17 March 2023
BTO’s awesome nine-piece funk band, The Paroling Stones, put on a stellar performance at The LexFactor, held at the O2 Academy, Edinburgh on the evening of Thursday 16 March.
For anyone who does not already know, LexFactor was a charity event and featured six bands all comprising lawyers who play music in their spare time.
The standard of performance was nothing short of astonishing with three bands, including BTO’s The Paroling Stones, clearly in a different league.
The Paroling Stones’ set was Little Talks (Of Monsters and Men), Valerie (Amy Winehouse/Mark Ronson), Call Me Al (Paul Simon), Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel) and Uptown Funk (Mark Ronson/Bruno Mars).
Sledgehammer was a very late addition to the set, but the band swaggered their way through this powerful song with ease. The highlight of the set was probably the closing rendition of Uptown Funk, which had the audience absolutely jumping.
The judges, headed by the Lord President Lord Carloway, selected The Argyll Cycle for the winning band, whose style would best be described as toe tapping country and bluegrass Americana, with a bit of line dancing thrown in.
Other notable performances included The Submissions, who gave a very convincing rendition of Adele’s Rolling in the Deep - a brave opening number!
The band Bail’Er Swift, headed by former Law Society CEO Lorna Jack, got the crowd going with a robust version of Proud Mary.
Burness Paull LLP Band BP/DC started with Call Me (Debby Harry) and finished with a medley rendition of The Proclaimers 500 Miles.
For sheer energy and stage presence it was hard to beat “Blink 182 plus VAT”, who covered Dani California (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Livin’ on a Prayer (Bon Jovi) and looked as if they had been playing pub gigs all their life!
The Paroling Stones were very well supported by a big turnout from BTO's Edinburgh and Glasgow offices and the band are extremely grateful for all the support shown by our colleagues.
There is now talk of keeping the band together and hiring a keyboard player so that we can definitely win next year!
The Paroling Stones are:
- Sian Keddie (vocals)
- Roisin Kerr (vocals)
- Debbie Reekie (saxophone)
- Mark Colquhoun (drums)
- Paul Motion (bass)
- Alan McDonald, CMS (guitar)
- James Robb, Brodies (guitar)
- Richard Pugh KC (trumpet)
- Victoria Arnott, Advocate (trumpet)
A big thanks to everyone involved! It was a privilege to share the stage with so many other fantastic bands and to help raise money for Edinburgh Children's Hospital Charity, Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity, The Archie Foundation and The Great North Children’s Hospital Foundation, as well as The Trussell Trust.
Paul Motion, Partner: prm@bto.co.uk / 0131 222 2932