The luggage arrived next day — too late for their show — but not before a member of the royal household had taken them to a local toy store and told them to buy whatever they needed.

In an exclusive interview today, just hours after their return from the Middle East, Artie Trezise, a member of the Kingskettle group, told the Telegraph, “We’d just come off an international flight with only four hours sleep when we discovered our luggage was missing.

“It wasn’t ideal, but we were whisked off to this toyshop by a member of the royal household and given an open account.

“We had only one kettle in our hand luggage, but because we knew what we were looking for, we used our creative abilities to put together what we needed and changed the script around our new props.”

Artie said that generally the trip went “very well”. The group were treated like royalty themselves, with people “dropping everything” to help.

Several weeks ago the group were astonished to get a phone call from the King of Jordan’s officials, asking them to the royal palace in Amman.

Artie’s wife, Cilla Fisher, folk singer turned children’s entertainer, took the call on her mobile. It turned out to be a royal command from King Abdullah.

The award-winning group flew out last Sunday, courtesy of the King, to the hilltop Raghadan Palace, the official residence of the Jordanian royal family.

There, they started their famous “Spout, handle, lid of metal” routine for birthday girl Princess Salma.

The entertainers played an hour-long set of some of their best-loved songs for the Princess and 20 of her friends and close family.

Artie said, “It went down really well. Salma’s fourth birthday was on Sunday and her older sister Iman had her birthday on Monday, which is when we did the show in the palace garden. They had friends and relatives there including their brother Prince Hussein and the King and Queen. They were all very approachable and very nice. We had long chats with them.”

Treated like VIPs throughout, Artie said the King also laid on chauffeur-driven trips for them to the Dead Sea and the Roman city of Jaresh.

They also made friends with one of the royal nannies, who comes from South Queensferry.

King Abdullah — who trained at the elite Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, in Camberley, Surrey — still has contacts with the area and heard about the Scots performers when they had a show in the town.

The King, who is a frogman, pilot and freefall parachutist, has three children to Queen Rania, and they are all big fans of The Singing Kettle.

Artie said, “The Queen’s pregnant, so we might get a whole new generation of Singing Kettle fans out there, but we’d love to go back as tourists.

“It was a beautiful country and while there was a fairly high police presence on the streets, there were no obvious security problems. It seems the Muslim and Christian population lives together quite well. The people were superbly friendly, whether in upmarket hotels or in the local street markets.”

The Singing Kettle return to earth with a bump tomorrow and Sunday when they play shows at 12 noon and 3pm in the Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline. The next few weeks will see shows in Falkirk, Inverness and England before the Christmas season starts in mid-November.