BBC Radio Ulster’s Across The Line celebrates 30 years with a special concert featuring bands the show has supported

BBC Radio Ulster's home for new alternative Irish music - Across The Line - is celebrating its 30th birthday with a special party hosted by regular presenters Rigsy and Stuart Bailie.

The party - a special concert in the Ulster Hall, Belfast on Monday, September 5, 2016 will feature critically-acclaimed Soak (who will perform with her band), Dublin favourites Villagers (who will perform an acoustic set) and veterans of rock Therapy? all of whom the programme has supported since their early days.

Also performing are up and coming ATL favourites Belfast five-piece R51, and duo Saint Sister, both fresh from performances on the BBC Introducing stages at Glastonbury and Reading & Leeds.

More acts have yet to be announced for the concert, which will be broadcast live on BBC Radio Ulster from 8pm-10pm and streamed live on bbc.co.uk/radioulster

Audiences can apply for tickets to this special concert from bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/shows

Tickets will be allocated through a random draw and applications can be made until Monday 1 August at 4pm. Tickets will be limited to two per person.

Rigsy says: “I was practically reared on ATL, with Mike Edgar introducing me to so much amazing Irish music throughout the ’90s. So, it’s a real privilege to be presenting the show these days alongside Stu Bailie, and to be involved in this 30th anniversary celebration gig. As is always the case with ATL - we’ve a mix of huge success stories and exciting, box-fresh bands we’ve only recently discovered. It should make for another truly special and memorable night, which it needs to be in order to mark such a momentous milestone!”

Stuart Bailie says: “ATL and The Bottom Line have been a great source of my musical education. I remember the days of Davy Sims and Mike Edgar with fondness and it's been an honour to have become part of that fearless story. So many excellent artists have been nurtured, supported and promoted to the wider world and the Ulster Hall gig will see some of that love being returned by the acts. I'm sure that will be reflected in the audience response also, while I'm looking forward to an ATL team reunion - a top collection of professionals, music devotees and mavericks.”

Over the past year in the run-up to the anniversary, the programme’s frontman Rigsy and Stuart Bailie have been revisiting ATL’s enviable back catalogue of live performances and interviews and looking back at some historical musical moments in Northern Ireland.

Notes to Editors

Across The Line started life as The Bottom Line on September 8, 1986. The programme was originally broadcast on BBC Radio Five and BBC Radio Ulster and despite a brief break and a name change, 30 years later the ethos remains the same - to champion the best emerging and established alternative music from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, giving many bands their first radio play and first media interview. Among the acts to be long-terms friends of the programme are Therapy?, Ash, And So I Watch You From Afar, Snow Patrol, Duke Special, U2 and Villagers. The programme also supports local music producers, events and festivals.

Presenters of the programme over the years have included Mike Edgar, Donna Legge, Paul Hamill, Paul McClean, Barry McIlhenny, Rory McConnell, Davy Sims, Mickey Bradley and John Kelly while Radiohead has been among the programme’s many guest presenters, plus contributors including Ralph McLean, Colin Murray, Joe Lindsay, Phil Taggart, Uaneen Fitzsimons and Mark Carruthers among many, many more.

The programme also made the leap to television, with series of ATL TV and ATL Rockschool, the latter of which featured a young band who would go on to become Two Door Cinema Club, and was an early adopter of online content and coverage of local musicians and festivals.

ATL can be heard every Monday night on BBC Radio Ulster at 8pm.

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Related BBC Links

• BBC Radio Ulster: Across the Line