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Battling for a Nashville place
THERE was an excited buzz at Wick Youth Club last week as five teenage bands competed against each other to win a place to play at the Northern Nashville Caithness Country Music Festival in Halkirk next month.
The talented youngsters - aged from 14 to 19 years old - come from all around the North to meet at Music Link Media's project every Thursday evening.
There they have the opportunity to play in bands, record in the group's state-of-the-art digital recording studio, receive vocal and instrumental tuition, learn photography and other media skills, and socialise with other like-minded music lovers and musicians. The project has proved very popular in engaging an age group that has been traditionally very difficult to reach.
On Thursday night the judging panel, made up of professional musicians and country music fans, kept the tension going right to the end, as they selected two bands to go head to head in a nerve-wracking final for the teenagers. In the end, the winning band was Blacktooth comprising Alan Swaile, from Bettyhill, on vocals; Aaron Stephen, from Wick, on guitar; Callum Fairley, from Helmsdale, on guitar; Michael Simpson, from Wick, on bass, and Callum Winfield, from Lybster, on drums.
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Blacktooth, the winning band, perform live at Wick Youth Club last Thursday night.
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Fiona Taylor, MLM's music leader, said: "This is a fantastic opportunity for local youngsters to get involved in what is the biggest musical event in Caithness throughout the year. There will be a wide range of country music professionals performing live and a standard of showmanship and music skill which will be truly inspiring for them to see. The bands that have gone forward from MLM in past years have proved very popular with the crowd and I'm confident that this year will be no exception."
Blacktooth will now go on to play at the festival on Sunday, April 4, at 1.30pm. The three-day event is to be filmed by BBC ALBA.
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