Red Hot Chilli Pipers

As a bit of a treat for Christmas, Raymond got 19 of us us tickets to Paisley Town Hall to see Red Hot Chilli Pipers. The band are a Scottish Celtic rock band, famous for their unique "Bagrock" sound, which fuses traditional bagpipe music with modern rock and pop anthems. They were formed in 2002 but gained international fame after winning the BBC talent show When Will I Be Famous? in 2007.
The current line up features three pipers backed by a seven piece rock band, a vocalist and the Red Hot Chilli Dancers.

For a bit of pre-concert dining, 14 of us went for a meal in The Gabriels pub/restaurant, which is just a short walk from the town hall. The place was very busy but the bar staff were friendly and the service was excellent. The atmosphere was good and not drowned out by music so we all had a good natter. The food was generally pretty good by all reports except for Raymond and, to quote the Grail Knight from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "he chose poorly".

Anyway, on to the show...

With the current building dating back to 1879, Paisley Town Hall is an architectural gem of a building with its row of Greek columns, a clock tower and a main hall that can hold 1200 people. Raymond had booked us an entire row of seats in the gallery with really good views overlooking the stage.

Here's a few more photos taken on the night:

Everyone seemed to enjoy the concert, with the band playing a fair few rock and pop numbers we all recognized. In the second set of the evening, we were treated to a couple of numbers featuring lots more pipes and drums in the form of the Renfrewshire Schools Pipe Band. They really filled the stage and raised the volume, which everyone really enjoyed.

Here's a few more photos of that taken on the night and a video I found on Facebook:

I think we all had a good day and evening out so many thanks to Raymond Kerr for organizing it all.

Red Hot Chilli Pipers tour fairly regularly so you can find more details about the band and upcoming events on their web site and there are more videos and albums on their YouTube channels:

• Red Hot Chilli Pipers

• https://www.youtube.com/@redhotchillipiper

• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChQE0qZg2SDb96zIvwWf1AQ

If you want to know more about the Paisley Town Hall or see what's going to be on, then here's the web site:

• • Paisley Town Hall

If you want to know more about the history of the town hall, then have a look here:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisley_Town_Hall

• https://www.historicalpaisley.com/paisley-town-hall-clark-town-hall-scotland/

If you want to know more about The Gabriels, then here's the link to the web site:

• https://www.belhaven.co.uk/pubs/renfrewshire/gabriels