Director
Daniel is an experienced business development consultant, digital marketing manager and director of The View, Oban’s live music venue and bar.
Winners of Oban Live Unsigned
DMS & Argyll Cèilidh Trail win slot at Oban Live
Edinburgh rock band DMS and Argyll Cèilidh Trail have won a slot at Argyll’s biggest outdoor live music concert Oban Live and the Official After Parties at The View.
The Scottish Sea Farms Unsigned Oban Live 2019 competition launched in February offering one slot on the line-up for a local Oban act and one slot for an act from the rest of Scotland. Panelists including BBC Radio Scotland’s Vic Galloway selected a shortlist and it was then down to the public to vote for their favourite to win from each category. Over 31,000 votes were received during the campaign.
Winning the local category with 49% of the votes were Argyll Cèilidh Trail, an eight-piece band composed of Argyll’s finest young traditional musicians. Organised by Oban based charity Fèis Latharna, the annual Cèilidh Trail programme involves a three-week summer tour of Argyll & the Isles. They released a debut EP in 2018, described by fRoots as “hugely promising and richly textured, exhilarating up tempo instrumentals with some gorgeous singing” and are currently recording their second EP. The band captures audience attention with their driving, rhythmic tune sets which are delicately contrasted by traditional Gaelic songs and slow haunting melodies. They competed against local musicians 4Below, S-Mac and Crackin’ Craic who were all selected for the local category shortlist.
DMS won the Scotland wide category with 43% of the votes. The Edinburgh rock band has been building a solid fanbase in their home city for the past couple of years as well as performing across the UK. They played to a full house at the city’s popular Liquid Room venue at the launch of their second single "Tight Jeans" in November and have just released another single “DIRT” which has received airplay on Amazing Radio with Jim Gellatly. The band this year are looking to expand beyond their home town with Oban Live 2019 now a firm addition to their gig calendar. DMS competed in the Scotland category shortlist against Banshee, The Youth & Young, November Lights and Lisa Kowalski.
The winning bands each receive a slot on the event’s 2019 line-up as well as a slot at the Official Oban Live After Party at The View, Oban plus £300 towards expenses.
Daniel Gillespie, Managing Director for Oban Live said: “A massive congratulations to DMS and Argyll Ceilidh Trail. We can’t wait to see them perform at Oban Live this year, two fantastic additions to our 2019 line-up from very different and exciting genres of music. A big thanks to everyone who entered and voted and also to our new campaign sponsors Scottish Sea Farms.”
He added: “We were really impressed with the standard of musicianship that we were presented with in this campaign, it is a real testament to the range of talented musicians we have both here on our doorstep in Oban and across Scotland. ”
Oban Live takes place on June 7 & 8 at Oban’s Mossfield Stadium. Tickets are available www.obanlive.com.