Hebridean Celtic Festival
Review: Red Hot Chili Pipers by Ruaraidh Mackay
The Red Hot Chili Pipers headlined the main stage of Thursdays festival in carrying the flame of anticipation and expectation which comes with the territory of being a “Big Gun” at this years festival. They carried it well.
The Chili Pipers, winners of BBC One Show “When will I be famous?”, are comprised of Stuart Cassells, Willie Armstrong and Kevin Macdonald on the bagpipes, on guitar Gregor Jones, Steven Graham snare drum, Malcolm McEwan on keyboard, Steven Black on the drums and Chris Russell very impressive on the keyboard.
The band cites Ewan McGregor, Phil Collins and The Darkness as big fans of their sound and it was easy to see why after Thursday nights performance. The Chili Pipers have a sound that is purely Scottish, with their spin on classic songs making them a prime candidate for traditional Scots festivals like the HCF. The rendition of Coldplays “Clocks” was particularly impressive, and had the crowd passionately jumping up and down early on. Looking at the band, it was special to see how effortlessly they could switch between players, how all the band-mates were so comfortable with each others musical rhythms and respective talents.
One thing expected of the Chilli Pipers was their mind blowing sounds in which they delivered. However the crowds reaction was most interesting. Would there be as great a reception as the very impressive Four Men and A Dog in the previous act? They didn’t have to worry, as their performance provided the crowd with just what they wanted - Great music. The Chilli Pipers could have played all night if they wanted to, the crowd would have listened to their harmonic sounds for ever.
“Celtic Bolero” was a track which didn’t go down the traditional Chilli Pipers route, as it was a slower piece by the band, and whilst it didn’t have the packed tent jumping up and down as previous songs it was a decent change of pace for the band, showcasing their different styles of musical performance. That soon changed though with the expected “Flower of Scotland” geeing the crowd up to delirious levels, as almost everyone in the tent proclaimed their love of being Scottish to whoever they could find next to them.
The Chilli Pipers belted out hit after hit to the red hot audience, who lapped up everything the Pipers threw at them. Here was a band who came to the Festival with a big reputation, and after playing in-front of a packed festival crowd, have left with a much bigger one. A roaring success.
