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Red Hot Chili Peppers fan buys tickets for bagpipe band 'The Red Hot Chili Pipers' by mistake, goes anyway

Duncan Robb and his girlfriend were able to laugh off the mistake and attend the show in Belfast

Roisin O'Connor
Music Correspondent
Saturday 17 February 2018 10:23 GMT
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Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis performing on stage at the O2 in London
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis performing on stage at the O2 in London (Neil Lupin/neillupin.com)

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A Red Hot Chili Peppers fan flew to Belfast to see one of his favourite bands, only to find he had in fact bought tickets to see the "most famous bagpipe band on the planet" - the Red Hot Chili Pipers.

Duncan Robb says he found tickets for £30 each for 10 February and thought he could surprise his girlfriend with a Valentine's weekend.

He eventually realised his mistake, but despite the error he and his girlfriend decided to go to the show anyway.

He told The Scotsman after his tweet about the show went viral: “When I clicked on and got tickets in row Q and for £30 each, I thought, 'What a bargain – there must not be many tickets left' and snatched them up straight away.

“... It was only until the Wednesday before when my girlfriend wanted to know who was supporting them as she couldn’t find anything about the Red Hot Chili Peppers performing in Belfast.

“We just had to laugh about it – what else was there to do! The only saving grace was that we had found out three days before and not while we were in the arena.”

Robb later posted footage of the show on Twitter to prove they were there when Twitter trolls tried to claim it "didn't happen".

The Red Hot Chilli Pipers call their crossover of rock and pop “bagrock” and describe themselves as having “bagpipes with attitude, drums with a Scottish accent and a show so hot it carries its own health warning".

Their agent Douglas Gillespie explained: “We’re always extremely careful in all advertising. We’ve made sure to put kits and bagpipes on all the pictures.

“We would never ever try to pass ourselves off as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, we respect them too much.”

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