Regular attendees at the Hebridean Celtic Festival will have been exposed to a number of new Celtic sounds over the years, but with globally-storming Red Hot Chilli Pipers about to attack our stage this summer it would seem the pioneering sounds just keep coming.

For those of you that haven't come across them before (how?) The Red Hot Chilli Pipers are a bunch of Scottish lads that decided to take their traditional training in the bagpipes and cover some of the most popular rock classics in the canon; creating the aforementioned 'Bagrock' and becoming the most popular pipes and drums band in the world in the process.

From AC/DC's 'Thunderstruck' to Hendrix's Voodoo Child; Smoke on the Water to We Will rock You, it would seem that nothing is beyond the lads' powerful pipes, but piper Stuart Cassells modestly disagrees.

"The songs we cover have to fit the scale of the bagpipes and they have to have good melodies in their own right – then we can make them work," explains Stuart. But that doesn't stop the lads reaching for the stars when it comes to forming some of the world's classics into high octane thundering epics that are more than likely going to bring down the Big Blue tent in July – something the lads are thrilled to attempt.

"The Heb Celt Festival is a highlight on the Scottish Festival calendar," exclaims Stuart. "We're very very busy this summer - we've only got a couple of dates in Scotland and we're very glad that the Heb Celt is one of those ones."

For the full interview with piper Stuart Cassells see this week's Stornoway Gazette – out now.