A S A music buff, Ollie Winn has attended the past four Evolution Emerging festival as an interested spectator.

The 21-year-old of Chollerford will return to the event, widely referred to as the best festival for emerging musical talent in the North, this weekend - but this time he has landed a starring role.

For he will play as part of one of the region’s hottest prospects A Festival, A Parade after the upcoming four-piece band were invited along as one of the headline acts when more than 40 local acts perform at the various venues in Ouseburn, Newcastle, tomorrow.

With the music spilling over onto 10 stages, AFAP, as they’ve become affectionately known in Newcastle music circles, will finish proceedings at the Tyne Bar, the third highest stage at the event.

Ollie said: “I have been attending Evolution Emerging for the last four years, having had friends from the Hexham area, such as Wylam’s Vinyl Jacket, who played, and I was sort of infatuated with local bands, such as Let’s Buy Happiness, who played too.

“Because of this infatuation we had with local music, we put ourselves forward for the festival and were chosen by the panel to play; and from what we have heard, everybody was on board about us headlining the Tyne Bar stage.

“When it was announced, it was pretty hard to believe. It’s not like we’re headlining Glastonbury, but it’s something I have loved since I was a teenager and it’s where I’ve found out about so many of the emerging acts I like.

“The Tyne Bar is my local as it’s where we go to have a drink, so it’s really nice that we’re going to be playing there too. If the weather is nice on Saturday, it could be one of those moments you never forget.”

There are very few music fans in the North-East who could argue against AFAP’s place in the line-up, as they have been making a big name for themselves since the beginning of this year.

Asked to support Slow Decades at a free gig at The Cluny on January 8, they made many fans with their blistering set. And things have escalated quickly from there.

A number of gigs have followed, and the band recently released the three-track EP A Piece of Meat, An Irregular Heartbeat . They returned to The Cluny for the launch, and were overwhelmed to see it sold out.

Ollie said: “We never had any expectations of the band being as big as it has become in the region, but it has really taken off.

“It has generated from a live buzz, which is pleasing to us as most people are discovered through downloading or streaming.

“We’ve just played gigs within certain areas and from that we are drawing a buzz, and to be known as a good live band is something you always strive for.

“It’s nice to think of it as a sort of retro idea, as that is how bands used to get their names heard before social media and digital music came in.”

But their live shows are not just about the music, as a whole spectacle is promised.

He said: “We have all sorts going on at our gigs, with video footage, artwork and all different merchandise, such as t-shirts and beer koozies!

“We are all incredibly interested in culture and media, and we are all in touch with what is going on in the world, so we like to relay that back at our shows.”

The band came together through a side project Ollie is working on with his close mate Charlie Dancer, of Wylam.

The duo created events company Beyond the Wall (BTW) last March with the aim of putting on gigs for local up-and-coming artists, as well as emerging acts from across the country.

The success of the venture, which is still ongoing, provided the duo with a lot of contacts in the region and led to the formation of the band.

Singer/songwriter Joe Allan, regarded as one of the best in the business locally, was looking for a backing band and had recruited guitarist Reece Spencer and drummer Liam Tellum from band Shades, who had played at the first BTW event.

They were looking for a bass guitarist and Ollie was the first to apply, and he impressed suitably to get the nod.

Having rehearsed and played a few times together, the project soon became less about the Joe Allan Band and more about a collective combination of four musically- creative minds.

And it is this freedom, afforded to all members, that makes the band function so well.

Ollie said: “Joe is the mastermind of the band and he’s appeared on The One Show and has won different songwriting awards.

“We came together as a full band for Joe, but it soon became less of a solo project.

“We all play our part and that’s how we came to fruition.

“I’ve played with other artists or as part of a backing band on a few other projects where you just come in and play what you’re asked to.

“But with this one, it’s like a collective process; everything is dictated by us, and it just seems to work.”

A Festival, A Parade, or AFAP, is a name that is on a lot of North-East music fans’ lips at the moment, and their reputation is set to grow even further in the coming year.

It’s a name that sticks in the mind, the moniker taken from a lyric from All The Wine , a song by the band’s favourite group The National.

Ollie said: “The way the song goes is, “I’m this, I’m that, I’m a big deal”, but the idea of taking that out and neutralising that attitude appealed to us.

“Plus you expect happy things in a festival and a parade, but that’s a bit of a juxtaposition with our lyrics.

“We were 50/50 about the name, but we’re really pretentious, so we put punctuation in our name! Plus it abbreviates well into AFAP!”