In 2007 Get Ready to ROCK! produced a CD showcasing 16 upcoming artists who had featured in early album and gig reviews. The album was sold at the fledgling Cambridge Rock Festival that summer when we promoted a “Rising Stars” second stage featuring some of the artists.
In the liner note we stated: “There is nothing better than receiving a quality CD from an unsigned or unknown band. And we do get our fair share of duffers here at GRTR! Rough demos, iffy recording quality, iffy CD-Rs, sometimes without a press release. Marketing in the MySpace world is not always consistent.”
“CD samplers of new bands are often characterised by the sadly ephemeral nature of the content. Bands come and go: they break up, they burn out, they get browned off.”
In this retrospective we bring the story up to date with a “where are they now” synopsis and with marks for durability…
NATASCHA SOHL
Natascha’s debut album ‘Strange Fascination’ was released commercially in 2004. We said: “It’s upbeat, catchy, angsty, and has the mandatory jangling guitars. If you like female singer-songwriter rock you will not fail to enjoy this.”
She headlined at our ‘Rising Stars’ stage in 2007. Her follow-up album – ‘Dirty Little Word’ – was somewhat “stop-start”: after production gloss was added in the States the album was eventually fully released in 2009. Natascha has since sung with the Platinum Band, described as “Surrey’s best live function band”. 6/10
Track on disc: Hands Off My Past
Album review/interview (2007, with link to audio showcase)
ANNA PHOEBE
Anna Phoebe has worked with Jethro Tull (when on tour she provided a blog for GRTR!) and Trans-Siberian Orchestra, releasing her debut solo album ‘Gypsy’ in 2006. She remained musically inactive following her marriage to one-time BBC Newsnight anchor Gavin Essler but has recently collaborated with Aisling Brouwer as Avawaves releasing the excellent ‘Chrysalis’ in 2021. They’ve followed up with a soundtrack album ‘Savage Waters’ in 2022. 10/10
Track on disc: Goddess (exclusive live version)
Album review (Gypsy, 2006)
Album review (Avawaves, 2021)
25 YARD SCREAMER
The band’s album ‘Cassandra’ received glowing reviews from GRTR! in 2007 and they also appeared on our ‘Rising Stars’ stage. Since their 2003 debut they have released seven albums. We described the band’s most recent – ‘Nemesis’ (2022) – as “atmospheric prog and is closer to ‘Cassandra’”. 10/10
Track on disc: Boy In The Window
Album review (Nemesis, 2022)
Album review (Cassandra, 2007)
PUBLIC SYMPHONY
Mainman Dobs Vye has a CV writing TV theme tunes and incidental music. Together with James Reynolds (a noted dance producer) the band’s only album was released in 2006 and later re-mixed and reissued digitally as ‘Inspire’. In spite of a London showcase – when Pete Feenstra commented “both the quality of his voice and the duo’s material exceeded expectations” – and a support slot to Marillion the project did not endure. 5/10
| Public Symphony’s Inspire album was a labour of love, of which we are still proud, a concept album about the ups and downs of life.
Having made and finished the album ourselves, we eschewed the temptation to assign rights to a major or indie label, when contracts were still unfairly weighted towards the labels.
Trevor Horn wanted to publish us after hearing a track on TV, but offered no money, so promoting without a budget became exhausting at a time when we had nascent families.
Pouring my energies into new social media platforms became intimidating, especially when the emergence of Spotify devalued recorded music as an income ‘stream’.
We had gigged at the likes of Hammersmith Apollo (with Jason Mraz) and The Forum (with Marillion) etc, but the studio process appealed to us more.
And yet our content was very slow burn, not a frequent ‘post’, so it seemed impractical to find the time or funds to launch a second album.
Responsibilities at home took over and we had to focus on our businesses – myself in the countryside as a composer for TV entertainment (150 series and counting), and James Reynolds as a mix engineer in London (no.1 singles and albums).
dobsvye.com – recent projects include Hungry For It (BBC Three), Unbreakable (BBC1), Go Hard Or Go Home (BBC Three)
jamesfreynolds-mixing.co.uk
Without the responsibilities of family households each, we would like nothing better than to create and release another album. That would be a long gap.
Meanwhile the music is out there, and people discover Public Symphony by word of mouth.
Dobs Vye |
Track on disc: Rise & Shine (remix)
Album review (2006)
Feature (“Albums that time forgot…”)
MERMAID KISS
The Herefordshire prog rockers had a small but loyal following and released three albums 2003-2012. Vocalist Evelyn Downing left the band in 2012 which had ultimately disappeared by 2013. Mainman Jamie Field contributed to Get Ready to ROCK! Radio for a time demonstrating his eclectic tastes. He subsequently formed ‘Zero She Flies’. Following a trend, Troy Donockley contributed uilleann pipes to one track on ‘Etarlis’. 5/10
Track on disc: Whisper
Album review (Etarlis, 2007)
DELTA
Pete Whalley wrote of the band’s debut in 2007: “‘The Life And Times Of Jim Vallie And Sweet Rosalie’ may be a relatively short piece of work – running out at 34 minutes – but it’s almost perfectly formed.”
Pete went on: “If you yearn for those glorious singer songwriter years of the late sixties – Joni Mitchell, CSN&Y, Paul Simon and the likes, then look no further.”
Andrew Grainger and Naomi Coleman performed either as an acoustic duo or as a 5 piece band. Graiger was previously in a highly rated band called Riley. 3/10
Track on disc: Four Letter Word
Album review (2007)
CHASING THE MONSOON
A side project of Ian Jones who founded long-standing prog rockers Karnataka in 1997. Together with producer Steve Evans, and with Lisa Fury on vocals, he fashioned a sumptuous, widescreen, album – ‘No Ordinary World’ – that started development back in 2009 and was finally released in 2019.
Ian is still active with Karnataka (which spawned other millennial favourites Panic Room) and has also released albums under the name of Illumine. Our CD included an exclusive mix of the track ‘Circles Of Stone’ – without Troy Donockley’s uilleann pipes! A session track – not included in the final cut – was included on Ben Randall’s album in 2021. 10/10
Track on disc: Circles Of Stone (pre-release mix)
Album review (2019)
RIESER
Scottish band Rieser made their debut in 2007 with ‘The Well-Dressed Thief’ described as “One of the Best Scots Rock Debuts of the Year” by XFM Scotland.
Pete Whalley wrote: “…while most of their contemporaries are peddling bludgeoning rock/metal, or attempting to be the next Arctic Monkeys, Rieser are just a damn good guitar band with some great songs.”
The band’s Chris Blair now fronts the excellent The Deadly Winters whilst Rieser’s Facebook page is frozen in 2013. 5/10
Track on disc: Like A Whisper
Album review (2007)
PUCK
Back in 2007 guitarist Fred bemoaned the “Internet band revolution”.
“90% of the unsigned stuff on myspace is rubbish, in my jaded opinion (but I am pretty hard to please). This makes it harder for really decent bands, like Puck, to get noticed amidst the quagmire of wannabes, whose music is often deeply, deeply awful.
In the old days such bands would have been filtered out by the ranks of promoters, managers, agents and A&R men you had to go through to get your music to a mass audience.”
Nowadays you can get massive exposure without having to go through the hard graft of building up a following in your home-town by playing hundreds of gigs in dreadful provincial venues.
Promoting your band on the Internet also becomes a full time job, because today’s punters demand a constant stream of new videos, recordings, confessional blogs, amusing photographs etc. to keep them entertained.”
Has anything changed in 2022? Despite their obvious talent Puck didn’t last long enough to establish even a frozen Facebook page. 3/10
Track on disc: Shelters
CHRIS SINGLETON
Chris Singleton went on to form Five Grand Stereo, a fine pop rock band influenced by the likes of Lou Reed, David Bowie and Roxy Music to name but a few. They released their debut album ‘Sex and Money’ in 2018 and released a single, ‘Dancing Mary’, in the summer, with more new music promised. 10/10
Track on disc: The Only One
Album review (Sex & Money, 2018)
Website: www.chrissingletonmusic.com
THE HEAL
After The Heal in 2010 vocalist Lewis Clay (pictured) first went solo, then formed Our Lady Valentine, who play a set of rock and pop classics to cruise liner audiences. From the pictures of their performances, they certainly put on a great show!
Lewis’ CV lists appearances on ‘X Factor’ (ITV, 2014) and ‘The Voice’ (BBC, 2014) as well as acting appearances in film and TV. 8/10
| Lewis Clay looks back on the Heal and what has happened since musically…
The Rising Stars that spluttered to a limp finish!
Energy and some catchy hooks aside, a lack of consistency and a drummer that couldn’t keep tempo ended up scuppering what, at first, seemed like a promising start to it all…
We never really gained any traction with anything in London and, at that time that seemed to break or make you… And it broke a few.
Around early 2008 our guitarist had left for the States, and although our new guy was a longterm friend of mine and unbelievable guitarist, that coupled with some personal issues for myself started to take the fun out of it all.
A contact from a Kent based group offered me the stage I craved and the escape from my town that I needed and, although at first feeling like I could still do both, it became quickly apparent to me that I was stepping up in class and drifting apart from the guys in The Heal. And that was all she wrote, for it. A 20-minute show at a small church hall to about 20 people was the last time any of our stuff was ever played. The group continued for a few weeks after I left and then disbanded entirely.
Elliott (bass and my brother) joined the Army. Jon (drummer) I believe played in some other groups. Lewis Reid (guitarist) went about family life. Christian (original guitarist) went off to pursue Hollywood and became a lost soul amongst the LA dirt.
My venture with the Kent based group was short lived. After 6 months I realised if I stayed, I’d spiral and I was losing myself… so I ducked out, joining a group of wealthy metal heads, who turned out to be utter f**kwits. The Kent group formed a shit hot new group a few months later that went on to tour the UK and play some cool festivals. Another fantastic decision by me.
Personally, I bounced between groups and lost myself for a while. I also lost and partially regained my voice, although my range has never been the same.
Tried some reality stuff, before deciding to go down the pub acoustic route, to see if I could finally earn something from Music. It worked and I quickly gained a reputation and bookings were solid…
It led to opportunities, chart singles for charity and some competition successes AND some cool Nightclub shows, where I ultimately met a guy who offered me the chance to gig and play football around Russia, which I did for 3 years… Until my knee burst…
However, by then I’d met a touring rock vocal group and I was working nearly full time on amazing stages, to packed theatres all around the world. It suddenly felt so easy. 3 years ago I started my own company doing the same thing and I’m now the owner of what is regarded as one of the best Cruising Guest Ent groups in the whole world. We are currently the number 1 MOST requested act on the high seas.
It’s a long old road… As far as changes to music, I would say access to people via social media is huge… It was kinda starting as we were finishing…
But the biggest change is the ease of creativity, now. You can make shit hot videos, full tracks, albums, blogs and click tracks for live shows (which are game changers)… You don’t need a studio or 1000s of quid.
You don’t even need to gig as much, although nothing really compares to leaving it all on stage. I think the ability to create extra guitars, synths, backing vocals and track them all, to use in live performances is something I always wanted but could never do. There’s a beauty in the raw sound of live musicians… But to have a consistent tempo and a full rather than loud sound negates the need for reliance on a venues sound tech (or lack thereof).
That would have been a complete game changer. To have a guy sit there and hit play on a cue line and let the song do its thing, whilst you add your live element over it is a gift that few artists these days could live without.
Music offers more ifs, buts and maybes than any definites. It always has. It will always be tinged with a morsal of regret and resentment for the opportunities missed and the road left untrodden… But it led me to where I am now and where I am now is good.
I suppose, in many years to come, the gift of nostalgia will surpass the sting or memory. It was a wild ride, most often in the wrong direction, but you don’t win the raffle if you don’t buy a ticket.
Website: www.lewisclay.com
|
Track on disc: Drive
GLYDER
The band split in 2011 after releasing four studio albums, three EPs and a best of. Band leader Bat Kinane released a solo folk album, then formed Adam’s Curse in 2020 but has seemingly left the music world behind. Glyder are a case of great band, wrong time, as they would have been a favourite in the recent New Wave of Classic Rock revival. 2/10
Track on disc: Stargazer
Album review (Adam’s Curse, 2020)
UXL
After a brief publicity surge in 2007 including supporting Magnum, UXL seem to have vanished. PJ Tierney has become a successful digital artist and motorsport enthusiast, but no more music. The band were Rising Star stage performers in 2007. 1/10
Track on disc: This Life
NEWMAN
Newman/Steve Newman is still releasing albums under the Newman banner, all of which are high quality melodic rock. He also fronted UK melodic rockers Burn on their 2018 comeback album ‘Ice Age’ and more recently formed the more progressive leaning Compass with vocalist Ben Green. 10/10
| Since the Rising Stars compilation, where you kindly featured Newman and the track “World Comes Down” which I believe is about 15 years ago now !! we have gone on to release another 7 studio albums plus 1 live album, and gained a great fan base for our music.
I personally, had also been very busy writing and recording for other artists during this time and I continue to do that now, with some exciting new releases coming out next year.
The Newman band became very popular around the time of the “Art of Balance” album. We played most of the top UK melodic rock festivals including Firefest, HRH AOR, and also Cambridge Rock. Subsequent years saw us expanding into Europe with dates in Spain, Germany, and Greece etc.., and then into the US. This unfortunately dramatically stopped with the COVID Pandemic, and due to the rise in costs we have not been able to get back to live shows. We’ll have to see what the future holds.
I was very lucky during this time on the recording side of things, because much of what I do can be remote, I hadn’t seen any downturn in clients for the studio, so that kept me busy throughout, and continues to do so.
In 2019 I decided to form another band concentrating more on some of my earlier influences such as Pink Floyd, It Bites, and Dream Theater, which would allow me to step outside the Newman songwriting formula and challenge me more musically and lyrically.
I found a great singer in Ben Green, and with Dave Bartlett on bass, from the Newman touring band, and Toni Lakush on drums, the band Compass was born. “Our Time On Earth” was released in 2020 and received great reviews, we followed this up earlier this year with “Theory of Tides” which has also been very well received. We’re currently working on a new album for release late next year.
As for Newman, and also to a degree Compass, I would say that distribution and sales are much harder now, we are very much living in a digital download age, but most of our fans in this genre still prefer physical CD’s.
This causes a real issue, as the funding for these albums has to be met before any return is seen, and in this genre, with so many other artists vying for the same space, it becomes very difficult to even meet the costs. But as we have done so from the beginning, we do it for the love of the music and the response/reaction to releasing albums is always great.
Thank you to all your readers and indeed everyone who supports this music, I think we need it now more than ever. I don’t think music has ever been so important as a form of escapism from some of the things that are going on in the world right now. Keep on rockin’ !!!
Steve Newman |
Track on disc: World Comes Down (non-album track)
Album review (2021)
Website: www.newmansound.com
SACRED HEART
Sacred Heart, who appeared on our Rising Stars stage, split-up in 2012. Mainman Paul Stead and Mark Stephenson went on to form The Darker My Horizon (pictured). This band have released a string of enjoyable albums, the latest being this year’s ‘When Two Worlds Collide’.
The Darker My Horizon have fulfilled the potential seen in Sacred Heart and added a good dollop of fun in the process. One of the hardest working live bands around at the moment. 9/10
| 2007, so long ago… Sacred Heart had just released “Shake”. Two more albums: 2009′s “Darkness Falls” and our last (2011′s) “Propaganda”.
The noughties were a funny time for rock.You had to be soft pomp keyboard-laden fluff or heavy heavy to make a name. We were neither…So we knocked things on the head early 2012.
Such a shame after “Propaganda” was so well received. But we were tired, bored, and still weren’t willing to bow to a particular genre. So a 3 year break, and we got The Darker my Horizon together. By we, I mean myself and Mark Stephenson – from Sacred Heart.
As far as we are aware only drummer Claudio Cafolla continued on, joining both a The Who & a Black Sabbath tribute.
GRTR! has always been very supportive of us, and we are very grateful.
Paul Stead |
Track on disc: 1000 Tears
Album review(2022)
Website: www.thedarkermyhorizon.com/
STORMZONE
Still going strong, with 2020′s ‘Ignite The Machine’, their latest album to date and seventh overall. They have played many a live gig since 2007. Still fronted by vocalist John ‘Harv’ Harbinson, if you like your metal classic and melodic check these guys out. 10/10
Track on disc: Never Look Back
Website: www.stormzone.tv
Words: David Randall and Jason Ritchie
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UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). First broadcast on 21 April 2026
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Power Plays w/c 11 May 2026
BREITLER Sentinel (El Puerto Records)
FIRE IN HER EYES Too Late To Change (indie)
KING FALCON Wait (indie)
BEAUTIFUL SKELETONS Come What May (indie)
KARIN PARK Shadow (Size Records)
HARSH Don’t Mess With Me (indie)
Featured Albums w/c 11 May 2026
09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Singer Songwriter)
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