H AVING landed their own headline gig at one of the North-East’s premier music venues, things are looking up for Prudhoe rock band Bitter Sweet Hearts.

On the back of the release of second single, Trouble , the five-piece have been asked to put together a show at the O2 Academy in Newcastle tonight.

The band’s stature across the region has rapidly grown in the past six months, and the show is proof of how highly they are regarded.

They will top a good bill of local music which includes Clippah, The Heavy Jets and Lord Swans.

Vocalist and song writer Chris Armstrong said the band, which also contains singer Samantha Lavery, guitarist Jack Bell, bassist James Grant and drummer Cameron Bruce, are chuffed to have been invited to the music hall.

He said: “It’s the first headline gig we’ll have done at the O2, and the first time we’ll have played there since we were special guests at the Soundwave competition.

“We are all just totally buzzing to play, and what will be nice is that it won’t just be three songs like last time and we can do a full set, get into the swing of it and put on a proper gig for people.

“I’d say our profile is definitely rising and a gig promoter got in touch and asked us to put on the show.

“He said he really enjoyed our first single Journey Ends and he wanted to put us on live.

“It’s nice when you put in all the hard work and start to get recognised a little more, and we can’t wait to put on a show.”

The gig at O2 will be Bitter Sweet Hearts’ biggest to date, although they have been headliners at Ouseburn‘s The Cluny 2 in recent months.

They were also asked to support London punk rockers Lost Dials when they added Newcastle’s Think Tank? to their mini UK tour.

During the summer, they were part of the bill at Consett Festival which was attended by hundreds of music lovers.

Yet the band are more excited for the upcoming appearance, especially as they were asked to hand pick their own support acts.

Chris said: “We’ve tried to pick the best upcoming bands in the North-East, and something that would suit our sound.

“The Heavy Jets won this year’s Soundwave competition and their profile has shot up, and they have had their own pretty big gigs so it’s nice they’ve still agreed to support us.

“We have played with Clippah a few times and Lord Swans are a new one, so a great night of music is planned while also promoting what we do to new listeners.”

Since releasing Journey Ends at the beginning of the year, the band has attracted many new followers who instantly took to the new sound on the net.

And the feedback has given them the confidence to grow, with Trouble released this month, while a couple of live video tracks have also gone online.

The work produced lately is all part of the journey the friends are embarking on, steadily building up their brand by getting their music out there.

Chris said: “Progress is a long road and we know that things don’t come immediately, but we have worked very hard on our sound.

“What we are aiming to do is build it up and keep learning as we go, and we have learned a lot in just the past six months.

”We’ve really come on leaps and bounds, and we are really going for it.

“This gig at the O2 is reward for all the hard work we have put in, and we feel we deserve it because we’ve been non stop gigging for four months, sometimes twice a week.“

He added: “ Journey Ends has been really well received, particularly with it being our first single.

“A lot of people still like it and it gets good feedback when we perform it live.

“You get real energy from it when you perform it live, and the positive feedback has given us the confidence to get more stuff out there.”

Tickets for Bitter Sweet Hearts’ gig at the O2 Academy are available at www.o2academynewcastle.co.uk or via the band’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/bittersweetheartsband