A BAND formed in a garden shed will play a live gig from Porthgain's popular Sloop Inn on Friday, July 17.

New band Onco Fonco will perform an intimate gig at the pub, which will be recorded and then streamed online at 8pm.

The band is a collaboration between two well-known Pembrokeshire groups; Honey Fungus and The Daisy Chain, following sessions from a garden shed where they have written an album of original songs.

The gig will be filmed by streaming and content agency Arroyo.live, a company co-founded in lockdown by Nick Mendoza-Connell from St David's, and will stream on Facebook and YouTube simultaneously. Cardiff's Live Lounge has also thrown their support behind the gig in a bid to support the music scene in Wales.

"Lockdown has hit the music and culture industries very hard," said Nick. "Artists and those supporting them lost their livelihoods overnight. I was inspired when I came across Onco Fonco's sessions from the garden shed on YouTube.

"The Sloop Inn is one of the top venues to enjoy live music with a nice pint in west Wales during the holiday season. It was a no brainer when we came to look for a venue to host this online gig"

Rob Collingborn, owner of Cardiff's Live Lounge, a venue who programmed live music every day of the week in the Welsh capital before lockdown is also supporting the gig:

"Angharad and Jon Kellie, who make up one half of Onco Fonco, were one of the first bands to perform at Live Lounge when we opened in 2009," he said.

"It's great to see them doing something like this to keep their music alive and to bring some much-needed live music, in a pub setting, even if it is digitally.

"We're delighted to be able to stream the gig on our social media pages in the absence of the real thing. Good on them for doing it."

Onco Fonco performed their first live gig in St Davids last November and had plans to launch a new album and tour this summer, but all that changed once the pandemic hit

"Bands like ours survive on the summer season," said lead singers Angharad Kellie and Daisy Borthwick.

"Between our two bands we've lost over 70 bookings between the April to August period, including our first season performing our original songs together as part of Onco Fonco.

"We're so grateful to The Sloop Inn and to Nick and the team at Arroyo.live for this opportunity to reach our goals for the summer.

"The gig will be an hour-long, intimate show of original music - a mix of folk, rock and roots with songs performed in English and Welsh. We hope people will join us for a free hour of new music in a lovely pub setting, something we're sure many people are craving for right now. Although it's online we'll do our best to get across that live gig feeling and connect with people through the screen in some way from beautiful Pembrokeshire".

Onco Fonco – Live at The Sloop will stream online on Friday, July 17, at 8pm. Audiences should go to Onco Fonco's social media pages @OncoFoncoMusic or the band's YouTube page for the free stream of the gig.