A LARGS musician has spoken of his frustration at missing out on the chance to perform at one of the Scottish music scene's most iconic venues.

Matthew Hickman was due to play at the iconic King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut on October 2 with his band Brownbear - but coronavirus has seen the gig postponed until next June.

The frontman says that while the decision was disappointing, it was the sensible one.

He said: “We were really looking forward to the gig at such a special venue, and I know our fans were excited as well.

“At the end of the day safety comes first, and right now they don’t feel it is safe for concert venues to open.

“There have been talks about socially distanced gigs but for a lot of places at a local level that is unworkable because of the costs for artists and promoters alike. It wouldn’t be worth it.”

Matt says that there is little known about how industry is going to bounce back from the pandemic - but believes it is a good chance to make big changes.

He said: “It is quite worrying but there isn’t a governing body so there is nobody to steer the ship.

“The easiest thing in the world would be to blame Covid-19 but if we are honest there was a lot of issues with the industry before that.

“We need to find a way to bring back the worth of music, to bring back the buying of albums and singles for smaller artists.

“The music industry doesn’t get given the value that it should, even though we all turn to musicians to provide entertainment.”

The Largs-born performer hopes the pandemic will bring people back to supporting local talent.

He explained: “We are too reliant on live gigs and festivals to keep afloat because money doesn’t exist within the recording industry now.

“We need to hold to account the local radio stations and TV channels and say you need to play a certain quota of Scottish or Ayrshire artists.

“The pandemic has given us an amazing opportunity to rebuild music from the ground up and create a whole crop of future headliners.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to do something different and we need to take it."

The much-loved band have taken the break from performing to work on their second album, with Matt also branching out into other projects.

He said: “We were really lucky with the timing because we had started working on our second album and have been able to finish writing it in lockdown.

“We are in the pre-production phase and have started recording the songs. None of them feature the pandemic because I don’t think people will want to relive it.

“I’ve taken the time to work on a few collaborations with other artists and I’ve also started a new podcast to help entertain people.

“It’s called Sunday Social on Instagram and I have music guests on, including Kyle Faulkner from The View, talking about music and world events.”

You can find Matt’s Sunday Social interviews on Instagram at @brownbear_official