Alhambra Theatre Dunfermline Friday 18th December 2009

It was way back in 2002 that the idea of this fusion of traditional pipe music and rock occurred to Stuart Cassells while tidying his flat. He contacted fellow pipers Kevin MacDonald and Willie Armstrong and drummers student colleagues Steven Graham and Malcolm McEwan and the basis of this phenomenon was set

2004 saw them playing to tens of thousands when recruited by The Darkness for their set at T in the Park a gig that really raised the profile of theses emerging stars so much so that they headed for the recording studio towards the end of the year to record their first album.

The success this generated led to Steven Black and rock guitarist Gregor ‘The G Man’ McPhie joining the Chilli Pipers and signalled the birth of Bagrock. The addition in 2007 of keyboard player Chris Russell completed the line up and their star continued to rise.

Enough of the history, as part of their 2009 tour the Pipers landed at Dunfermline’s Alhambra and it became one of the most sought after tickets of the year, so the pre-Christmas crowd were well up for it long before start time.

The opening act of Fiona Cuthill and Stevie Lawrence, who also plays with the Pipers, entertained the packed house for 30 minutes or so with a selection of their music, Fiona on violin and Stevie on guitars and very pleasant it was too. Obviously both are very accomplished musicians and are much in demand for session work as well as having their own album recently released, they set the tone for the fare to follow.

Following the short break the Red Hot Chilli Pipers hit the stage and by gum it stayed hit. The eight, augmented by the 3 piece Red Hot Brass Boys, Stevie Lawrence on bass and bouzouki and the added glamour of eight Red Hot Chilli Dancers then proceeded to bag-rock the house for the excess of ninety minutes with their own style of music.

Their set as usual  consisted of a mixture well known songs such as Coldplay’s Clocks, Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water, John Farnham’s You are the Voice, Beatles Hey Jude and the Quo’s Rockin’ all over the World mixed in with Scottish traditional stuff such as Highland Cathedral and Flower of Scotland together with much, much more.

As it was a festive gig the pipe off of Xmas carols between the three ‘blawers’ was entertaining and the addition of Little Drummer Boy enhanced the yuletide experience.

The time they were playing just went so quickly, it seemed like they had hardly started before Stuart Cassells was introducing all the musicians prior to the encore / finale, a rousing version of Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ and Survivor’s ‘Eye of The Tiger’ giving one and all musicians a further chance to shine and the dancers a final exhibition of their traditional, mixed with modern, dancing.

This was the first time I had seen them perform live and can’t wait to see them again. Fortunately I won’t have to wait very long, due to the demand on tickets for this gig, they return to Dunfermline’s Alhambra on Tuesday 29 December for two gigs, a matinee and an evening show. I understand the seats will be removed from the lower seating area to enable dancing and jigging. Let the celebrations commence!!

To find out how to get tickets for this and the other fantastic shows coming to The Alhambra check out the website www.alhambradunfermline.com and if you cannot make this gig, future Red hot Chilli Pipers performances can be found at their web site www.redhotchillipipers.co.uk 

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