And Dumfries rock band The Lutras tasted success as they went on to tour the length and breadth of the country.
But this week they announced their intentions to bring proceedings to an end with a decision they have ‘seen coming for a while’.
In a social media post, the band said: “It’s not been easy to come to this decision but it’s something we’ve seen coming for a while.
“We started this band in 2013 when we were 14/15 years old, and if you told us back then how far we’d take it, we’d call you mad.”
The band’s most well known track ‘Run & Hide’ was released in 2018.
As well as being played on the radio, it was belted out over the speakers at football stadiums. And it led to the group being signed with Rebel Rebel Artists.
Off the back of this they went on to play their first home town headline gig at The Venue, it sold out with 350 people attending.
In 2019, second single Vari was ‘This Feeling’s Track Of The Week on Radio X’.
The lads supported Vida at a sold out Liquid Rooms in Edinburgh and then sold out Sneaky Pete’s for their own headline gig in the Scottish capital.
They also won Firestone’s ‘Road To The Mainstage’ competition.
The post continued: “We embarked on our first UK tour and just played relentlessly throughout the year in cities and festivals all over.
“We had offers coming in left, right and centre, with the year ending with talks to play the Isle Of Wight festival, it was all looking up.
“Of course, 2020 saw the covid pandemic and the world stopped. No gigs, no festivals, no money coming in and no recording.
“The impact that it had on the music industry and artists within the industry has been irreparable.
“The sad reality is that we have gone from playing all over the UK on a weekly basis to getting literally no offers at all and we can’t even get a response when we reach out to promoters.”
Signing off, the band said: “To anyone who believed in us, thank you so much. You gave a group of boys from Dumfries the chance to dream, and for a year or two there we actually got a taste of that dream. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.
“This isn’t us finished with music, we will all be looking for our next ventures so keep an eye out for those, and we look forward to seeing new local bands coming up because there’s plenty of talent in Dumfries.”
The band still have some booked gigs which they will be honouring and they hope to celebrate with one big party before signing off.
