Soul II Soul to play Sunderland's Sunniside Live festival

The band, best known for hits Keep on Movin and Back To Life, will cap off an evening of live music on the first night of the annual event on Friday, July 6 2018.

More acts are due to be announced for the two-day festival, which runs from July 6-7, in the coming days.

Last year’s festival drew capacity crowds of 4,000 on both days to Sunniside Gardens to see acts including the Happy Mondays and Heather Small from M People.

Organisers Helen Davies and Sean Maddison say gig-goers can look forward to another stellar line-up of acts in 2018.

Helen said: “We are delighted to have secured Soul II Soul as our first headliners for next year, we’re sure they’ll put on a great show. We are making the festival bigger again next year to keep a live music scene in Sunderland.

“All we ask is for people to buy their tickets sooner rather than later, as the more tickets sold does make a big difference to the final line-up.”

Next year will be the fourth Sunniside Live, Sunderland’s only city centre music festival, which was set up in a bid to breathe new life into an oft-forgotten corner of the city.

In the past three years it has attracted names such as The Farm, Incognito and The Brand New Heavies, while also providing a platform for emerging North East bands, such as Lord Swans and Social Room, to perform.

The event will run from 4pm to 11pm on Friday, July 6 and from noon to 11pm on Saturday, July 7.

Standard ticket prices will be £27.50 for the Friday, £34.50 for the Saturday or £49.50 for the weekend with a limited number of early bird tickets available. There will be no VIP tickets on sale this year.

Tickets will be available to buy from http://www.sunnisidelive.co.uk/