Love is blind as couple fly to Belfast for a Chili Peppers gig ...only to find that Valentine’s treat was skirl of bagpipes
IT had all been going so well for Duncan Robb.
He’d scooped what he believed was an amazing deal for tickets to see his girlfriend’s favourite band — the Red Hot Chili Peppers — in Belfast.
And the Englishman wasted no time in booking accommodation and flights for what would surely be a romantic couple of days in the run-up to Valentine’s Day.
Only one problem — had he checked the concert tickets more thoroughly, Duncan would have realised the Derbyshire-based couple would actually be flying across the Irish Sea for a gig with the similarly-named Red Hot
Chilli Pipers — a Scottish bagpipe group.
When realisation eventually dawned, he took to Twitter to express his disbelief at the “nightmare” of his error — which has now gone viral.
“Still can’t believe we’ve flown over to Belfast — not for the
Chili Peppers but to see the ‘world’s best bagpipe band’ Chilli Pipers... thought I’d got a rate good deal on tickets n’all,” the Chesterfield man tweeted.
“Had a nightmare.”
As it’s all water Under The Bridge now, Duncan can at least see the funny side.
The tickets to see the renowned pipe band — whose website boasts “bagpipes with attitude”, “drums with a Scottish accent” and a “fusion of Scottish music and “bagrock” — at the SSE Arena in Belfast last Saturday cost him £30 each.
Robb told Storyful that he had spotted the supposed gig for the Californian funk-rock legends, whose most famous songs include Under The Bridge and Californication, while searching for tickets to a boxing match.
“When I clicked on and got tickets in row Q, and for £30 each, I thought ‘what a bargain, there must not be many tickets left’ and snatched them up straight away,” he said.
“Also, I saw the date was February 10, so I could make it into a Valentine’s Day weekend — kill two birds with one stone.
“Fast forward a month and we get the actual tickets through the post — brilliant!”
Duncan, whose father hails from Northern Ireland, said that despite printing out the tickets and giving them to his girlfriend as a present on Christmas Day, neither of them noticed that they would be going to see the wrong band. “Up they went on the board — still nobody had no- ticed my mistake,” he told ABC.
“It wasn’t until the Wednesday before when my girlfriend wanted to know who was supporting them... she couldn’t find anything about the Red Hot Chili Peppers performing in Belfast.”
Duncan said the pair went ahead with their Northern Ireland getaway regardless of the mistake, concluding that it was “definitely an experience”.
And he admitted that they even bought a T-shirt.
“I just had to laugh about it — what else was there to do?” Duncan said.
“The only saving grace was that we had found out three days before and not while we were in the arena!”
He added: “Hopefully we will get to see the real Chili Peppers in the future.” An agent for the Red Hot Chilli Pipers — which bills itself “the most famous bagpipe band on the planet” — said it’s not the first time a fan has mistaken the bag blowers for the famous grunge-funk band.
“We’re always extremely careful in all advertising,” said agent Douglas Gillespie.
“We’ve made sure to put kilts and bagpipes on all the pictures.
“We would never ever try to pass ourselves off as the Red Hot Chili Peppers; we respect them too much.” Meanwhile, the Red Hot Chili
Peppers will definitely be doing a live gig next month... in Chile.