AN AYRSHIRE country legend will perform at a special show next month to help boost Irvine’s community radio station.

Sydney Devine, currently back on tour for the first time in 20 years, will perform an extra fundraising show next month – where he will donate his fee to Irvine Beat FM.

And the Scottish country star paid a visit to Irvine Beat last Sunday – where he described it as the only true local station now serving Ayrshire.

Speaking to host Jim Higgins last week, Sydney said it was his pleasure to help raise funds and that ‘I’m quite looking forward to it’.

While discussing his days at Radio Clyde, the star said “It’s a great pity what’s happened to the likes of Clyde and the likes of West Sound”.

He said: “It started out as local radio, a bit like this, and that’s how it should be, for local people and for local artists and local music.

“And that seems to have all disappeared into bygone days now. You tune in now and it’s the same stuff.

“Why do you think I’m doing a show for you, because it is a local radio station. People should think about it very seriously, and tune in to a local radio station, and this is the only one that is left that I can see.

“If you take your figures, your local figures per head of population for how many listen to the Ceilidh, and then your so called local radio stations, I think you would get a surprise.”

Jim Higgins thanked the singer for his kind praise, adding ‘I’ll give you that tenner afterwards’.

Earlier in the year Jim – who hosts both the station’s Ceilidh show and Golden Oldies – was chatting to his old friend Sydney, and the singer asked how the station funded itself.

He explained that the station is a registered charity, with all its presenters volunteers who give up their time for free and sustaining itself with adverts, grants, and a lot of goodwill from its listeners.

A few weeks later, Sydney approached Jim and said that he was going back on tour this year, and that he would put on an extra show and donate his fee towards the station.

Plans were put in place to find a venue for the concert, and the Palace Theatre in Kilmarnock was chosen.

For fifty years Sydney Devine has been entertaining audiences through television and on stage. He has sold more than 15 million albums worldwide and the show will feature all the old classics like Maggie, Tiny Bubbles, The Answer to Everything and lots more.

However the Ayr man had to deal with the tragic death of his 58-year-old son Gary last month, after he suffered multiple organ failure caused by sepsis.

To support your local radio station, while enjoying a night of country classics, you can join Sydney for a great night and help to raise funds to keep the station going.

The show is on Friday, May 11 at 7pm in Kilmarnock’s Palace Theatre. Tickets cost £19, with concessions, and are available at the box office or by calling 01563 554900.