Sharleen’s niece in TRNSMT debut
SINGER Lauren Spiteri will follow in the footsteps of her famous aunt Sharleen this week with a set at the TRNSMT festival.
Scots rockers Texas played to a 120,000strong crowd at the event on Glasgow Green last year, when frontwoman Sharleen Spiteri, 51, said the band would ‘always come back to Glasgow’.
Now her niece, 30-year-old Glaswegian Lauren, is to make her debut at this year’s festival with a full band on Friday.
After 12 years in London she moved back home ‘to give this whole music thing a shot’, and was soon recruited for TRNSMT. Miss Spiteri said: ‘It was so out of the blue. Geoff Ellis, the festival organiser, got in touch. He contacted a friend of mine and asked for my details – and here we are.
‘I thought, “If I’m going to do live music, get me on the festival circuit”. Until now I’ve not been playing with a full band. This has given me the push to get the band together and make it happen.’
Miss Spiteri, whose stepfather is Texas guitarist Tony McGovern, has played two acoustic gigs in Glasgow since coming back home, including one attended by her grandparents – Sharleen’s mother and father. Although her Aunt Sharleen posts about her on social media and shares her music, Miss Spiteri said she is given the space to work on her own material.
She added: ‘It was a good experience growing up and seeing how things work in the industry.
‘But I’m very adamant that when it comes to my music, I’m doing it off my own bat, and I go into the studio with people I choose to write with. It’s very separate.’