JOOLS HOLLAND TO HEADLINE NEW SCONE PALACE CONCERT IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE STEWART MILNE GROUP

Jools Holland has been announced as the first night headline act at 'Live at Scone Palace', a major new event in the Scottish music scene. Jools and his acclaimed Rhythm and Blues Orchestra will be joined by Scottish singing icon Lulu on their only Scottish summer tour date.

'Live at Scone Palace' in association with the Stewart Milne Group will take place over three nights this summer, from 27th to 29th July, in the spectacular grounds of Scone Palace near Perth, one of Scotland's premier historic visitor attractions.

Event One Management, organisers of 'Live at Scone Palace', are introducing the Perthshire event this year to complement the already successful 'Live on the Lawn' concert series at Crathes Castle on Royal Deeside. Live on the Lawn has attracted tens of thousands of music lovers from around the globe and has featured artists including Van Morrison, James Brown, Paul Weller, Katie Melua, Jamie Cullum and Michael Ball since it was launched eight years ago.

It is anticipated that more than 15,000 people will attend 'Live at Scone Palace' over the course of three nights, making it one of the biggest events in the Scottish music calendar. Support acts for the first night, along with the headline acts for the second and third nights, are due to be announced shortly.

Gerry Muldoon of Event One Management said, 'We are absolutely delighted to be staging the first major concert to be held at Scone Palace, one of the most prestigious venues in Scotland. Scone offers us a tremendous, centrally - located venue with all the infrastructure we need for a concert of this size. We are hoping that this will be the first in an annual series of concerts to take place at the Palace.'

'We are particularly pleased to have secured such a fabulous headline act for our first night. Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra have proved extremely popular at our Crathes event in the past, and we expect them to be a big hit at Scone'.

Glenn Allison, MD of the Stewart Milne Group said, 'We believe in supporting initiatives that add value to their community and the combination of top quality artists in a superb setting will create one of Scotland's landmark musical events.'

'Live at Scone Palace' is also supported by Perth & Kinross Council.

Ken Macdonald, Head of Economic Development at Perth & Kinross Council said, 'This is an exciting new event for Perth & Kinross which the Council welcomes. Events such as Live at Scone Palace, in the outstanding surroundings of one of Scotland's premier historic Palaces, are very important to the economy and profile of Perth & Kinross and are a key driver for tourism'.

Elspeth Bruce, Administrator at Scone Palace added, 'We are delighted to be hosting one of the biggest events of the year here at Scone. 'Live at Scone Palace' is an important and prestigious addition to our events portfolio and we look forward to welcoming many thousands of visitors here in July for three nights of high quality entertainment'.

Jools Holland was a founding member of the top-selling band Squeeze, and went on to present cult music shows including 'The Tube' and 'Later... with Jools Holland'. Thereafter he formed The Jools Holland Big Band, comprising entirely of himself and Gilson Lavis, the drummer from Squeeze. This duo gradually metamorphosed into the current 18-piece Rhythm and Blues Orchestra. Together with the Rhythm and Blues Orchestra Jools has toured the world playing to audiences of 500,000.

The band's latest album, Moving Out to the Country, features classic country songs performed by artists such as Tom Jones, Lulu, KT Tunstall and Mark Knopfler, all styled in Jools' ubiquitous rhythm and blues manner.

Tickets for the first night of 'Live at Scone Palace' are on sale now from Perth Concert Hall Box Office tickets@horsecross.co.uk, Scone Palace visits@scone-palace.co.uk, or online at www.liveonthelawn.co.uk. Corporate hospitality packages also available email eventone@btinternet.com for more details.