Linda Caulfield will take to the stage next weekend which will be the biggest gig of her career both in terms of size and emotion.

While Linda, aka Little Miss Dynamite, has been a warm-up act for big concerts in the past, she will be the star attraction when she performs at the Villa Marina on July 20.

Linda, who lives in Ramsey, has now become the longest performing entertainer in Manx history, having reached a staggering 50-year anniversary which she is marking with the big Villa gig.

She is keeping her fingers crossed for a capacity crowd which would mean performing in front of more than 1,000 people. But, more importantly for Linda, it would mean generating a lot of cash for Hospice Isle of Man.

‘I am really excited about it but the main thing for me is raising as much money for Hospice,’ she said.

‘Many people in the island know someone who has benefitted from the charity.

‘I just hope all the tickets are sold which would mean there would be 1,000 people there which would be brilliant. As far as I know, ticket sales are going well but I’m too nervous to find out exactly how many have been sold.’

Linda, 72, will be supported by Dirty Bertie and The Sherberts and her son’s band Bahuki who will perform four songs with Linda. ‘My son is very excited about it,’ she said.

Fans of Little Miss Dynamite can expect the favourites to be played but Linda has been working on some new songs as well.

‘The show is called ‘I’m Still Standing’ so you can be sure that song will be performed,’ Linda said, ‘but I would be strung up if I didn’t play the likes of “Johnny Be Good”, “Paris to Berlin” and “Proud Mary”.

Linda said she was ‘blown away’ when she learned she was the longest serving Manx entertainer in history.

‘It all started in the 70s,’ she explained. ‘I would go out with my family and my dad would try and get me up on stage but, believe it or not, I was shy back then.

‘I then ended up entering a competition at Douglas Head which I won. I then got a manager and Tom Valley, who owned the Falcon Cliff Hotel, approached me and I started performing there each week and then daily during the summer.’

Linda had a hiatus from singing when she got married and only returned to the scene after she got divorced. But now she is ‘busier than ever’ despite having arthritis in both hips.

Linda is no stranger to big gigs having opened for the likes of The Searchers, Freddie and the Dreamers and performing backing vocals for Rik Wakeman at Peel Castle.

As well as raising money for charity, Linda does have one more hope for her 50th anniversary gig.

‘I want to show other women that if I can do something like this at my age then so can they,’ she said. ‘Don’t let age get the better of you.’