Whisky Kiss – the Broughton-based ceilidh band with knobs on – are midway through a relentless, euphoric tour of Shanghai, New York, Kuala Lumpur and, of course, the Voodoo Rooms in West Register Street. Following on from his blog earlier this month (Breaking news, 10.2.12), bassist Iain MacPhail sends us this latest report from life on the road.
Shanghai has become a favourite place for us. Everyone has been bowled over by the architecture in this dynamic city. Drummer Martyn Hodge captured the mood, muttering as he gazed at the epic space-age Pearl Tower on the Shanghai waterfront, 'I feel like a Jetson'. We can confirm that he plays like one too.
[img_assist|nid=2728|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=132|height=200]The Chinese Burns Supper was held by the British Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, and their hospitality was exemplary. The band were treated like kings and queens, and the event was held in the sumptuous Grand Hyatt on the city’s Pudong island.
We like to keep our finger on the pulse, and on the first night we went to the famous top-floor cocktail bar of this impressive skyscraper, the bar there being called Cloud Nine. It used to be the highest bar in the world, until the even more impressive Bottle Opener building next door opened up an even loftier one. Shanghai seems to be that kind of place. You feel the pressure to drink up fast, because by the time you finish you suspect a little Norris McWhirter type of character will pop up, out of nowhere, and apropos of nothing, confirm your worst fear ... that you just had a Cosmopolitan in what is now Shanghai’s third (or maybe fourth) highest bar. Things here move that fast.
[img_assist|nid=2729|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=135|height=200]Siobhan, our fiddler, graduated last year (with a First in music – nice work, Shiv), and the initial year as a graduate in any walk of life is a difficult period, with or without a huge recession to deal with. Shiv is a very talented girl, and we’re lucky to have her in the team, and we were all nodding sagely as she recounted how 'It’s not always easy explaining to your friends in other walks of life that a musician’s life is far from glamorous'.
The fact that she was telling us this whilst supping cocktails in the world’s second highest bar, and looking up through the window at its usurper as current highest bar on the planet, having just flown Business Class round the world, did arguably detract a little from the point she was making, but it was a fine discussion nevertheless.
[img_assist|nid=2731|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=150|height=200]The Ball itself was a lavish occasion – there’s no other way in Shanghai it seems. Four hundred guests packed into a super-bling ballroom. Fabulous speeches, and mentions of the travails of both Hibs and Hearts back in Edinburgh lent a distinctly local angle to proceedings before we'd even begun.
The band are on really great form at the moment, with amazing gigs in fabulous venues right round the world to look forward to, and we hope that joy we feel really comes across in our performances. The night was deemed a huge success anyway, and we hope for a return trip to Shanghai sometime soon.
Next up locally for the team – featuring our six-piece band, live DJ, the world champ Highland dancers and the Scottish Champ breakdancers – is our show on 16 March at the fabulous Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh. We hope some of you can make it along, it promises to be a memorable night! (Tickets and info. here.)
Meanwhile, this week the band have been confirmed to provide the star-studded afterparty at the 10th anniversary Dressed to Kilt fashion show in New York on 2 April in the Liberty Theater at Times Square on 42nd Street and Broadway. As ever Broughton, you'll be first with our low-down from the city that never sleeps ...
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