THE Royal Concert Hall played host to this year’s Danny Kyle Open Stage winners, as the 2016 Celtic Connections festival reached its climax.

The Dannys, of which the Evening Times is media partner, are named after the folk legend who was renowned for championing emerging talent.

Each night of the festival sees five or six acts perform at the Concert Hall, with a team of judges selecting the six best acts to return on the festival’s final evening.

All the winners will now be invited back to perform at next year’s festival.

This year the winners were made up of Glasgow singer Charly Houston, Prestwick band Quick, Glasgow pipes and fiddle duo Ross Miller and Charlie Stewart, Bradford songstress Bella Gaffney, Ayr duo Bella & the Bear and Northern Company, a six-piece folk outfit from Stocksfield near Newcastle.

Charly, who stays on the South Side and cites the likes of John Martyn, and Rachel Sermanni as influences, only got to perform at the Open Stage earlier in the festival because bad weather forced others to drop out, and she proceeded to wow the judges.

She said: “I’d only got a call on Friday afternoon saying there were people who couldn’t attend due to the weather that night and could I play. I’ve just started a job in Stirling, so I managed to get away a little early, got to the Concert Hall for six o’clock and went on without a sound check. My friend brought me a guitar and met me there! It was all very last minute.

“I’m over the moon – I was out for a drink when I got a voicemail on my phone saying I’d won and it wasn’t something I expected at all.

“This is my ninth year of making music, so I just went into it with no expectations and it was a nice surprise.”

Alex Hynes of Quick was also surprised by the three-piece’s success, as it was their very first gig.

The group – Willem McKie on vocals, Ella Barr on mandolin and Alex on guitar – formed while studying at the University of the West of Scotland last year and play bluegrass and folk music.

Alex said : “We’re all beyond excited. We’ve only been a band since October, so it was literally our first gig at the open stage, and luckily we got a fantastic response.

“Something just clicked when we started writing songs and we’ve been going since. We were just really happy to be involved in the Dannys, but never thought we’d actually win.

“We didn’t even realise that you get to come back next year too, so there were plenty of surprises. The Dannys are just a great thing.”

Lauren Gilmour, who sings alongside guitarist Stuart Ramage in acoustic pop duo Bella & the Bear, was thrilled with the recognition.

She said: “We played the previous night, it was fantastic and then we got a wee phone call saying to come back the next day as part of the final six.

“We were just amazed at how cool and respectful the audience had been, and we’d sold a bunch of CDs afterwards, so it had been a good night anyway!

“We’ve been to see a few acts over this year’s festival, and to think we might get paired with a big act next year is really exciting.

“Last year we’d won the Calmac Culture award which let us play at the HebCelt festival (in Stornoway) and it’s really cool that our music seems to span across into that as well.”

Bradford songstress Bella Gaffney entered on a friend’s suggestion.

She added: “I was astonished (to win) given the calibre of musicians who have played on this stage and feel really honoured.”

This year’s Celtic Connections festival saw over 300 events take place across Glasgow.