A Montrose singer is set to perform for crowds of thousands supporting The View – after starting out playing to just a handful of people.
Ben Walker, 19, has been named as the Dundee band’s support act for their Scottish tour in December.
As well as shows in Edinburgh and Kilmarnock, the Dryburgh group will headline gigs at the Caird Hall and Aberdeen’s P&J Live.
The first Dundee date sold out in just 13 minutes last week, prompting a second show to be announced.
Ben told The Courier: “I honestly cannot wait.
“The first concert I attended was Texas at the Caird Hall in 2015 with my mum and dad.
“It’s going to be a special moment and I can’t wait to be there with my friends and family.”
Ben first met The View singer Kyle Falconer at a festival organised by his management team in Greenock.
He said: “I played at the start of the day with around five people watching me.
“Kyle was headlining and I was asked if I wanted to meet him.
“I’m more friendly with his guitarist Drew, but we started to speak with each other after the show and it just went from there.
“He invited me to his show at St Luke’s in Glasgow and then we started writing songs together.
“Since then we’ve performed at events like the Hard Rock Cafe’s 25th anniversary in Edinburgh.
“We’ve been writing songs together for a while, and have some things coming up which are very exciting.”
Montrose singer discovered during lockdown livestream
Ben – a student in popular music at the University of the Highlands and Islands – started performing during his time as a pupil at Mearns Academy in Laurencekirk.
During lockdown, a classmate asked if he would perform during an online livestream.
He said: “I don’t know how but Gareth Gonet from B12 Entertainment was watching and reached out to me afterwards.
“Now, he’s my manager and a year-and-a-half later I’ve performed sell-out shows and sung with artists like Rianne Downey and Nathan Evans.
“It is all going extremely fast but everyone has been so supportive. There’s a lot of cool things on the way.”
Since his livestream performance, Ben has amassed more than 16,000 followers on TikTok and 6,000 on Instagram.
He recently spent time at a song writing camp at La Sierra Casa, a hub in Alicante hosted by Falconer and promoter Michael Ward.
During his time in Spain, Ben spent time collaborating with Britain’s Got Talent semi-finalist Cammy Barnes.
