As It Happens

Red Hot Chilli Pipers, not Peppers: Man mistakenly buys girlfriend tickets to bagpipe concert

Duncan Robb thought he would surprise his partner with tickets to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But instead, he accidentally bought tickets to see 'the most famous bagpipe band on the planet' — the Red Hot Chilli Pipers.
Duncan Robb thought he got a deal on some cheap Red Hot Chili Peppers tickets but got the name wrong and bought tickets to see a bagpipe cover band instead. (Duncan Robb/Twitter)

Even after they went to the concert on Saturday, Duncan Robb and his girlfriend don't know how the Red Hot Chili Peppers kick off a show.

But they do know how the concert they saw started — it probably went something like this: 

To be fair, that's a pretty stellar medley of We Will Rock You and Eye of the Tiger. But it's certainly not the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

For one thing, it doesn't feature Flea doing neat stuff on the bass while Anthony Kiedis barks ridiculous sex nonsense. For another, there's one hundred percent more bagpipes in it.

But that's to be expected when you see a concert by the Red Hot Chilli Pipers
Members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers — the band Duncan Robb thought he bought tickets to go see — performing in 2016. (Nils Meilvang/AFP/Getty Images)

Of course, the thing is, Robb didn't expect to see a concert by the Chilli Pipers in Belfast. He expected a concert by the Chili Peppers in Belfast. That's why he was so excited when he saw the tickets for sale so cheap before Christmas. He was even more excited that it would fall on the weekend before Valentine's Day.

"Kill two birds with one stone," as he romantically put it in an interview with ABC

(Duncan Robb/Twitter)

He and his girlfriend booked flights from the U.K. to Northern Ireland. And then, a few days before the concert, she asked who the opening band was.

They conducted some research on the computer and found no evidence that the Chili Peppers were playing in Belfast on Feb. 10.

Then they conducted some research by looking closely at their actual tickets. There it was: two pretty decent seats for the Red Hot Chilli Pipers. 

They went anyway. And they had fun. Even if, beforehand, they probably had to give each other a pretty serious pipe talk.