Raintown to open for Wet Wet Wet

Country musicians Paul Bain and Claire McArthur won Real Radio’s competition to open for Wet Wet Wet when they play their 25th anniversary concert in Glasgow Green on July 20. The concert is expected to attract around 25,000 people.

The Wets organised a competition to give an aspiring act this massive opportunity. Drummer Tommy Cunningham explained why: “This happened to us way back at the start when we were lucky enough to be Lionel Richie’s support. We didn’t know anything about the business and we got that massive audience and we want someone in Scotland to come and do that same thing for us and come on stage and warm everyone up.”

Raintown were one of five finalists chosen by Wet Wet Wet, and the radio station put the decision to the public vote.

Paul Bain, 32, who said he and Claire were “massively excited” to open for Wet Wet Wet, was quick to credit Raintown’s growing army of fans for this success. “It was our fans who put us into this competition and supported us all the way. It shows we’ve been successful as we’ve really tried to build up a relationship with our audience.”

Claire added: “This is such an amazing opportunity and we really want to thank everyone who voted for us.”

Tommy Cunningham also praised Raintown’s musical ability: “From our point of view, we honed in on melody and song structure and not just the one hit wonder latest sound. We were looking out for more traditional lyrics that communicated from the heart and Raintown’s music really did this for us. They obviously connected with the public as well who voted them the winners.

“All the acts we put through to the final were great and we picked bands and performers who we knew were ready to take to a big stage and handle it. I’m really looking forward to seeing Raintown open for us on Glasgow Green.”

In an amazing twist of fate, Paul predicted just such an occurrence many years ago. “I actually met Tommy once before at a Wet Wet Wet in-store CD signing years ago and I said to him, one day my band will open for you. He must have thought ‘this guy’s mad,’ and I can’t quite believe all these years later it’s actually happened! This is just so huge for us and we’re really ready to take to the stage at Glasgow Green.”

Real Radio DJ Ewen Cameron added: “All the bands who made the final were fantastic and the standard of the competition overall was really high. Everyone at Real Radio is chuffed to bits for Raintown and I can’t wait to see them open for the Wets. We’ll be sure to keep up with their progress in the future.”

For concert tickets, see www.ticketline.co.uk.