A Dumbarton based music production studio has made one man’s life-long dream of being a DJ and playing gigs come true.

Christopher Knowles, who has Down’s syndrome and a learning disability, has always wanted to play music in front of a big crowd of people.

And now, thanks to the DJs at SKapade Studios on Castlegreen Street, the 39-year-old from Oban has managed to achieve that dream.

After receiving DJ training and help prepping his set from SKapade, Christopher played the opening set at Enable’s Annual Ball at Kelvingrove Art Gallery in front of a crowd of over 400 people.

The night was a resounding success not only for the charity, who raised £107,000 for people with learning disabilities and their families in Scotland, but also for Christopher who played his dance set from the organist’s position in the main hall.

Steven Galloni, who is the operations manager at SKapade, said: “Obviously for us this is a really heart-warming story. We wanted to do it for the change and the outcome. Chris is a really, really genuinely nice guy and he was very professional on the night as well.

“For us it means a lot that we could have played any sort of part in that to help build his confidence and help him fulfil a lifelong dream.”

SKapade was founded by Stephen Kirkwood in 2015 and is a state of the art, independent studio, which offers music production training in various styles of electronic music, including one to one tuition, track engineering, mastering, mixing, podcasting and personal development with teachers, which vary from world-touring DJ’s and producers to motivational speakers and business coaches.

SKapade has worked tirelessly with organisations such as the Prince’s Trust and Young Enterprise to deliver courses for young people and in 2017 they won the West Dunbartonshire Council community impact award and the social start-up award at the prestigious Herald Society Awards.

Prepping for the Kelvingrove gig, was not, however, the first time the studio has worked with Christopher in particular.

Last year, SKapade’s Stephen Kirkwood and Jack Dyer travelled to the budding DJ’s home in Oban with a view to help him prepare for his first gig, which took place in a bar in his hometown.

The heart-warming story was filmed by the BBC for a documentary about Christopher and his dream, which appeared on television and iPlayer.

SKapade are currently in the process of editing a short follow-on documentary about his appearance at the fundraiser at Kelvingrove.

Steven added: “He’s in his thirties and he’s never ever played a gig, so the fact he did one in his hometown and followed it up at Kelvingrove, it just makes all the hard work we do seven days a week worthwhile to see that.

“He had his tuxedo on after and he was smiling from ear to ear. Just to see that alone makes the hard work all worth it.”