Local band Whisky Kiss are off touring to Shanghai again, following a sell-out hometown gig at the Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh last week. Bassist Iain MacPhail recounts the latest adventures of a self-confessed 'ragtag bunch of musos, glam dancers and random showmen'.
There is an old Confucian saying: 'Better to be lucky than to be good'. These wise words have been propping up the Fortune Cookie industry for years (I myself received this message twice in 2011 alone), but they also happen to accurately summarise our Shanghai trip so far.
A delay in arriving for our connection at Amsterdam Airport was our 'in'. We approached the already closed gate, and – like the well-choreographed outfit we are – simultaneously adopted the internationally recognised 'pathetic, forlorn and bedraggled' look. One complementary, compensatory KLM upgrade later, and Whisky Kiss were booked on the next flight ... Business Class all the way to Shanghai, baby, with a pass for the exclusive waiting lounge thrown in.
The Executive Lounge, with its free bar ('help yourself') and eclectic array of foodstuffs – from chicken wings to chewy sweets – was just like visiting a turbo hybrid of Vino Wines, Rapido and Shamoon’s. Once we’d let that penny drop and found our comfort zone, it was easy for a Broughton-based band to blend in, let me tell you. We cleaned up.
It has started us thinking. Has the time come for a Broughton Executive Lounge set-up, where you pay a fixed fee annually and then just run amok in the aforementioned local resorts whilst nervously checking your social networking updates and watching Sky News (muted)? All I know is, in that environment, we really felt we’d arrived even before we took off. It’s quite a thought.
The reason it’s taking place in February is that Burns Night coincided with the Chinese New Year this year. We're just thrilled to be back in our favourite city in the world, performing a ceilidh and introducing some Scots dances to a Chinese audience.
Last weekend, we had our hometown gig at the Voodoo Rooms (on 3 February). It was a real cracker, starting as a ceilidh and turning into a club. It featured us, plus DJ, and a series of red-hot dance-offs between the Scottish Champion Breakdancers and the World Champion Highland Dancers.
The event sold out in advance tickets alone (which we were delighted about), and the Voodoo Rooms was a fabulous venue. We have another bash on 16 March and would be delighted to welcome loads of you in Broughton along to see what all the fuss is all about.
If it sounds like a good night out to you, then find out more here.
Meantime, stay classy, Broughton, and we’ll keep you updated on how the show goes in Shanghai. It's very much a warm-up for the real deal in March!
