Buckie husband-and-wife duo plan epic online concert to boost Logan's Fund children's cancer charity
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A BUCKIE-BASED musical duo will perform an ambitious online gig this month to boost a Moray children's cancer charity.
Husband and wife Andy and Abbie Thomas, who make up one half of the band Apples Acoustics, built up quite a lockdown following by hosting live Facebook performances when their gigging, teaching and recording work was brought to a sudden halt.
The two performed covers and original songs during their 16 two-hour live-streaming sessions – Friday Night Live with Apples Acoustics.
Now, to boost the coffers of Lossiemouth-based Logan's Fund, Andy and Abbie are compiling a set of no less than 50 of their viewers' top lockdown song requests, which they'll perform during a Charity Mammoth Session on Saturday, November 21.
The duo will be joined virtually by several special guests during the six to seven-hour gig.
Abbie said: "The sessions became a fortnightly highlight for us, keeping us practised when our otherwise income stream of live gigging was out of the question.
"They quickly became heavily led by requests from viewers and for each live stream we did our best to learn as many new songs as possible.
"Without a doubt, Friday Night Live with Apples Acoustics kept us going through lockdown and the support we received from our viewers was unmeasurable.
"We would now like to give something back to the local community."
Abbie added that the couple had witnessed first-hand the amazing work of Logan's Fund, which provides experiences, respite trips and gifts for families with children affected by cancer.
She said: "We are very excited to try to help them in our own little way."
Logan's Fund chairman Cameron Mackintosh said the pandemic restrictions presented a "real battle" in its efforts to help families. He was grateful for the band's support when the arts sector itself has been hit so hard.
He added that Lossie Entertainment Academy had also always been supportive of Logan's Fund and it was great to get more of that "lasting belief in us" from other local performers.
He said: "2020 and the pandemic has been so damaging for people in all walks of life and charities have certainly been badly impacted on.
"The ongoing situation has made it a real battle to continue to support families and try and maintain our ongoing initiatives the best we can. At the same time we are seeing the opportunity for our supporters to fundraise for us extremely difficult and it is almost impossible for us to host any of our normal annual events.
"So we were delighted when Apples Acoustic got in touch and said they would love to try and help raise some vital funds and also exposure for us with their mammoth online gig on the 21st.
"It's so selfless of them to decide to do this for the benefit of a cause that they really believe in and that touches them.
"They could so easily have done the online 'tip jar' and raised some money for themselves and no one would have thought anything negative about that."
Cameron added: "We know one local boy who will be glued to the show as, under our sponsorship programme, we support youngster Archie Salter, from Elgin, who gets drum lessons from Andy from the band."
Visit www.facebook.com/applesacoustics to tune into the gig.
