A Big Chilli Roundup

Well it’s been a long time coming but it’s finally time for another super roundup of all the great gigs we’ve had recently.  The blog’s been a bit neglected as we haven’t had time to get near to a computer, but with some much needed time off, we’ve a chance to reflect on some of our biggest and best gigs, so lets not wait any longer and get right into it!

Way back at the end of July, we performed at The Gathering in Edinburgh, one of the main events to mark Scotland’s Year of Homecoming, and with just under 50,000 people from 40 countries attending, certainly one of the biggest!  It was billed as the largest clan gathering in recent times and there were highland games, heavyweight events, pipe bands and much more, but it was the music stage that seemed to draw the biggest crowd and, as we took the stage on the Saturday it was to one of our biggest ever audiences, a thrilling experience!  Even as we opened the day’s events the following day a good few thousand people braved the typical Scottish weather to help us go down a ‘storm!’

After having played at one of the biggest Scottish Gatherings earlier, we then travelled a bit further afield in mid August, to one of the biggest Irish festivals in the world, the Milwaukee Irish Fest.  Held in Milwaukee’s custom built and permanent festival site, this was another new and fantastic adventure for us.  For four nights in a row we unleashed Bagrock to a whole new audience and judging by the reaction we were getting, they definitely enjoyed it.  They do say that everything is bigger in America and this was definitely true of the Irish Fest and we certainly look forward to our return there in 2010; if you missed it this year, make sure you’re there next time!

A couple of busy travel weekends followed this as we travelled to Spain for Festival Internacional Plasencia.  The Spanish love their late night festivals and, as we headlined the Friday night, we didn’t come offstage until 2am on the Saturday morning.  We got a great response from the lively crowd but unfortunately there was no time to soak it up.  As soon as we finished, we packed everything up and went straight to the airport, as we had to get back to Scotland for a gig in Campbeltown that night! For once luck was on our side and all flights went on time so we arrived for the Mull of Kintyre Music Festival in plenty of time. There’s always a great crowd in Campbeltown and this night was no exception. We were pleased to be joined again by the fantastic Kintyre Schools Pipe Band, who had also accompanied us onstage just over a year ago at the filming of our live DVD.

The following week was another busy one, starting with a gig for the Edge Festival, part of the Edinburgh Festival, at the HMV Picture House in Edinburgh in the middle of the week, and we were on the road again that weekend.  We started up in Turriff on the Friday for the Wizard Festival.  The notorious winds of the north east of Scotland almost put a stop to this whole event with tents flying everywhere, but once everything was secured and the winds died down a little, it went ahead, if not quite to schedule.  The patient crowd had not lost any of their enthusiasm in the wait and there was a great atmosphere in the tent as we played.

We left from Turriff and travelled to the other side of the country for a triumphant return to the Cowal Games in Dunoon on the Saturday.  When we played there last year we were overwhelmed at the response and crowd that we got so we were looking forward to doing it again, with a bigger band and what turned out to be a bigger crowd than last time! As well as the official Chilli Dancers we had additional dance support from the Chilli WAGs at the side of the stage, well done to all of them!  As we said last year, we all have a great affinity with the Cowal Games and it was once again a huge pleasure for us to bring the Bagrock to Dunoon.

Still not finished for the weekend though, on the Sunday we returned to another gig from last year, the Scottish Young Carer’s Festival in West Linton.  This great event provides respite for young carers who perhaps look after sick parents or family members and we were glad to be able to return again to see some familiar faces, some new ones, but overall, lots and lots of smiling faces!

The following week brought yet another return gig as we travelled back to “The Broch” a.k.a. Fraserburgh.  We have some great friends and fans up in Fraserburgh and it was good to be able to catch up with them again there.  One of the fans couldn’t make it though, but she did have a good excuse as she had just given birth! Congratulations to Andrew and Emma and their new baby girl, Fiona Elizabeth. We also have a great young piper fan named Danny who we’ve met up with a few times, you may remember the last time we were in Fraserburgh his Aunt made us some amazing Gingerbread Chillimen, well this year she surpassed this by making us an awesome Bagrock in the Broch cake!

 

                 

Hi Guys, Just having a read of your latest blog and was amazed [ and quite chuffed ] to see a photo of the cake I baked for you when you bagrocked the Broch-I hope it tasted okay!Your gig was awesome as usual and look forward to catching you again soon.Danny says Hi. Moira xx

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