Ask any young, aspiring musician their dream and you are sure to get several answers. Most will involve getting signed by a high profile record label, getting to No. 1 in the charts or having millions of fans worship your every move. All a far distant and largely untouchable dream for the greater percentage of those working the music circuit today.

If you are only marginally less ambitious your dream might be to play live at one of the nation’s top rock music venues, possibly the Hammersmith Odeon in London, the Manchester Arena or perhaps even the legendary Glasgow Barrowlands. Possibly a more achievable ambition, if no less difficult to attain in the first instance.

Now one young Shetland band is set to fulfil at least one of their ambitions in this respect, having been invited to play the Barrowlands in May as part of Youth Music Scotland’s first conference / concert.

Black Light (formerly the Juvenile Delinquents) are a four piece band who all hail from the Sandwick / Cunningsburgh area. The group comprises Sandy Middleton (vocals and guitar) Ryan Smith (guitar and vocals) Matthew Munro (bass) and Erik Peterson (drums and vocals). They have been together as a band for around two years, and have recently been making quite a name for themselves on the Shetland music circuit.

The invitation to play the Youth Music Scotland conference in the Glasgow Barrowlands follows their involvement in Shetland Arts Trust’s ‘Solid Rock’ youth music programme and a weekend training event with ‘Rockschool’ the acclaimed rock music training organisation from London, who visited Shetland in March this year as part of the same initiative.The Arts Trust ‘Solid Rock’ initiative was funded by Youth Music Scotland, one of the first projects in Scotland to attract financial support from the new organisation.

Nicola Killeen of Youth Music Scotland, who visited Shetland for the ‘Rockschool’ weekend, and was so taken by the band she immediately invited them, together with Frank Stove (13) from Sandwick group ‘The Rockies’ to take part in their inaugural concert in Glasgow.

Nicola said “I was incredibly impressed with the whole ‘Rockshcool’ event in Shetland and especially the many young bands who took part in that weekend. As such I really wanted a Shetland presence at the conference and Black Light or the ‘Juvenile Delinquents’ as they were then, stood out from a very good crowd. It was impossible to have two bands from Shetland, but Frank from ‘The Rockies’ was so confident, talented and at times outrageous for such a young musician that I simply had to invite him as well. We hope to have him performing with Black Light for a couple of numbers during the concert. All in all it should be a very important and exciting event.

Davie Gardner, Shetland Arts Trust Music Development Officer, who has been invited to speak at the conference and take part in their music panel presentations, said “I’m delighted that an incredibly important and influential organisation such as Youth Music Scotland has offered us this terrific opportunity. For them to positively recognise the quality and benefits of our whole ‘Solid Rock’ programme with funding support was good enough, but for us to take part at this level in their first annual conference is certainly the icing on the cake. It will be the chance of a lifetime for the lads and will have an incredibly positive impact on their personal development as well as getting them noticed as a group in a national context. They will be playing in front of some very important individuals from the national music scene. Everybody who is anybody in Scottish music will be there. I’m delighted for them as they have achieved this entirely on their own merits.

The Arts Trust intends to continue with its ‘Solid Rock’ programme later this year, creating more opportunities for young musicians in Shetland, again hopefully with the support of Youth Music Scotland. The programme is likely to include creative music making and music technology workshops throughout a number of regions in Shetland, training in the use of ‘samples’ within music, a series of alcohol free concerts for young audiences, recording and performing weekends in Unst and a chance to record top quality demo’s in a professional mobile studio.

For further information contact David Gardner on (01595) 697550.