THIS weekend’s Guitars On The Beach in Lyme Regis is to be dedicated to the late Gordon 'Nomad' Smith, the much-loved local musician who helped establish the popular guitar festival.

GOTB founder Geoff Baker has announced Saturday's event, which is to be staged alongside Mark Hix’s Food Rocks festival, will be held in memory of the guitarist, songwriter and film-maker who inspired and helped so many young Lyme musicians.

Nomad, as he was known to everyone in the town, died on New Year’s Eve 2013 after a brave battle with cancer.

Mr Baker said: "Nomad was a lifelong professional musician who did much to energise Lyme’s music scene, he never got to play at the guitars event that he helped to create."

In his honour, the event’s anthem and record-bid song ‘Rave On’ will be dedicated to Nomad and his old band mates Bob Brooker, Phil Birkhead and John Hallett will be performing at the two-day event with their bands Cosmic Café Lite and Blues Before Sunrise.

Mr Baker added: “Without Nomad, there would be no Guitars On The Beach.

“When the idea came up for a festival for amateur guitarists, Nomad was the first person I went to for advice of how to make it work. He immediately said that we should play a simple, three-chord song, and he said it should be Buddy Holly’s ‘Rave On’, which has been our anthem ever since.

“He was a lion of a man who did so much to help young musicians."

In his memory the gig will raise money for for Cancer Research UK - helped by the main raffle prize is a Fender acoustic signed by Sir Paul McCartney, a Stratocaster signed by Ian Gillan.and an original drawing by Tracey Emin. Collectors are so keen to have Sir Paul's guitar one has already bought 1,000 of the £1 raffle tickets.

The ‘Rave On’ record attempt on Saturday will be held at 5pm.

Guitars On The Beach currently holds the UK record for the largest number of guitarists in one band – some 3,000, which was set in 2014 when Ian Gillan, the lead singer of Deep Purple, led the band with ‘Smoke On The Water’.

Mr Baker said he had “no idea” whether this year’s event would set a new record.

“To be honest, I don’t know if one hundred guitarists will turn up, or one thousand or five thousand. But it doesn’t actually matter because the whole point of the event is not to get into the record books – the point is for everyone to pick up a guitar and join the band.

“People are coming from all over the UK to take part, some of them are dressing up in fancy dress on local themes, like as The French Lieutenant’s Woman or as fossil hunter Mary Anning, the first rock star.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or an accomplished guitarist. Just learn the G, C and D chords and you’ll be able to play along.”

Bridport and Lyme Regis News:

Local bands will start performing on the stage on the beach at noon and the event will include tributes to rock heroes who have died this year. The Eagles’ Glenn Frey will be remembered when The Seagulls house band performs ‘Take It Easy’ and there will also be another play-along tribute to the late David Bowie with a massed-guitar performance of his hit ‘Rebel Rebel’.

The giant band will also be performing the beach classic ‘Under The Boardwalk’ – on which they will be led by its composer Kenny Young who is flying in from America.

The programme of bands for Saturday, September 3, is: Warm up Starts at 11am 12:00pm Hot Java 12:30pm Guy Bacon 12:50pm Cosmic Café Lite 1:25pm Dead Ground 2:00pm G Men 2:35pm Adam Sweet 3:05pm The Sidekicks 3:40pm Little Streets 4:00pm The Seagulls 4:20pm Shannon Turner 4:30pm Darci Street 4:35pm Sand Band with Kenny Young. 5:00pm Record bid followed by the Winter Dance Party (Guests including: Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper & Ritchie Valens) 6:00pm DeltaTango7. It will end at 7pm.

On Sunday, the music will start at 12 Noon and bands will include Hot Sausage, Jed Robertson, Cosmic Café Lite, The IOUs, Blues Before Sunrise, Delta Tango 7, Brian & Irv. It will end at 5pm