KT TUNSTALL, WET WET WET, LUKE LA VOLPE SAVE SCOTTISH VENUES

KT Tunstall, Wet Wet Wet, Luke La Volpe, Be Charlotte, Fatherson and Hunter and The Bear are just some of the musicians supporting grassroots music venues this week. 

The Xcerts, Hue & Cry, Honeyblood, Anchor Lane, Kerri Watt, Seil Lien, Declan Welsh, The Jellyman’s Daughter and Bow Anderson also join host Vic Galloway to perform across three virtual stages on Friday June 19. 

 Streamed on livefrom.events, the festival will be raising money to support Scotland's vital grassroots music venues facing closure due to Covid-19.

Luke La Volpe, who has already organised 2 successful fundraising events for Music Venue Trust’s #saveourvenues campaign said, “It’s an absolute surprise and honour to be invited to be a Patron for the Music Venue Trust. When I looked at who else they have as patrons I was in shock. The past few weeks have been difficult for absolutely everyone on the planet and I was thinking of ways I could do something positive and all I really have to do that with is music. When I came across the MVT and found out what they do for Grassroots venues it was a no brainer to put something together to help them and spread awareness. 

Every artist starts off in these grassroots venues, including all the other MVT patrons, however big they've got, and without them you have no music business. I’m glad to be part of such a great initiative and will do my bit to ensure that the venues survive and can have us all back playing in front of people before too long.”

 Stina Tweeddale aka. Honeyblood added, “I honestly don’t know where I would be without the grassroots venue touring circuit in the UK. Not only as an artist but as a music lover, these places are the building blocks of the musical community. A venue is so much more than a room where gigs take place - it’s walls soak up every show that goes on within it, creating a history of live music right before our eyes and ears.”

Save Our Scottish Venues kicks off at 8pm on Thursday 18 June with an exclusive set from Fran Healy (Travis) free to view at https://www.facebook.com/musicvenuetrust/. The main festival starts at 8pm on Friday 19 June with 3 stages of music and chat. Line-up and ticket details here: http://musicvenuetrust.com

    Tickets are on sale now from 

www.universe.com/events/save-our-scottish-venues-tickets-edinburgh-307Q9X

SCOTS FAMILY HOLD THEIR OWN FESTIVAL DURING LOCKDOWN

Beverley Lyons 
A Scots family were missing music festivals so much during isolation that they decided to hold their own in their garden. 
Rebecca Geddes, 20, from Invergordon and her mum Lynne Laird, 41,  and stepdad Alexander Laird, 39, took a week to plan and build their festival site at home. 
As well as all the virtual top acts, Rebecca, a nursery practitioner, Alexander, a painter and Lynne a careworker, even had their own fairground complete with washing whirligig merry go round, a Slam shed blaring out the latest tunes, snack bar selling big baps  and a firework display consisting of a sparkler to end the event. 
Their hilarious footage of the T in The Garden festival even shows them queuing up for passes and having their bags checked before camping out in the garden. 
Rebecca said: “My stepdad has gone to a festival every year since he was 16 and it would be a shame to miss out a year due to events being cancelled. Everyone was needing to have a bit of a laugh!”
The family had planned to attend a range of events including Belladrum this year as well as Party at the Palace (not cancelled just yet), Peat and Diesel Irish tour, Hunter and the Bear, Skippinish, Westlife, and Davy and Sam Cowan. 


Rebecca said: “We thought up the idea last weekend and building started on Friday. We were lucky that we had scaffolding, tents, gazebo, portaloo and a saw to cut a hole in the shed. The next door neighbours saw it all from their garden and windows. Entry was free for us as long as you had fun. 
We had Peat and Diesel headlining on the pyramid stage, Davy Cowan and Sam in the Arch Inn and Flynn in the Slam shed. We had a nice clean toilet, campsite, burger van, stall, and shows.”
We never expected it to go viral but are really happy that it did. 

SCOTS COUPLE HAVE ZOOM WEDDING IN GLASGOW DURING LOCKDOWN

Beverley Lyons 


A Scots couple were so disappointed when their wedding was cancelled as a result of Covid 19 restrictions, that they held their own ceremony complete with celebrant, fascinators, confetti and sixty guests with champagne on Zoom.
Diane Ward, 56, a driving instructor and her engineering buyer fiancé Graham Ferrier, 55, from Carnoustie were due to get married at 29 Private Members Club on Glasgow on Sunday May 10 until coronavirus rules stopped them in their tracks. 
The couple had chosen the special date specifically because it marked seven years since they first met so they were keen not to lose the sense of occasion - and made an alternative wedding celebration with their wedding planner, humanist minister and guests  on Zoom. 
Wendy, who even had to cancel her hen night in Tenerife on March 20, was determined not to let the virus spoil their big day. 
She said: “We’d sorted out our wedding banns in February and crossed all the ts and dotted the is. We couldn’t wait to celebrate with all our friends and family at 29 because we’d been on dates there and some great nights out. We realised around the start of April that the physical wedding was going to be cancelled so we set about making an alternative plan to celebrate our big day with our nearest and dearest. 
“We invited people to join us on a Zoom link at 2:45pm for 3pm on Sunday and were able to have twenty one different households on with an average of three people per household. 
Funnily enough, I had ordered two dresses for my wedding initially - one was slightly bigger than the other - and I ended up wearing that one due to my lockdown eating habits!”
“We asked everyone to get dressed up and couldn’t believe it when some, including Graham’s mum ended up wearing a fascinator. It was quite funny because some of them had dresses on with slippers or trainers underneath.”


We had guests join us from Paisley, Prestwick, Dundee and Carnoustie and after we all said hello fifteen minutes before the ceremony, we took them out with us to the garden.”
The couple had been sent some hanging basket floral arrangements from 29 and Graham’s sister and brother in law, and they also had a bottle of fizz ready for after their vows. 
Graham, who wore his kilt for the actual  ceremony, said: “It took a while to get my mum and dad who are in their eighties onto Zoom but we did a trial run with them ahead of Sunday. There was a bit of snow on the ground when we went into the garden but it soon became sunny. We set the laptop on the table beside the shed and our humanist celebrant Susan Douglas-Scott got us to read our vows. We weren’t able to meet her seven days before the wedding to pick up the official banns due to social distancing so we had a holding ceremony of promise in the meantime until we can do it in the flesh. We promised we’d marry next year and plan to have a proper legal ceremony in 29 on June 20 2021. 
“My brother played Bruno Mars Marry You online and Diane’s four year old granddaughter Scarlett was our flower girl. She was able to wear her dress for the ceremony and loved dancing around her own garden with her pretty dress and shoes on. We popped open our  bottle of champagne after the vows were taken and everyone toasted us from their respective homes. Our neighbour from next door even popped a confetti tube over us from a safe social distance.”
The celebrations took an hour in total and Diane joked: “Because of the Zoom limit of forty minutes we were on a bit of a timer but we managed to have a honeymoon later that night away in the back bedroom.”
Louize Hollywood, wedding manager for Lynnet Leisure who helped the couple ahead of their physical wedding: “It was lovely to be able to witness the online ceremony on these strange times. The couple booked to have their wedding with us in 2019 and contacted me when things had to change. I work closely with humanist celebrant Susan Douglas-Scott who offered to do an online promise ceremony with them and we transferred the physical date until next year. It was lovely to see the guests all have their full outfits on. We muted ourselves online while Susan read our the vows for the ceremony and then whooped as soon as they kissed.”


Diane and Graham Wedding List


Virtual invites by email 

Bride and Groom outfits - Kirk and wedding dress

Guests - wedding attire including fascinators

Flower girl danced around her garden

Humanist celebrant conducted forty minute promise ceremony 

Exchange vows

Flowers from brother in law and twenty nine

Confetti popped by neighbour

Photography on Zoom

Food - Guest Nibbles on their own homes 

Drink - Champagne glass virtual toast

Wedding song - Bruno Mars Marry Me 

Honeymoon - night away in back bedroom 

From Scotland with Love