By ALEX BURNS

CLARE Grogan is in stiches as she tells her favourite story about her niece Matilda.

The 14-year-old Matilda, who has Down’s Syndrome, had asked to borrow her aunty Clare’s phone “to look at her pictures”.

“For about six months afterwards I kept running into people who told me they had had a lovely chat with my niece. So while I was in the kitchen oblivious, she had been going through my phonebook calling everyone I knew for a natter!”

“She’s very determined, which is an amazing thing, and she’s funny, cheeky and just great fun to be around.”

It is Matilda that is the main source of Clare’s enthusiasm for her latest gig: performing at Sandfest at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall, a one-night festival on March 18 where all the proceeds go to Down’s Syndrome Scotland.

Clare hopes the event - which has grown from humble beginnings in a village hall in Sandford - will be a big success in generating support for the charity.

“I have always felt very connected to the issues surrounding Down’s Syndrome because of having Matilda in my life. I think there are a lot of charities that get a lot of attention - and they are deserving of that- but some charities also get a little bit overlooked and Down’s Syndrome Scotland has possibly been one of them. Sandfest will hopefully be an amazing opportunity to raise its profile.”

Clare will be joined by artists from The Bluebells and Hipsway at the eighties-inspired event, and assures fans looking for nostalgia that they won’t be disappointed.

“On occasions like this, it’s about giving people the hits. I always throw in an occasional song that I just like singing that’s not necessarily mine -though I haven’t decided what that will be yet- but I will also perform the classics. I will do our first hit, Dead Pop Stars: which I don’t always get the chance to do, but has become such a favourite to play and perform.”

Her successful musical career kicked off just as her acting one did: getting the part of Susan in Gregory’s Girl in the same year that her band Altered Images were signed to Epic Records.

At the time, she didn’t realise how lucky she was.

“I call it my double whammy. I think when you are young you almost accept extraordinary things; you think: ‘Yes I did quite fancy being a film star and the lead singer in a successful band’. It is only years later that I look back on it and actually realise that it was remarkable.”

The band took her all over the world, with her mum and dad having to buy NME magazine every week to find out what she was up to. “When I was off on my travels it seems it was easier to find out my movements through the music press than anything else!”

Yet no matter how far from home she went, Glasgow always remained firmly in her thoughts. Even now, living in London, she is “always coming back and forwards.”

“A lot of my family are in Glasgow and I am always up doing little bits and pieces of work. I’m in Scotland every month- I’m not away long enough to miss it.”

Clare is clearly excited to be back on stage in her home city, especially for such a worthwhile cause. After an eighteen-year break from singing to “concentrate on other things”, she “ran out of excuses not to sing” and began playing gigs again with a group of female musicians.

“I think if you have ever been in a band, and you love music and you love to sing, you can’t help yourself and you get totally drawn in again.”

This love for music properly kicked in for Clare after she went to her first ever concert with her sister Margaret, seeing the Bay City Rollers in the Glasgow Apollo.

“I was just so excited that a Scottish band had that much success. It made me feel like there was a chance, a chance that you could come from Scotland and have that kind of career.”

It wasn’t long after that before she was performing herself, playing with Altered Images across the punk bars of Glasgow.

“I think the first gig I played was the Mars Bar, a tiny venue off St Enoch Square. It was one of the centres of the post-punk scene along with the Bungalow Bar in Paisley and the Doune Castle in Shawlands: those were where all our early gigs took place.”

Now playing the Royal Concert Hall for Sandfest, Clare says the event will be “different to anything I’ve been involved in.”

Her husband (and former band member) Stephen is hoping to join her on stage, along with her 13-year-old daughter Ellie and two of her nieces, Amelia and Poppy.

Also performing at Sandfest will be Matilda, who will be singing as part of the Ups and Downs Theatre Group choir. Clare hopes that the event will not only raise money for Down’s Syndrome Scotland but also break down some preconceptions surrounding the condition.

“Our family has been brought up to have a very accepting and understanding view of things, but when it becomes personalised then I think it does change things. You look at other people and the way they respond to somebody like Matilda- and you notice it more. You end up feeling very protective of that person because you can see that not everybody responds the way you would want them to.”

“I think all of us in society need to just treat people as people- and see someone as a person and not a condition.”