Kirsty’s Fringe benefit

The Berwick performer has taken the lead in ‘Sweet Charity’ and was one of the stars of two sell-out instalments of ‘Here Come The Girls’ at The Maltings. And now, on August 23, she will head to the cultural mecca with SHE, the local band she fronts.

Along with her bandmates Zander Brown (lead guitar), Andy Barnett (drummer) and Guy Storey (bass), Kirsty will journey up to the Scottish capital on Saturday to play at The Tron Kirk on the Royal Mile.

The group are no strangers to Edinburgh, being regulars at the city’s famous Whistle Binkies venue, and it is their connections with the famous South Bridge gig spot that led to them being booked to be play Freestival for the annual Fringe which is now underway.

Speaking to WOW, Kirsty admitted that it hadn’t quite fully sunk in yet that she was playing the world famous event, but she realised it was “kind of a big deal”.

“It’s definitely not hit me yet; I’m not entirely sure when it will,” she joked.

“It was the guy from Whistle Binkies that suggested we go for it and we only literally found out last week.

“They offered us the opportunity to do a few shows at the Kirk but unfortunately as we hadn’t heard anything back for a while we’d already started booking other gigs so we could only commit to doing one.

“The venue sounds really interesting. I’ve got to be honest I wasn’t exactly sure where it was but as soon as I mentioned it to my mum and dad they knew it straight away.”

Kirsty is one of the founder members of She, having started the group 10 years ago with Zander after another band they were in, Mule, folded.

“We played around with doing some acoustic stuff for a while to try and do something a bit different,” she explained. “But I think we may have been a bit before our time as nobody was that interested.

“Now a lot of people are making a living from that style of music but we decided that we needed to get a band together and that’s how it all started.

“There’s been a few lineup changes over the years but me and Zander are still going strong!”

Kirsty is now firmly back into the She swing of things after taking time off a few years ago to have her daughter and is looking forward to a busy end to the summer which will also see She play The Golden Lion in Galashiels on Saturday, August 16 and Whistle Binkies on Saturday, August 30.

Anyone going to any of the gigs can expect to dance their socks off as She’s current set list is packed full of party anthems from the likes of Guns & Roses, Jessie J and Kelly Clarkson as well as a few you wouldn’t expect.

“I actually really like singing men’s songs,” Kirsty admitted.

“People aren’t used to hearing them done by a girl so you can play around with them a bit; one of my favourites is ‘All The Small Things’ by Blink 182 - that seems to get people of all ages going and ‘Sweet Child O’Mine’ by Guns & Roses never fails to get people singing along.

“The way things are now with all of the band having other commitments we play purely for enjoyment. We typically do one or two gigs a month and that’s absolutely fine with me.

“With the Fringe gig being free it could go either way; it might get loads of people in or people might thing it’s rubbish. Hopefully the first!”