World's wackiest brass band will come to blows in tribute to a classic children's game of cards

Not quite, although the Edinburgh-based purveyors of high-energy performances on stage or street will be dealing the cards out to audiences during their Top Trumps tour, which kicks off in Lyth Arts Centre, near Wick, next Tuesday and harrumphs its eccentric way around Scotland, England, Wales, then on to France over the summer. As tenor saxophonist and clarinettist Olivia Furness explains, the flamboyantly theatrical alternative brass band's latest show is inspired by the Top Trumps cards which were collected by youngsters during the 1980s, bearing images of aircraft, cars, dinosaurs or whatever, plus their vital statistics.

"Top Trumps was about comparing things," Furness continues. "So we've made up these cards for each of the musicians in the band, carrying information like lung capacity, instrument length, range, top speed … that sort of thing."

The zany concept sits well with Orkestra del Sol's credentials as street performers, "although we've been careful to make sure it doesn't get in the way of the music," adds Furness, aka "Olga" – the Orkestra's players adopt names by which their mothers never knew them, such as Gregovitch on alto sax, Sincero Minimo on soprano, and, of course, Marco Battenburg, who wields the mighty and ancient looking sousaphone which bellows out bass lines for the band's exuberant dance numbers.

The Top Trumps concept will pit the players against each other, says Furness, in such unlikely pairings as trumpet vs sousaphone, or sax vs accordion. "In a couple of tunes the game is actually written into the music, but most of the time it'll be in the form of little skits between songs. We've always had that sort of theatrical element anyway, and when we get booked for street theatre events, organisers always want to know if we've got a new show each year."

The term "riotous assembly" could have been coined for this band, as it discharges a repertoire of increasingly self-penned material heavily influenced by Balkan, Middle-eastern, Eastern European and Latin American genres, and its mix of zany antics, high-energy playing and split-second timing has pummelled dance floors and demolished language barriers in places as far apart as Jodhpur, Beijing, Andalucia and, er … Lyth.

"We really look forward to these smaller venues up north," says Furness. "We've played Lyth Arts Centre before and it was a great atmosphere. The gig in Milton (near Invergordon, 20 May] is in a marquee, I think. It's more fun when you're playing these outposts where folk really appreciate that you've made the journey and it's quite a wee adventure for us."

What helped the Orkestra establish its reputation, however, were its rip-roaring performances in the Spiegeltent at the Edinburgh Fringe, a venue which particularly suits the band's old-European panache, but which it lost last year when the antique, mirrored tent pulled out of the programme for maintenance.

The big tent returns to George Square this August, although, as this article goes to press, it has yet to be confirmed that Orkestra del Sol will also return to their old stomping ground.

However, the band is booked for a Queen's Hall performance on 12 August.

In the meantime, as part of its tour it headlines a Balkanarama night at Edinburgh's Studio 24 on 22 May before heading down south.

The rest, as they say, is all in the cards

For a full tour programme, see www.orkestradelsol.co.uk