It has been quite a year for anniversaries in Fife musical groups and Dalgety Players -based in Dalgety Bay - are now gearing up with two major shows to celebrate their 50th year in amateur musicals.

We Will Rock You hit the stage in the autumn, while the Take That musical The Band takes to the stage this month. A Fife premiere no less and in the same year that the originators, Take That have a sold-out Glasgow Hampden Stadium show with the record-breaking Circus tour.

Director Kat Bandera told me the biggest challenge was casting a young boy band - and they needed five.

Next was finding five teen girls to play the fans. The roles were soon filled by high school students Betsy Simmons, Freya Jamieson, Sadie Lax, Mollie McNab and Mya Harley.

placeholder image — The Band in rehearsal (Pic: submitted)

The musical tells the story of five women who were best friends as teenagers and all big fans of The Band. 25 years later after losing contact the four of them reunite to fulfil their dream of seeing the band perform.

That leaves four adult ladies who play the girls 25 years on - the Players have a wealth of talent who have starred in their Wizard Of Oz or High School Musical and highly acclaimed pantomimes every January, so I expect the audition process was a stressful time.

Playing the adult ladies are Angela Sussex, Ellen Callender, Heather Henderson from vocal group Dynamo Divas, and Kelly Laing making her company debut.

Kat is president at Dalgety Players, and has been with the company for 34 years. She credits her creative team Sophie Lister, choreographer and Izzy Brown, musical irdector. Mentoring the cast are Kim Shepherd and Shona White, both highly experienced professionals and well-known stage heroes.

The Band plays at Lochgelly Theatre April 16-18 with tickets from OnFife.com