13 February 2014
Newsdesk
Following the live final last night and entries from some Scotland's best up and coming musical talent, The LaFontaines won Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy in Scotland's Big Apple Award, after a brilliant live performance at The Garage's G2 venue wowed the Award's judges.
The gig also saw storming mini-sets from the other four shortlisted finalists Cairn String Quartet, Fatherson, Garden of Elks and The Holy Ghosts, who all received gifts from Guitar Guitar.
The winning band was selected in a unanimous decision by judges including Jim Gellatly, renowned new music broadcaster, Mickey McMonagle, Editor of the Sunday Mail's 7Nights magazine, Sharon Stephen, Artist Manager at Hail Eris Management, Yvonne McLellan, Music Business Lecturer at Ayr College and Caroline Parkinson, Director of Creative Development at Creative Scotland. Parkinson said; "Congratulations to The LaFontaines. The standard of entries and the finalists displays the wealth of musical talent on offer in Scotland. It was a challenging task for the panel to decide a winner amongst such talented artists. We are delighted to be partnering with Nordoff-Robbins Scotland on this important showcase for Scotland’s emerging bands and we look forward to audiences in New York seeing The LaFontaines perform during Scotland Week.”
The LaFontaines are a 5 piece band from Motherwell. Lead guitarist Darren McCaughey (22), vocalist Kerr Okan (24), rhythm guitarist Iain Findlay (26), bass guitarist John Gerard (27), and drummer Jamie Keenan (23) were overwhelmed with the news they had won and Kerr Okan said: "We definitely intend to represent Scotland proudly."
Winning the Big Apple Award in association with Creative Scotland means that renowned music therapy charity Nordoff-Robbins Scotland are offering the emerging Scottish band the once in a lifetime opportunity to perform next April in New York during Scotland Week 2014. The LaFontaines will then perform at next year's Scottish Music Awards to a star studded audience of musicians, media and music industry aficionados.
Last year's winners of The Big Apple Award, Stanley Odd, enjoyed a whirlwind year in 2013 with an extended run of shows in New York before performing at the 15th annual Scottish Music Awards alongside Shirley Manson, Nina Nesbitt and Admiral Fallow.
For more information on the charity or to make a donation please visit www.justgiving.com/nrmt or www.nordoffrobbinsscotland.org.uk, call 0141 572 7079 or email info@tartanclef.org
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