Red Hot Chilli Pipers bringing theirunique brand of ‘bag-rock’ to Derry

Derry fans will have an opportunity to catch their unique brand of rock/folk fusion when they take to the stage at the Millennium Forum on Thursday, February 28.

Willie Armstrong, who famously played the Scottish pipes on the soundtrack to the hit Disney Pixar animation, ‘Brave’, has said the band can’t wait to play Derry.

“When you meet Irish audiences the feedback you get is exactly the same as in Glasgow and Edinburgh. We take that seriously. It’s not all about the band it’s about the audience.

“People always ask: ‘What’s the difference between the Scottish and the Irish?’ I think it just rains a wee bit more in Scotland. The people are exactly the same,” he jokes.

Willie says Derry can expect a high-octane mix of rock classics peppered with a large helping of tunes from the tradional repertoire including tracks from their 2018 release ‘15’ which features Sharon Shannon and Skerryvore among others.

“We’re a bag pipe rock band. It’s probably 60 per cent traditional reels, hornpipes and jigs and then 40 per cent rock classics. We also have a big light show, a brass section and dancers so it’s more of a show from the start to the end. There are loads of surprises. There’s a whole range of musical genres that goes into this ‘bag-rock’ sound.”

With thirteen musicians in total, three pipers front and centre backed by percussion and brass, it promises to be quite a show.

“The bag pipe music in Ireland and Scotland is very emotional. You can go through a whole range. If you play a slow air with a melody in behind it or a harmony across the three sets of pipes it tugs at your heart strings and then you can move from that into a foot-stomping gig and you have this elation. All these emotions going through you.”

Tickets for the Derry concert are available at https://www.millenniumforum.co.uk/shows/the-red-hot-chilli-pipers-3/