Piping Hot!

We report on the Red Hot Chilli Pipers concert in Lamlash School hall.

Written by Nick Underdown
Thursday, 31 July 2008

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No musician has ever spontaneously combusted on an Arran stage, but last Saturday, three explosive bagpipers came close to it. Stuart Cassells, Willie Armstrong and Kevin MacDonald are the three lead players of The Red Hot Chilli Pipers, whose high-octane piping wowed 450 jigging revellers from across Arran at the High school last Saturday.

As befitted the finale of Lamlash Gala Week, it was the first time the new school venue has hosted a fully-licensed, standing room-only gig. The warm-up act, Arran’s very own News Band, was more than equal to the occasion, and Bryan Millar sang Back in the USSR with a deep, rocking cool that would surely make even Vladimir Putin move his hips.

The Chilli Pipers then entered the stage to a fanfare of trumpets and launched into a wild medley of funked-up traditional pipe tunes, backed by expert musicianship. The eight-piece group included keyboards, guitar and drums, beating out an amazingly varied set from Flower of Scotland to Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water. Arran has been treated to the maestro of solo piping Fred Morrison already this year, and the band’s piping fingerwork formed an impressive group act, with flawless percussion support.

The Chilli Pipers are doing a different thing from the founders of Celtic fusion. The likes of Martyn Bennett, the Peatbog Fairies, Croft No. 5, Shooglenifty and Daimh have all been part of a re-birth of Celtic folk piping, blending it with electronica and rock, but the Chillis are defining a new genre of ‘stadium piping’ that is more visual and very popular.

Pipes these days are everywhere, and if you’re working in a high street shop all day and the local piper drones out the same skirl non-stop, they can become an instrument of torture - but heard on special occasions, they get to the real guts of emotional expression.

The Lamlash concert attracted folks of all ages, and whilst energetic giggers jigged at the front, there was plenty of space for a big crowd of more stationary foot-tappers. The statuesque pillars of Ian Small and Ewan McKinnon flanked the stage as part of the Arran Mountain Rescue Team’s solid stewarding of the event. Maureen Smith and Craw Duncan drew the raffle and auctioned a signed cartoon portrait of the Chilli Pipers as part of the week’s fundraising for good local causes.

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