The LaFontaines win the Big Apple Award 2013

Following in the footsteps of last year's winners Stanley Odd, Motherwell's The LaFontaines won this year's Big Apple Award, sponsored by Nordoff-Robbins. The 5-piece saw off stiff competition from Cairn String Quartet, Fatherson, Garden of Elks and The Holy Ghosts to win the prize, which will take them to New York City in 2014 to play an exclusive gig during Scotland Week, a celebration of Scottish culture in the Big Apple. 

The judging panel, which included broadcaster Jim Gellatly and other industry experts such as Creative Scotland's Caroline Parkinson, chose The LaFontaines on the basis of their performance this week at Glasgow's G2.

Parkinson commented: "Congratulation to The LaFontaines. The standard of entries and the finalists displays the wealth of musical talent on offer in Scotland. It was a challenging task for the panel to decide a winner amongst such talented artists. We are delighted to be partnering with Nordoff-Robbins Scotland on this important showcase for Scotland's emerging bands and we look forward to audiences in New York seeing The LaFontaines perform during Scotland Week."

The band's vocalist Kerr Okan commented: "We definitely intend to represent Scotland proudly."