Tickets, advance merch in short supply for Shotts SOLAS concert

Not only are there just around 50 tickets remaining for Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia’s “SOLAS” Pre-World’s Concert on August 13th at the 2500-seat Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, but the band is reporting that its hot new merchandise is also in short supply.

The pre-sale for SOLAS gear, which includes shirts, quarter-zips, ballcaps and tote bags, ends July 15th. Orders will be ready for pickup on the night of the show.

If you’re still looking for tickets, they’re £37.90 and available online from the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. In the past, standing-room tickets were released once seats are sold out for Pre-World’s concerts.

You can still order merchandise, which is in plentiful supply, on the Shotts website.

Meaning “light” in Gaelic, “SOLAS” is a tip of the miner’s helmet to the town’s old slogan, “Shotts lights the world,” when it was a major coal and ironworks manufacturer that sold gas lamps worldwide.

Founded in 1910, Shotts & Dykehead is one of the world’s longest-running civilian pipe bands, winning 16 World Championships over its 115-year history.

Pre-World’s concerts present two hours or more of material, making them daunting for any band, especially for Shotts’s new drum section and Lead Drummer David Henderson, who joined the band in early February.

SOLAS will be the fourth time that Shotts has headlined the Pre-World’s Concert, which Glasgow Skye has promoted yearly since 1994.

Since the 1990s, the Glasgow Skye Association Pipe Band has organized the Pre-World’s concerts.