Story So Far

Duty Now - A New Hope 

The story starts with John moving to Manchester. Originally from Carlisle he'd been in his previous band Uncle Buck for four years, the band was made up of his best friends but after releasing their now infamous EP This is not ska you c**t John felt it was time to move on.

After a few months he put up a poster recruiting band members in about four shops and one caught the beadie eye of a Mr Matthew Rabone. After meeting briefly in a pub they would never return to they started meeting every couple of weeks in John's bedroom to 'rehearse'.

Adam and Matt met while they were running a race. Anyone who has watched them smoke would find this quite curious but that is how they first met. Due to a lack of communication it wasn't until a few weeks later that it was revealed that Matt was looking for a bassist and Adam was a bassist looking for a band.

Adam Matt and John had their first rehearsal after much drinking in Sinclair's Oyster bar, it took place in an attic and noone remembers much about it except it was ace.

The band started meeting drummers soon after, they turned down one as he was a bit scary then they met Sarah. Initially won over by the fact that Sarah is a female drummer it was later revealed that she is also very talented which was even better for all concerned.

After one initial rehearsal as a full band at the Greenrooms they took up residence at the Apocalypse studios in Radcliffe. For the next eight or so months they met twice a week to rehearse and discuss where they would find a singer.

The band auditioned at least eight singers (some better than others) before John decided to just do it himself.

Feeling like there weren't enough hours in the week to rehearse Duty Now then started looking for a more suitable rehearsal room, they eventually found a perfect one sharing with Autokat at Inch Studios which is run by all round hero Keir Stewart.

Duty Now Strikes Back

Between November 2005 and June 2006 Duty Now gigged Manchester and Leeds, getting a faint idea of what misguided ideas were actually going to work in a live situation. Particularly memorable gigs include a packed out Save Yourself gig supporting Polytechnic and a couple of blinders for Pop Cult and Fiction non Fiction.

In June tragedy struck as Sarah announced she was departing to concentrate on more important aspects of her life. This was a great shock to the rest of the band but at best gave some time to have a break and reflect on the work done so far. Sarah was always going to be a very difficult drummer to follow but her replacement came in the form of the super talented Mr Stephen Puntis who arrived from South Africa a few months beforehand.

By August Duty Now had their old set flowing nicely and the enthusiasm and productivity in Duty Now HQ at an all time high. The break gave the band time to work on new songs which had already creeped into the set by their comeback gig at Jabez Clegg, the following months will reveal more new noise and excitement so keep your eyes pealed for any Duty Now action near you.