Show stirs Celtic memories

Julie Asher
The Southland Times
July 22, 1999

PIPIN ' HOT 3 cast the kilt far and wide to produce a show to appeal to everyone, but you can't please all of the people all of the time.
The City of Invercargill Caledonian Pipe band was spectacular, showing the form that has won it three New Zealand championships.
Playing everything from Last of the Mohicans to The Atholl Highlanders they were superb if a little static due to the restrictions of playing on the Civic Theatre stage.
I had the feeling they would have liked to break out into a march at times.
Singers Jason Schmidt and Shannon Cooper-Garland reminded us of how lucky we are to keep talent of their calibre in Southland. I did wonder though, just how well they blended with the pipe band.
Loch Lomond was wonderful with the backing of the Southland Choir Ensemble and piper Lance Patterson and Pipe Sergeant Warren Haggerty, but the combination with the pipes didn't come off quite so well in St Elmo's Fire or The Final Countdown.
Modern dancers from the Scandrett Dance Troupe and the traditional
Caberfeidh Dancers were excellent.
The two combined together wonderfully well in Cross Culture and the
Caberfeidh Dancers showed a flash of Riverdance in The Clearances where they challenged the pipe band drum corps, dressed as English soldiers.
The encore, some precision drumming by Steve Wederell and Matt Ward, was a fitting finale to a show in which everything was well done, if it did not always sit comfortably together