Kazakhstan gigs will raise money to help orphans

ASTANA. February 19. KAZINFORM. A group of Highland musicians is on the march in Kazakhstan, entertaining locals and expats alike while helping raise money for orphans at the same time.

The Ceilidh Commandos were invited to play several concerts, including a Burns supper on February 7, at the invitation of Andrew Mackinnon, one of the organisers of the Atyrau Burns Society, a registered charity in Atyrau, Kazakhstan. The Commandos comprise Callum ?Spud the Piper? Fraser from Aviemore, squeeze box player Gary Innes from Spean Bridge, Alex Dalglish, a guitarist and singer with Scottish band Skerryvore, bodhran player Martin O?Neill and multi-instrumentalist Ewen Henderson from Fort William. Mr Mackinnon, from Nairn, has lived in Kazakhstan for 15 years working as managing director of Bolashak, a group of companies specialising in providing manpower, commissioning and related services to oil and gas firms and other industries in Kazakhstan. The company employs many Scots from the Highlands who work in Kazakhstan on a rotational basis, while others have settled there. Mr Mackinnon said: ?I find the Kazak people some of the nicest I have met, very family orientated and hard-working people. ?The film Borat painted an image of them which was wrong, both of the people and the place, and as a result, Borat, aka actor Sacha Baron Cohen, is not well thought of. ?However, people like Spud Fraser and the Commandos are very highly regarded. ?We started hosting an annual Burns supper more than six years ago and each year have raised a large sum of money to help the less fortunate. We focus on an orphanage in the village of Makhambet and helped provide toilets, running water, new beds and bedding, central heating boilers, washing machines and driers.? Spud Fraser, who famously bagpiped his version of Like a Virgin for singer Madonna, is now well known in Atyrau as this is the sixth year he has performed there; Kazakh Embassy in the USA informs referring to Press & Journal.