With more than 20 years touring everywhere from Elgin to Asia the Red Hot Chilli Pipers had nothing to prove in bringing their 21 Again tour “home” to Aberdeen.
With a queue round the block to get in, and not a seat spare in the Music Hall, it seemed there was more than just the band looking forward to their annual Silver City stop off.
But if after two decades of “bag rock” there was any notion that the 10-strong band would slow things down any, you’d have been in for a rude – and exceptionally loud – awakening.
For everything you could possibly want from the funked up Scottish trad rockers was there by the bright red sporran-load.
Star dancer from Ellon
Kicking off the night with popular dance track Timber, ZZ Top’s Gimme All Your Lovin’
was hot on its Highland dancing heels.
Combining the undoubted skills of three pipers, a keyboard player, trumpet, sax, percussion, drums, bass and guitar – the “Pipers” were accompanied by two Scottish dancers, one of whom was from Ellon.
Rachel Havlin, a former Ellon Academy pupil now studying to be a PE teacher in Edinburgh, had already performed with the band in Elgin.
After a night at home with the group in Aberdeen she was going with them to Dunfermline too. New to the Chillis, she previously performed at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
Young talent assembled
And it wasn’t the only local nod. One of early members, Kevin MacDonald, who spent his formative years in Peterculter, the Red Hot Chilli Pipers know only too well the importance of preserving and showcasing the Scottish arts.
Though Kevin learned his craft via Culter Pipe Band youngsters from Bucksburn and District Juvenile and Alford Academy pipe bands were invited to join the stars on stage last night.
Starting with a stunning rendition of Highland Cathedral, encouraged by piper Ross Miller and led by singer Chris Judge, they stole the show once more with an energetic rendition of Avicii’s Wake Me Up.
Up on their feet
Judge – whose vocal range extended to the upper echelons of A Thing Called Love by The Darkness and Aha’s Take on Me – served as both singer and crowd “warmer-upper.”
He needn’t have worried, however. Though the Aberdonian audience were slow to their feet it only took a jig, written by the band’s own bassist Ruairidh MacLean from Dundee, to get them going. By the second half the bigger task was getting the Red Hot revellers to sit back down.
Alongside old favourites like Don’t Stop Believing a new addition of the Reason was met with warm acceptance. Certainly, if the heart-tapping woman in front of me was anything to go by, it may have been exactly what die-hard fans were hoping for.
A blast of Stevie Wonder, and a personal highlight – Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars – made the evening all the more memorable for this wannabe Chilli fan who has tried and up until now, failed, to see them live for the last 20 years.
Pipes, pure and simple
However, I’d be denying my inner puritan if I did not admit to being most happy when some of the more traditional pipe arrangements featured.
Though nothing on offer by the Chillis could be neatly classified as “typical”, Last Tango in Harris – a modern pipe composition – scratched my celtic itch.
After 20 years living south of the border – almost as long as the band has been wowing crowds the world over – all my Scottish heart wanted was a blast of something that wouldn’t go amiss in the background of Braveheart.
Breath-taking drum and percussion interludes definitely pleased the crowd.
Mariah-defying high notes had everyone cheering.
But there’s something almost primal about hearing pipes in their purest form that can transform even Aberdeen Music Hall into an entirely different place.
Chilli pepper joy
Just for a few precious moments, in this week they call Betwixtmas, the raucous talents of Red Hot musicians provided absolute escapism.
Left behind were the family dramas of Christmas and the woes of returning to work. Instead Hogmanay came early. Tapping toes, clapping hands, shouts of “yeeuuuuuchhhhh” in all the right places. Celebration for worry. Singing for stress.
It was pure, unadulterated, Chilli Pepper joy.
If only it was the kind of chilli spice that could be bottled and taken home. It certainly added, if only for one night, some much-needed warmth to Union Street.
