Mark - Actually Wilf and I go back a long way. We first met through a relative of mine who worked with a vocalist who required a Bass player. He asked if I would like to go for an audition, Which I did. We all hit it off straight away and we had great fun knocking out our favorite tunes from a small shed at the bottom of a friend's garden.

Wilf - As time went on members would come and go but, myself and Mark always struggled on. We've now been playing together over ten years and we've built up a good relationship on and off stage. After the last band split we though that we should try and put our own band together and get in the people that we wanted. People with equal ability and will to succeed that we have. This time we vowed to go for it seriously, all or nothing.

With that in mind the lads set out to find a guitarist of the same caliber.

Wilf - We'd been in touch with a few local guys but most had now stopped playing and settled down. Then an Ex Girlfriend of mine suggested a Guy called Steve, who had just moved into the area. He was well traveled and had also been in various other bands over the years. So we knew he would have the experience we were looking for. I then got in touch and invited him down for an audition.

Steve - Wilf contacted me and asked me to an audition, so I though why not I wasn't currently playing with anyone. I heard that they'd been around a while and were pretty hot players. When I arrived they'd also asked a Keyboard player to come down. Unfortunately I didn't get on with the Keyboard player, although it was obvious that Wilf and Mark worked well as a unit. Afterwards I stopped and had a drink with Wilf and Mark. They then said 'Were not happy with Keyboard player, he doesn't seem as though he's into the same vibe as us'. They also said that they wouldn't be inviting him back. They asked me to return the following week for another session, which I was happy to do and it was far more productive than the previous week. I've never looked back since.

Mark - We jammed for around three months before considering a vocalist. We worked really hard, had eight songs finished musically plus rough drafts of all the lyrics. After we had all the songs really tight and we were working well as a group we set about finding the last piece of the puzzle.

Wilf - We placed Ads in all the musical magazine's and papers, hung posters in all the major towns, cites, shops, bars and night clubs. Although this didn't seem to do us much good as there were only a few responses. We continued with the music and by this time we had fourteen songs and we were itching to get out and perform.

Steve - We'd auditioned numerous vocalists but none were what we were looking for. The ones that could actually sing either didn't have their own equipment or didn't have transport. Then after months of not being able to find anyone we considered good enough Wilf Suggested we contact Tony a vocalist that he and Mark had worked with previously and considered very good. He was currently working with a tribute band, which was the reason for them parting company in the first place as the financial rewards were to great for Tony to turn down. We invited him down to see if he would be interested. After we played through are current line up of songs he was so impressed with what we had achieved that he agreed to join us. This added the final piece to the puzzle and took us to new height's. Creating what is now the Downboyz sound.

Tony - You could see they were already a great band. Having worked with Wilf and Mark before I understood what it was they were trying to achieve. We all hit it off straight away. There's a definite chemistry.

Wilf - From the moment Tony joined things have really taken off our first Album will be out in April and people have really started to take an interest. The only thing left is for us to do what we do best, performing live taking the music out to the people and rockin' Downboyz style.

Update.....

Well, we were booked to play 'Jilly's' nightclub in Manchester, Supporting various bands including Bob Catley (ex-MAGNUM). So for us this was a really exciting opportunity. We'd practiced long and hard to be ready and everything was going fine until, three days before we were due to play Tony decided that he wasn't going to do the concert. Obviously the rest of us were extremely annoyed. We then sat down and discussed what we were going to do from here. We thought that it was too late to pull out and from past experience we've found that when you let people down their reluctant to book you again so we decided to play the concert as a three piece and play instrumentally.

This put a lot of pressure on us to perform well, but has it happened everyone involved was very understanding and the whole day was great. So well in fact that we have been invited back to play again.

Once back home we set about looking for another vocalist, as no one wanted any involvement with Tony. We started to advertise yet again and we seemed more successful than previous attempts. We were holding regular auditions but unfortunately none were considered good enough. As time was pressing on we decided again to call on one of our old vocalists, this time Steve's ex, Mike from Derby. Steve approached Mike and asked if he would like to come down and have ago, luckily he did and to our surprise was far more suited to our music that Tony ever was.

We've now revamped the set, with the inclusion of some of our new tracks, which we feel are far stronger than before.