‘Love Larne’ song to air at concert

Rock, pop, country, folk and Scottish music will be on the bill as local folk group The Grousebeaters are joined on the bandstand between 1-3pm by friends from as far as counties Londonderry and Tyrone. Grousebeater Bobby Acheson explained the new anthem was penned by Cookstown man Billy McCombe in response to the “I Love Larne” documentary controversy.

“To begin with,” he said, “the Grousebeater boys decided over the weekend that we wanted to see something positive coming out of all this and came up with the idea of a free concert.

“We rang round some of our friends and they all said yes to coming to Larne to be part of it.”

Billy was one of the first to answer the call and undertook to write the song for the occasion. “I’m doing it because I regularly attend the soirees at the Halfway House Hotel and they are all a lovely people,” he said.

Bobby added: “These are talented musicians who play regularly at our soirees every month and they are giving up their time free of charge and travelling at their own expense to be with us.

“We need to do something that will put Larne in the headlines for the right reasons.

“I hope that local people will turn up at the bandstand and support those who are helping the town. We hope everybody likes the song too.”