A BAND from Birchwood are hoping to be one step closer to their breakthrough after their first gig in the big smoke.

Sweet Release will be performing at the St Moritz Club in London this Saturday when they will be supporting hard rockers Via Dolorosa.

The band, who have been described as having one foot in 1960s LA and the other in 90s Manchester, are excited to be taking their sound across the UK.

Joshua Jefferson, Nathan Bleasdale, Shaun Clutt, and Kevin Hather, who all met at Birchwood High School, also made their Scotland debut earlier this month in Glasgow with indie band The Trend. It has been a tiring few weeks but frontman Josh reckons the long journeys have been worth it.

He said: “You can’t think it’s Saturday and my football team is playing. You have to get out there, do the gig and hopefully take over the world.”

They are also playing at Night and Day Café in Manchester on Saturday, October 7, before branching out further with a European tour booked for Easter time next year.

Previous gig that stands out for Sweet Release was in Chester, where they won a battle of the bands competition, The Shipping Forecast in Liverpool and Gullivers in Manchester.

‘I was bought up on a lot of the Beatles and the Kinks, we have all been influenced by the 60s and we want to bring rock and roll music back’

Nathan Bleasdale

But Sweet Release, named after a line in an unreleased demo by Oasis called See The Sun, are also polishing their songwriting craft.

They already have a single out called Shine A Light, recorded at Sugar House in St Helens where Viola Beach made Swings and Waterslides, but that is just a hint of things to come.

Josh added: “We are writing new songs every time we rehearse and they’re getting better and better, we need to start recording them now.”

Sweet Release are mostly influenced by the ‘British Invasion’ era when the popularity of UK bands in the 60s spread rapidly to the United States.

Guitarist Nathan said: “I was bought up on a lot of the Beatles and the Kinks, we have all been influenced by the 60s and we want to bring rock and roll music back.”

But it is also important to the band to put their own stamp on the music.

Drummer Shaun said: “Bands need to stand out and be themselves as a lot of mainstream stuff sounds the same. Bands like Joy Division and Oasis were proper bands that you can look at and want to be in.

“That kind of thing probably ended with the Arctic Monkeys.”

Josh added: “Being in a band wasn’t something we grew up wanting to do, but it got to the point where only pop was coming out of the radio and we decided we had to do something of our own.

“We want to shock a few people and put emotion back into music.”

Another big influence for the band is coming from the north west.

Nathan said: “Liverpool is just magical and Manchester is massive, we adore both cities but Warrington is our town and we love it there too.”

Ultimately, Sweet Release hope to secure a record label and ‘shine a light’ on a new British invasion in the process. But they admitted any success is a bonus because they are relishing every moment.

Josh said: “At the end of the day it’s all worth it to see our mates and our fans singing our songs back to us.”

Shaun added: “You should be able to sell that feeling in a bottle.”

AMOS WYNN