Well, after all the
excitement of travelling to Singapore, Malaysia and the Isle of Man, things
have been a wee bit quieter recently for the Chilli’s. Not to say we haven’t
been keeping ourselves busy though!
In June we had two more full band concerts, for the Alness Initiative in
Alness Academy on the 13th, and then again the following week down
in Maybole in Ayrshire, where we performed in the town hall as part of their
annual festivities.
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At the start of July
we were up in Dundee playing at the Whitehall theatre at an event called
“Scotch Broth”. The evening
featured many local singers, dancers and musicians and it was a fundraising
show to help raise money for Ann Gloag’s Foundation to fund the Kenyan
Children’s Home. The Stageoach bus
company has been operating in Kenya since the 1980’s and Ann has been working
hard since then to help improve the lives of the children in the home, with her
Gloag Foundation taking over the running of the home in 2002. It was a great pleasure for us to be
involved in a great event, but even more so as it helped to raise funds for
such a worthy cause.
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We then had a very
rare week off, before we began one of our busiest, or at least most
logistically complicated, weeks ever.
On the Wednesday, we boarded the Chillibago at Ridiculous O’Clock in the
morning, to make the long journey south to Slough, where we were performing at
a charity golf event hosted by Justin Rose, in aid of Cancer Research. This star-studded event raised a lot of
money for another great cause (as well as giving some celebs a fun weekend!),
and it was a great pleasure for us to be involved in some way.
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The following night we
were in Leeds for an event organised by the Leeds University, and left straight
from there to meet the rest of the band down in Stansted Airport. A couple of hours sleep in the airport
and then we flew out to Asturias in Spain, where we were performing at the
Canatbria Infinita Festival in the town of San Vincent. With the Friday night free, we got to
enjoy some of the other acts performing at the festival, including the
fantastic La Botinne Souriante.
The next day, we had a nice soundcheck in the Spanish sun and had the
rest of the day free to relax as we weren’t actually performing until 2am on
the Sunday morning!
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We got an awesome
response from the Spanish crowd and thoroughly enjoyed the festival but didn’t
really have time to soak up the atmosphere afterwards as we had to leave
straight after our performance to go to the airport again, this time to fly
onto Germany.
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Two flights later and
we arrived in Cologne in the late afternoon on the Sunday, to be picked up and
taken straight to the Television Studio’s for rehearsals for the show “Pilawas
Grosse Weltreise”. This was a celebrity
quiz show, with the host Pilawas asking the German celebs questions about
different countries around the world.
Of course we were there to represent Scotland and we certainly gave them
a ‘Blast’ of modern Scottish culture!
We were understandably tired that night but we had plenty of time to recover
on the Monday before filming the show that evening. It’s always great fun being involved in big productions like
this and hopefully the show will go a long way to promoting our name in Germany
for the future.
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We then had a couple
of days rest before flying off again last weekend, firstly to Castlewellan in
Northern Ireland to take part in the Celtic Fusion Festival. Yet another great response, the Irish
are always very enthusiastic about the Bagrock! On the Saturday we flew back to
the mainland, down to Ashbourne in Derbyshire, to play at the Ashbourne
Highland Gathering. Unfortunately,
a heavy downpour the previous day had led to the games themselves being
cancelled but this did not dampen the spirits of the crowd who attended
(apologies for the pun, seems to be one that’s so easy to use in this country!)
and we all had a fantastic time.
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A wee bit more rest
and relaxation this week and then we look forward to The Gathering this weekend
in Edinburgh, the biggest clan gathering in recent times with a great lineup of
bands and events for all the family.
We take to the stage at 3.30pm on the Saturday and then again at 11am on
the Sunday, make sure you make it along for one of these performances at what promises
to be a great fun event.
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As always, many thanks
to everyone that came to see us and supported us at all these events and until
next time, keep on Bagrockin’!
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Chillipiper....
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