HEBCELT FESTIVAL SLOT AWAITS CALMAC CULTURE WINNERS BELLA AND THE BEAR

Bella and the Bear like telling fairy stories and the past year has seen them acting out their fantasy.

Formed in 2014, their first EP ‘Once Upon a Time’ was released in April to critical acclaim and they have supported Scottish rap outfit Hector Bizerk who have become champions of their music.

Next week the duo perform at their first festival, having secured a prestigious stage slot at the 20^th anniversary Hebridean Celtic Festival in Stornoway via success in the annual CalMac Culture Music contest.

Later this month they will be supporting Glasgow’s C Duncan at the city’s Centre for Contemporary Arts and next month start work on a new EP ‘A Girl Called Bella’, to be released in October.

“Everything has progressed for us really quickly so far and we couldn’t be more grateful”, said Lauren Gilmour, who formed the band with fellow student Stuart Ramage.

The pair, who are in the second year of studying commercial music at the University of the West of Scotland in Ayr, started writing together in the summer of 2014: “We found a lot of common ground in terms of our style and the next natural step for us was to form our little group together and start playing our music for an audience, which has been going really well”, said Lauren.

“Our music has always portrayed little stories, almost like fairy tales, with a male and female narrative. When the dreaded task of naming the band came along we both decided to choose a name that mirrored this theme and Bella and the Bear seemed more then fitting. It sort of sounds like the title of a story book and, coupled with the art work we had designed, it allows the stories in our songs to really come to life.”

The CalMac Culture Music contest is aimed at finding the best amateur singers and musicians. This year the search was extended to include bands as well as promising singer/songwriters.

Entrants submitted a video of a performance of an original piece of music to YouTube and then encouraged fans to view and like the video. The eight finalists each performed two live acoustic tracks to judges and a 150-strong audience at King Tut’s in Glasgow

Bella and the Bear’s performances impressed the judges, including HebCelt director Caroline Maclennan, and they were chosen to play on stage at this year’s milestone festival, which runs from 15-18 July and will feature international acts including Afro Celt Sound System, Treacherous Orchestra, Shooglenifty, Salsa Celtica, the Karen Matheson Band, Chastity Brown, Le Vent du Nord and Raghu Dixit.

Lauren said: “We first heard of the CalMac Culture Music competition through social media and we thought it could do no harm to create a video together and apply.

“After seeing the calibre of the other applicants, being selected to play on stage at King Tut’s was more than we could have asked for and the final was a brilliant night to be a part of. To then be lucky enough to win the slot at HebCelt is just incredible.

“It’s so reassuring to know our music appeals to a wider audience and we cannot wait to spend our first summer as a band performing at such a wonderful festival.

“We’ve never played at a festival before and it’s beyond exciting. We’ve worked really hard to have our music heard over the last few months and an opportunity like this makes all of that completely worthwhile.

“This will be the first time for both of us and we cannot wait. We’ve heard such brilliant things and, after having a chat with last year’s recipient of the HebCelt slot Sophie Rogers, the festival can’t come quickly enough.”

And what does the next chapter in the fairy tale hold in store: “We’re continuing to gig as much as we can”, said Lauren. “Performing your own music to new audiences with your best friend never really feels like hard work, but we can’t wait to keep putting all of our effort into this.”

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