Rival Sons arrange European tour around Highcliffe wedding

American band Rival Sons will be in attendance at Talita Jenman and Thomas Billings’ wedding at Highcliffe Castle in June, with lead singer Jay Buchanan singing the bride-to-be down the aisle.

Talita is the band’s publicist and has been working with the band since they were performing in small venues.

The band has toured with rock legends Black Sabbath, Lenny Kravitz and Aerosmith, among others.

“When Tom proposed and I let them know, they were like, we'll be there,” Talita said.

“I immediately texted their agent and I was like, just so you know, they said they'll be there.

“He was like, okay, well, I'm going to book the tour around this. I've got to get them to Dorset at the right time.”

The band will perform at festivals in Scandinavia, before flying over for the wedding, before doing gigs in Oxford and Northampton.

“They've been there at all the low and high points in the past 14/15 years of my life, and now it's my wedding,” Talita said.

“It's funny because I thought to myself, wouldn't it be amazing if Jay would sing me down the aisle?

“And actually he offered, he was like, Talita, I'll sing whatever you want.

“You just name it, I'll sing it.

“I'm used to publicising them, for other people, for other events, it's a bit weird to sort out for myself.”

Scott Holiday, a.k.a. Mr Fuzzlord from Rival Sons, said: “As soon as our dear sister Talita and her fiancé Tom had the date locked in to tie the knot for the top of June, we made sure to ask our management and agent to book the tour dates to work around the wedding.

“We couldn’t miss it, we’ve worked with Talita for 14 years now from our first gigs in bars to the Black Sabbath world tour and this summer Wembley with ZZ Top, we wouldn’t miss it, she’s family.

“It’s a wonderful bonus that it’s set in Dorset by the sea, at her dad’s home, we’ve been wanting to get there for many years now.

“I live by the ocean at home (in the States) in Huntington Beach, and it’ll be a really nice way to start this tour, in a lovely seaside town across the pond.”

After the ceremony at the castle, the wedding party will then be escorted to Talita’s dad’s house at Avon Beach by a French marching band.