Twenty's Plenty as Gaels Blue get set for annual Fife concert

The band, who first formed in the 1960s, will play their ‘Twenty’s Plenty’ show at the Bay Hotel in Kinghorn on August 11 – nearly 20 years after reforming for a “one-off” gig, which turned into an annual fundraising event.

But singer Tom Morgan, also a director at Raith Rovers, says that the band are now thinking of calling it a day for the second time.

He said: “The name ‘Twenty’s Plenty’ gives hint to our feeling that, how much longer can we keep going?

“We’re all getting on a bit!”.

On June 5, 1966 five teenagers from the Lang Toun, Tom, Jon Gillon, John Stevenson, Bob Brawley and John Clarke played their first ever gig at Kirkcaldy YMCA, (“we used to hang about there and that’s when we all first met in 1965”) and soon became a hugely popular covers act on the local scene.

Tom said: “Tamla Motown was a big thing then and that’s what a lot of the other bands you would see playing at the time were incorporating into their sets, so that’s what we started playing too and stuck with it.

“We’re still playing Motown to this day.”

An appearance at a Radio Scotland beat group competition in November 1966 was a turning point and led to bookings to support many of the 60s biggest bands including The Searchers, The Tremeloes and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, Peter and Gordon and Cat Stevens when they came to town, plus a whole load of gigs across Scotland.

By the end of the decade though, the band decided to call it a day an all went their separate ways, but it wasn’t quite the end of the Gaels Blue story.

In 1998 John Stevenson tracked the rest of the band down – including their original roadie Graeme Henderson – and a meeting in the Lang Toun led to a reunion gig at Pathhead Hall in 1999.

Such was the success of the show that the band have met up once a year since and played a sold out gig for a host of different local charities, raising over an incredible £20,000 in the process.

This year’s beneficiaries will be Diabetes Scotland and Kirkcaldy YMCA, where it all began for the band over 50 years ago.

Tickets will be on sale from Friday, July 6 at Henderson Timber on 01592 267794 and Stark’s Park office on 01592 263514.