Riverside Rock ready to offer a Sweet line-up

Returning for its fifth consecutive year, the Borders’ biggest single-day music festival looks set to be as popular as ever when it erupts onto the town’s rugby ground this Saturday (June 23).

Riverside Rock is an event that has successfully put the region on the musical map – and with a line-up that includes this year’s headliners, The Sweet, it looks set to be another huge success.

Glam rock band The Sweet rose to worldwide fame during the 1970s, achieving 13 top-20 hits during that decade alone.

‘Block Buster’ topped the charts in 1973, followed by three consecutive number two hits in ‘Hell Raiser’, ‘Ballroom Blitz’ and ‘Teenage Rampage’.

But it will be original guitarist Andy Scott’s revived version of the band, which is known simply as Sweet, that will appear at Riverside, fresh from the German leg of their 50th anniversary open-air tour.

The festival’s big top-style music arena will also welcome English band The Hoosiers, best known for their hit singles, ‘Worried About Ray’ and ‘Goodbye Mr A’, back in 2007, as well as local band Duke Street and returning favourites Scocha, from Hawick.

Completing the line-up this year are Mumford and Son’s tribute band, Chasing Mumford, Aberdonian function band Starsky and Pork Pie, a ska, soul and funk band which will travel from Fife to complete the line up at Jedburgh.

Offering 12 hours of life music, that line-up boasts the usual mix of rock and traditional bands, and closes with a live DJ set until midnight. The entertainment doesn’t stop there. There’s also a fairground for the young and young at heart, giving the event a real family feel – and its free for under-18s between noon and 6pm.

With organisers buoyed by healthy ticket sales and a real buzz on social media, tickets are selling fast.

For more information, visit: www.riversiderock.co.uk