Wet Wet Wet headline Aberdeen’s Hogmanay celebrations
10/11/06
Scottish pop legends Wet Wet Wet are to headline Aberdeen’s Hogmanay celebrations this year.

Organisers today (Friday) unveiled the full programme for the 31 December date at the Castlegate, which will draw thousands to the city to celebrate the New Year.

Joining the Wets will be the acclaimed Finlay MacDonald Band, offering a unique blend of traditional and contemporary fiddle and pipe music, and Grampian Police Band. Glasgow's Cosmic Rough Riders complete the all-Scottish line up.

The free Hogmanay celebrations are planned and funded by Aberdeen City Council and staged by Northsound Radio and organisers are confident that this year’s line-up will appeal to a wide range of music-lovers.

Today, Wet Wet Wet frontman Marti Pellow said: "We're delighted to be spending Hogmanay in Scotland and performing in Aberdeen will be very special for us.

"It'll be the perfect start to the New Year for us, as 2007 sees us celebrate twenty years since our first hit record."

In the interests of ensuring public safety at the event, the only access will be via the entry gates on Union Street at its junction with Market Street. Numbers will be managed by the issue of wristbands which permit entry to the event and are to be returned on exit. Entry will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Barriers will be erected around the event arena, and numbers admitted will be monitored to ensure crowd safety at all times

The evening’s entertainment begins at 9pm with gates open from 8pm.

On the Castlegate stage, there will be also be a 30 square metre screen displaying all the on-stage action to ensure the crowds have the maximum opportunity to enjoy the event. Hosting the event will be Northsound 1’s Andy James and Northsound 2’s John McRuvie.

Councillor Ron Clark, Chairman of the Council’s Festival and Events Forum, said: “We are delighted to unveil the programme for Aberdeen’s Hogmanay 06-07 and welcome one of Scotland’s greatest bands to the city.

“Attracting musicians of the calibre of Wet Wet Wet shows we’re well and truly on the map now as a Hogmanay venue, and our thanks to Northsound for being able to secure such an impressive programme for the city.

“We really feel we will be once again be offering one of the best Hogmanay parties in Scotland.”

Mr Clark added: “City Council staff have been working closely with Northsound Radio, and with representatives from a wide range of organisations across the city, such as the police, fire and ambulance services, to ensure the event takes place safely and successfully. We thank them all for their support is vital to putting together an event of this scale.”

Northsound’s Managing Director Ken Massie said: ”We are pleased to be working alongside the City Council once again on what promises to be a great night and we are delighted we have been able to bring Wet Wet Wet to Aberdeen to play their first-ever Hogmanay gig.

“The Finlay MacDonald band have been playing to wide acclaim across the UK and Europe with their unique fusion of jazz and funk and they’re a fantastic addition to our Hogmanay line-up. “

Castlegate pubs Archibald Simpson’s, Blackfriars, Five, Snafu and Henry’s will be part of the event, and will be selling alcohol, in plastic bottles and glasses, to those attending the celebrations.

Organisers are asking revellers not to bring their own alcohol to the event as it will be available for sale, but if they do to please ensure it is in plastic containers. There will again be glass exchange points where those carrying glass bottles will be asked to decant the contents into plastic glasses.

A number of road closures will be in place on 31 December, which will mean some bus routes are diverted. Full details of roads closures and bus services on the night will be released shortly.

The Hogmanay celebrations are the culmination of the Festive Aberdeen programme put together by Aberdeen City Council and a number of partner organisations.

Funding was provided by the City Growth Fund, which is administered by Aberdeen City Council and represents a £22.25 million investment over five years by the Scottish Executive in the future of Aberdeen. The Fund was created to implement the recommendations of the Building Better Cities review conducted by the Scottish Executive, which identified the economic, social and cultural importance of Scotland’s main cities to national life.

WET WET WET

Wet Wet Wet are one of Scotland’s most successful bands and were formed in Clydebank in 1982, taking their name from the Scritti Politi song Gettin, havin' and holdin.

Members of the band are leader singer Marti Pellow, Tom Cunningham on drums, Graeme Clark on bass, and Neil Mitchell on keyboards.

They had their first hit in 1987 with their debut single Wishing I Was Lucky, which reached number 6 in the UK singles chart. That year they also released their first album, Popped In Souled Out, which produced three more hit singles — Sweet Little Mystery, Temptation, and Angel Eyes — and supported Lionel Ritchie on his UK tour.

The following year, the Wets scored their first number 1 hit, with a cover version of the With a Little Help From My Friends, recorded for the charity ChildLine, and they released The Memphis Sessions, an album tracking their spell in the United States before they hit the big time.

Their second album, Holding Back The River, came in 1989 and was also a success, producing the hit single Sweet Surrender, at the end of the year, Pellow appeared on the Band Aid II charity single.

In 1992, the band released a third album called High On The Happy Side, which produced the Number 1 hit single Goodnight Girl, and then in 1994 came their biggest hit — a cover version of the Troggs’ single Love is All Around, which was a huge international success.

The single spent 15 weeks at number 1 in the UK, and it was only Pellow's insistence on its deletion that prevented the song from possibly equalling and breaking the record for the longest-standing number 1 single, held by Bryan Adams.

Love is All Around was used on the soundtrack to the film Four Weddings and a Funeral and in the official UK best-selling singles list issued in 2002 it was placed 11th. The song featured on the 1995 album Picture This, which also spawned the hit single Julia Says.

During the rest of the1990s, the band maintained a strong UK following with their final studio album —Ten, issued in 1997 — marking the group's decade at the top.

The band broke up a year later, reforming in 2004 for a successful tour in the UK and releasing a greatest-hits album. In 2005 Wet Wet Wet played at the Summer Weekender festival in England, and were one of the headline acts at Live 8 Edinburgh.

COSMIC ROUGH RIDERS

Having released 4 UK Top 40 singles and gained critical acclaim across the country, Cosmic Rough Riders are of on the most well-loved Scottish rock bands to emerge in the last decade. The band, who formed in 1998, are Mark Brown on drums, James Clifford on bass and lead singer Stephen Fleming.

Like so many of their influences, the band make a sound that captures young and old, modern and vintage – it seems they have managed to find that level of universal appeal that is so essential to any enduring musical group. An expression so versatile, their music follows in the footsteps of monumental bands like the Beach Boys, Coldplay, The Verve, U2 and The Waterboys, with thoughtful harmonies, catchy guitar symphonies and timeless lyrics reflected in the songs time and time again. Their music immediately caught the imagination of the popular music press and key players in the independent music scene, causing one journalist to proclaim them “the best band on earth right now”.

Other honours picked up along the way include a ‘Top 50 Albums Of The Year’ nod from Q magazine, having an entire album playlisted at BBC Radio 2 and being awarded the Best Newcomer award at Scotland’s main music charity event, the Tartan Clef Awards.

Most recently, the band have released their fourth studio album The Stars Look Different From Down Here through Korova/Warner Bros. and have achieved what critics have called the greatest artistic success of their career. The first single ‘In Time’, released May of this year, was playlisted at BBC Radio 2 and was surrounded by a thriving media plot. The second single ‘When You Come Around’ was released in July, also to great critical acclaim.

Cosmic Rough Riders have performed at several major festivals both in the UK and further a field (Reading, Leeds, Glasgow Green, T In The Park, Guilfest, and both Summersonic & Fuji Rock in Japan). They have appeared as guests of several other touring artists, including Black Crowes, Ocean Colour Scene, Stereophonics, Paul Weller, Robert Plant, Lenny Kravitz, U2 and were most recently invited by personal invitation to accompany Tom Jones on the UK leg of his 2006 tour.

THE FINLAY MACDONALD BAND

The Finlay MacDonald Band brings together the tightest of jazz and funk grooves with blistering traditional and contemporary tunes on pipes and fiddle. The band has had its current line-up for three years and features Finlay MacDonald (pipes), Chris Stout (fiddle), Kevin MacKenzie (guitar), Quee MacArthur (bass) and Fergus MacKenzie (drums).

The Finlay MacDonald Band has been forging a reputation as one of the hottest live acts to come out of Scotland and are in demand all over Europe for festivals, one-off gigs and full tours.

Finlay started piping at the age of ten with tuition from his father, Pipe Major Iain MacDonald of the Neilston and District Pipe Band. With Neilston Pipe Band, Finlay has travelled the world, playing at concerts and festivals as far a field as Japan, China, Russia and all over Europe.

After three years at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Finlay was in the first class to graduate with a BA in Scottish Music.

He specialised in performance and composing and has been in demand as a performer, performing with top Scottish bands such as Def Shepherd, Battlefield Band, Old Blind Dogs and the Kate Rusby Band.

Based in Glasgow, Finlay has been popular as a session musician recording on as many as 20 albums in many different musical genres including jazz, classical and traditional.

His first solo album was released in 2000 to critical acclaim and after that he formed the Finlay MacDonald Band.