Submitted by Sylvia Sinclair
20th June 2012
Highland Rock Band, ESTRELLA are set to play an acoustic gig on the WORLD'S shortest street on Friday 22 June.
The Guinness Book of World Records declared Wick's Ebenezer Place (in the far North of Scotland) as the world's shortest street in 2006 and the band will play a 15 minute set outside its only address, No 1 Bistro, Mackay's Hotel but at 6ft 9 inches in length there is no room for another building in this street!
Murray Lamont of Mackay's Hotel said "We are delighted that Estrella has chosen to play a gig outside one of the county's most historical landmarks. Mackay's Hotel was built in 1883 by Alexander Sinclair upon his return to Wick having made his fortune in America. The Council of that day instructed him to put a name on the short end of the building as they deemed it a street and Ebenezer Place has appeared in our town's records since 1887. One of Mr Sinclair's descendants still lives in the town to this day. Robert Louis Stevenson also spent some time in Wick while his father built the new breakwater in the bay and he included a reference to Ebenezer�Place in his book "Treasure Island". If you read Treasure Island note the reference to the 5 hand way which is represented by Union Street, River Street, Bridge Street, Station Road and The Cliff."
Included in Estrella's set on the day will be some tracks taken from their debut album, quite appropriately named, "Come Out To Play" which was produced by John T Sinclair, himself a rock musician in the 70/80s having been a band member of Uriah Heep and The Cult but also played keyboards for Ozzy Osbourne. British Sound Engineer, Ashley Howe who previously worked with Queen and Led Zeppelin completed the final engineering.
The album is available to download on iTunes now and physical CDs can be purchased on Estrella's own website (www.estrellarocks.com). A taster video showcasing clips from the album can also be found in both the Video and Blog sections of the band's website.
This is an exciting time for these full time musicians, Thurso brothers Paul (vocals), Luke (lead guitar) and Nathan (bass) Gunn along with Elgin's Leo McPherson (drums). Now based in Aberdeen, the band has just announced the dates of their first ever UK tour which kicked off in London's Crobar on 24 May. They are also going to be hosting 2 "hometown" album launches, one in Thurso's Newmarket Bar on 23 June and the other in their adopted home in Aberdeen at Captain Tom's music venue on 14 July.
The band was also given the honour of playing at Aberdeen's recent Diamond Jubilee Concert held in the city's Duthie Park. They were in good company on the day as Paul Mealor, composer of the Military Wives Christmas No 1 Single "Wherever You Are", and Mike Gibb premiered their Aberdeen Anthem, gifted to the city to mark the Queen's jubilee celebrations.
Luke Gunn, lead guitarist, recalls how the band first thought of doing this unique gig in Wick:
"Paul writes most of our songs but he is always the one that comes up with ideas for 'different' places to gig, he got the Guinness Book of World Records the year Ebenezer Place won its accreditation and said at the time what a cool place to do a gig, we kept it on the back burner but coming from Caithness we just felt the time was now right!
We're hoping that the people of Caithness will come out to hear our set and perhaps we can raise some funds for three very worthy charities at the same time. As guys we've long supported Urological CANcer charity, UCAN, but as musicians, to mark our first UK tour, we are also going to support the musical therapy charity Nordoff Robbins. To thank the Mackay's Hotel for allowing us to run this event we will be collecting for children's charity CLIC Sargent which they have supported in the past.
In doing this gig we are also hoping to set our own world record as the BIGGEST band to play a gig on the world's SHORTEST street, I don't think many more people would fit within the confines of Ebenezer Place but there lies the challenge! We're just waiting word to see whether our Guinness World Record application has been successful. We are also hoping to video the gig so anyone who can't make it along will see our Shortest�Street Gig on YouTube soon!"
Estrella sound is 70/80s infused rock with a modern twist. They've built a solid reputation in Scotland from their live gigs and tour of Scottish schools along with festival appearances in Aberdeen, Redditch and Malta. Over the last year they've released two double A side singles with the tracks 'Party/One Love' and 'Shout/Mona Lisa Smile' which have been getting regular radio airplay not only in the UK but in Europe and the USA.
Now as a result of their irrepressible live performances, radio airplay and an ever increasing social media presence these guys have been steadily building a strong loyal fan base.
Reviews for Estrella's debut album include Classic Rock, Reviews Editor, Jason Ritchie�who said�"'One Love' is a perfect arena rock anthem with a big, catchy chorus and a nifty keyboard riff.� The sound is not overly slick either, like Def Leppard meets Shy.� Roll on the debut album release ...." The band also featured in Jim�Gellatly's�New Music Column in the Scottish Sun�Newspaper on 25 November 2011, where he said "The anthemic pop rock stomper "Party" may sound like it's from any of the past 4 decades, but it was one of the freshest tracks I played that week",�"Estrella have the seeds in place for worldwide success!"
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With big hair, big riffs and killer tunes -�ESTRELLA�- does what it says on the tin -�PLAYS ROCK�- something for everyone!�
Estrella's gig on the World's Shortest Street will take place on Friday 22 June at 4.00pm
The band will be recording the gig on the day - look out for it on YouTube soon!