Chart-topping Scottish bands will head the bill at one of the most eagerly-anticipated summer festivals in the Highlands.

Texas, led by lead singer Sharleen Spiteri, will take centre stage at the eighth annual Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival which takes on Friday and Saturday.

The singer, who will also star in a film entitled Between Weathers which will be shot in Shetland this summer, will be joined by UK chart toppers Deacon Blue, who are playing their first Scottish festival.

A spokesman for Texas, who enjoyed success with their multiplatinum White on Blonde album in 1996, said: “We’ve heard so much about Belladrum and we are really looking forward to performing there.”

The event will be a first for the four members of Deacon Blue, who despite being from Glasgow, have not played a Scottish festival before.

Deacon Blue singer Ricky Ross said: “We’re very excited to be playing our first festival in Scotland. If we have played one before it’s so lost in the mists of time that we’ve forgotten. We’re particularly pleased to be playing in the Highlands in the summer.”

The line-up also includes Brit-nominated singer-songwriter Newton Faulkner and fellow English soloist Benjamin Francis Lefwich. Other acts include Indie bands Admiral Fallow and Little Comets. They will be joined by Dry The River, The Webb Sisters, Saint Saviour, Drunken Balordi and Easy Star All Stars, Cousti and Diddums.

International acts include Australian blues singer Christopher William Stoneking.

English folk and punk act Frank Turner will also take to the stage with home-grown talent Celtic rock-fusion band Skerryvore, who are from Tiree, and Highland band James Mackenzie & The Aquascene.

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