Red Hot Chilli Pipers rocked the ceilidh tent for the second time at this year’s Cowal Highland Gathering, and have spent the period since their show-stopping 2008 performance travelling around the world on a mission to “make trad music tremendous”.
Winners of the primetime reality show When Will I Be Famous, it was only five-years ago that the ensemble first got together. Eight musicians from differing backgrounds, the band have found a niche converting stone-cold rock classics into blistering bagpipe blow-outs.
When asked what they’ve been up to since they performed last year, Kevin MacDonald said: “Well, round the world is the easiest answer. Since last year we had a trip to Calcutta in February which was an amazing experience, but we came straight off a plane from Calcutta and straight to Kiev, so contrasting temperatures there!
“We’ve been in the States, just back from Milwaukee, the biggest Irish festival in the world and gone down well there. They’re looking to take us back next year, so we’re managing to spread the Bagrock word around the world, it’s good fun.”
Fellow member William Armstrong has been coming to Cowal for 30 years. “It was 1978 or 1979, I was a wee boy and thought it was special,” he explained of his first time at the Dunoon gathering.
“My dad actually comes from Dunoon, so we used to come here and see my granny, and then all my family would come and see me play in the pipe bands.”
Talking about their unique combination of styles, and the reception it’s had so far, Kevin said: “You just don’t know how people are going to take to the Bagrock, but I think it’s the shock of saying ‘Is that really pipes playing rock music?’
“People can liase with that, I think that sometimes the problem with traditional music is that is they’re not traditionalists in terms of the music they can struggle to get into that kind of folk music, and we try and bridge the gap in between the two.
“We’re trying to encourage people to take up traditional instruments, but adding a commercial element to it.”
Or, as Willie added: “Making trad music tremdous.”
