Red Hot Chilli Pipers

Alhambra, Dunfermline, December 30

When any band from Scotland finds themselves covered in the New Yorker magazine they know they’ve made it to some degree in America, although the article written about the Red Hot Chilli Pipers earlier this year was an unusual one. In it, the author pointed out she turned up at one of their shows in New York because her husband thought he had lucked out with cheap tickets to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

This appears to be an anecdote; maybe just an apocryphal one, but the punchline is always that anyone who turns up at the group’s show ends up staying because they thoroughly love what they see.

For their American audience, though, the Chilli Pipers are a pleasure that’s intentional, not accidental.

“We’ve been going from strength to strength there,” says Willie Armstrong, one of the band’s founding pipers. “When we first went to America we were lucky if we covered our own wages, but we knew from the crowd’s reactions that there was something in this, all we needed was the right promoter.

“About five or six years ago we found one, and now we play to almost 2,000 people on Monday nights. We used to go over there and be lucky if there were 50 people in the audience.”

In their home country, the Pipers are already more than well-known. They were founded a little over 15 years ago in the Central Belt of Scotland, and they won the BBC talent show When Will I Be Famous? in 2007.

They’re not just a Celtic rock group, says Armstrong, but rather one whose unique selling point is that they bring the sound of a pipe band to rock and pop tracks like We Will Rock You, Smoke on the Water and (for an appearance on Radio One) Avicii’s Wake Me Up.

“We don’t just play a cover song on the bagpipes,” says Armstrong.

“It would be like bagpipe karaoke. What we do is put on a traditional tune – we’re all traditional musicians – then we do a well-known tune that the audience might recognise, then we’ll move back into the traditional songs.”

How does their newfound fame in the States compare to fame at home? “I’d say it’s about the same,” says Armstrong. “America has more venues.

“Scotland’s really small, you can travel to venues here in four hours maximum, but in America you can be travelling for days. It’s always great to play here.

“We’ve been doing matinee and evening shows at the Alhambra for five or six years,” he continues.

“There’s something in that part of Fife, they just love what we do. It’s harder work for the band, because we need to do two shows, but I used to be a fireman, so if you tell me I have to do an extra two hours in the afternoon, that’s no bother at all.” www.rhcp.scot

The Red Hot Chilli Pipers are set to appear in Dunfermline.