley at Samford on August 31.