A TALENTED Inverclyde musician has teamed up with the Beacon Arts Centre to give some of Scotland's best singer-songwriters a live platform to showcase their talents.

Shelagh Mackay Jones has been running the SongWriters Uncovered series locally since 2016.

Shelagh and the SUS performers were due to be involved in a programme of Sunday afternoon music at the Beacon during 2020 but those plans were shelved due to coronavirus restrictions.

The award-winning performer was determined to keep the music playing, and working alongside the team at the Beacon, Shelagh successfully organised the group's first live gig of 2021.

It was recorded live from the Beacon's main auditorium on Friday.

The group of six singer-songwriters - Gram Allan, Nico Ev, Michael Cooke, Pauline Vallance, Joe McMahon and Clair Tierney - played live sets and the music was captured by Tall Tale Films.

The full concert will be shown on the Beacon website tonight at 7.30pm and again at the same time tomorrow.

Shelagh says she's thrilled that the performers are getting the chance to play live again.

She told the Tele: "We are so delighted to be starting over with a fantastic line-up for the first of our 2021 concerts.

"This was the first time that SUS had taken to the main stage at the Beacon and we're all really excited to hear what people think of the concert."

Shelagh set up SUS after she realised how many undiscovered artists there were in Inverclyde.

She wanted to provide a platform for people to perform their own material.

Shelagh and SUS performed four seasonal concerts at the Beacon in 2017 and enjoyed gigs at Broomhill Community Hub and Branchton Community Centre in subsequent years.

Since setting up the group, Shelagh has always been passionate about presenting a balanced gender line-up on each bill.

The series is signed up to a project which campaigns for equality in music.

SongWriters Uncovered recently became a community interest company and Shelagh is keen to move forward in 2021 with more gigs now that lockdown is being eased.

She added: "We would love to hear from any local businesses who'd be interested in supporting us.

"We really hope that the rest of this year's concerts will be live with an audience, but we will see how pandemic restrictions progress."

*To watch the performance log on to www.beaconartscentre.co.uk/ to purchase a ticket.