Glasgow-based trio Salon Society have been selected as winners of the Sunday Herald competition to play a 30-minute set at next weekend's Hydro Connect festival.
"We are absolutely excited about Hydro Connect - we were so happy when we got the good news. We were totally amazed," said the band's drummer Dorothee Weber, speaking from Germany where they are in talks with a producer over a debut album.
Entrants were invited to submit a 60-second video of themselves performing. After releasing their first single in July, Salon Society hope that their performance in Argyll will be a springboard on to bigger things.
"We hope to have to have a really good gig and that people enjoy our music. Hopefully we'll get to talk to people, get invited to play some other festivals and take the next step up," said Weber.
A native German, she moved to Scotland a couple of years ago and has been performing with her bandmates for the past 18 months. They have performed at Celtic Connections and Glasgow's West End Festival, but Hydro Connect will be a significantly bigger event. Though Weber is yet to attend a Scottish festival, fellow Salon Society members Roxanne Claxton and Luci Jones have previously sampled the big event atmosphere at T In The Park. Next weekend, though, will be their collective festival debut.
"We play on Saturday, but we're arriving on Friday and staying all the way through," said Weber. "Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing Paolo Nutini and Amy Macdonald and also Kasabian on Friday night. We need to make sure we're totally prepared and not staying up too late though."
That the band have the chance to perform at all is largely thanks to friend and sometime session guitarist Archie Dixon. "Archie saw the ad in the paper and thought we would stand a good chance with it," explained Weber.
While the Your Sound Bandstand will host 20 unsigned acts over the weekend, the Speakeasy Cafe will provide opportunities for a mix of experienced groups and those still searching for a deal, like Salon Society. The wonderfully named We Were Promised Jetpacks, meanwhile, will play both stages, giving festival-goers two opportunities to enjoy their lively brand of rock.
Also performing in the Speakeasy Cafe will be the slightly more experienced Jocasta Sleeps, who took to the stage at T In The Park's own initiative for unsigned talent, T Break, earlier this year. The four-piece rock act is one of several groups, including the much-touted Frightened Rabbit, which appeared in Balado in July and will now take the floor in Inveraray.
Frightened Rabbit in particular are set to draw a big crowd; the four-piece from Selkirk drew warm critical praise for their energetic performances at Texas' famous South By Southwest festival earlier this year and, with two studio albums already released, they are sure to have a strong following.
Also joining them on Sunday in the Cafe will be Alan McKim, who will be playing his first festival of the summer. Like Paolo Nutini (who will play the Oyster Stage on Saturday night), McKim is a solo singer-songwriter from Paisley.
Aside from the music, the Cafe will also host a number of public speakers, while providing a relaxed area for people to enjoy a coffee and take a break from the frantic festival site. Among those talking over the weekend will be author Alan Bissett and poet Billy Letford as well as the Sunday Herald's senior political commentator Iain Macwhirter on Saturday and environment editor Rob Edwards on Sunday.
The three-day festival opens on Friday with Kasabian and Manic Street Preachers headlining. Saturday sees Bloc Party and Glasvegas - whose highly-anticipated debut album comes out on September 8 - perform, while Icelandic post-rockers Sigur Ros and Scottish indie group Franz Ferdinand bring the event to a close on Sunday.
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