PIPING TO A DIFFERENT DRUM; Bagpipes meet bhangra in a festival off-

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Aug 8, 2004 | by Graeme Virtue

A special bus stop in Glasgow city centre has been pumping out bagpipe tunes for the past week, a canny musical campaign to promote the forthcoming Piping Hot festival in the city. It's an appropriate gimmick, not least because the public have waited years for a dedicated piping festival to come to Glasgow, and now two have come along at once.

Just as the Fringe started up to complement the Edinburgh International Festival almost 60 years ago, the inaugural Piping Hot has inspired an alternative strand of programming, nominally based at Mono, Glasgow's laid-back hub of alternative music. The man charged with pulling the programme together is piper Donald Lindsay. The 27- year-old came to the attention of Mono owner Craig Tannock when he brought a set of Hungarian pipes to a special David Byrne Supper at the venue in January and performed wild covers of Once In A Lifetime and Psycho Killer.

"Nobody recognised them, but nobody walked out either," explains Lindsay. "Craig told me about the Piping Hot festival and asked if I'd like to put together an alternative, and maybe play a gig."

The result is a modest programme, comprising an acoustic show by Nachaar - a bhangra/bagpipe group Lindsay plays with - and a mostly improvisational concert on the last night that will probably surprise the player/organiser himself. "We're just trying not to plan it too much," he grins. "We really want an atmosphere where anything can happen."

Although these gigs are positioned as an alternative to Piping Hot, the larger festival has been extremely supportive.

"I sent the details off to Roddy [McLeod, Piping Hot director] at The Piping Centre, just saying we're doing some things and he came back and said they would help promote them for us if we wanted. We were delighted."

But while Piping Hot features piping talent from all over the world, there's nobody in the official programme who sounds quite like Nachaar.

The group came into being after Lindsay played at an open mic night organised by Scottish Asian radio station AWAZ FM, eventually hooking up with dohl drummer brothers Mark and Goldi Singh and vocalist Dharam Singh. The group combines bhangra drum rhythms, Punjabi singing and pipes into a surprisingly coherent whole, with a repertoire encompassing earthy instrumentals and 1970s Punjabi songs. Through jamming, they discovered that the traditional Punjabi chall dance rhythm fitted with the phrasing of the traditional Strathspey, while the giddha drum pattern clicked with a reel. Listening to some of their energetic, raw recordings, it's remarkable how well the elements jigsaw together.

"We're not just putting a beat to a pipe tune, we're trying to get a vibe for how the dohl is played," says Lindsay. "When you see a dohl player play solo at a bhangra night, it's got an energy based on the fact the player can do what he wants. We're keen to hang on to that."

Their name comes from a type of Punjabi folk dance played on the Scottish bagpipes, a cultural echo of the British Empire. But there's also a second meaning.

"According to the internet, Nachaar can also be used to describe a guy who dresses as a girl to go to a wedding parade. There's the whole pipes and kilt thing, so it seemed quite appropriate."

The closing night concert will be even more unusual, with Lindsay and a group of like-minded players extrapolating traditional tunes into something new, and exploring the sound textures of the pipes. You probably won't be able to dance the Gay Gordons, but there will be a sea shanty to sing along to at the end. Originally self-taught, Lindsay is a piper keen to explore what the pipes can do away from their symbolic, militaristic stereotype.

"Maybe more than any other instrument, Scottish bagpipes have baggage as an instrument. Their identity is based on a conservative view of culture, and it doesn't necessarily have to be, because it's a honking loud instrument. It can be punk rock, and it's quite avant garde in its own wee way."

Nachaar play Cafe Source, Glasgow, on August 13. Donald Lindsay And Friends is at Mono, Glasgow, on August 15. Both events are free The Piping Hot festival runs from August 9-15 at various venues in Glasgow www.pipingfestival.co.uk