Next Big Thing II - Norfolk band contest

Cineclub

Who’s who in the band?
Jamie Beavis, 26, guitar and vocal; Chris Williams, 27, guitar; Miles Caston, 18, drums; Courtenay Caston, 16, bass.

How did you get together?
Chris and Jamie met around eight years ago. After claiming to have written around 100 songs, Jamie was disappointed when Chris pointed out they were all rubbish. Chris had some rubbish songs of his own and they decided to combine their considerable forces and make less rubbish songs together. Fast-forward through a few years and a couple of bands and Chris eventually convinced Jamie to be the singer. Jamie met Miles flicking matches in a shop and liked his hair. Upon finding out he could play drums he had to be in the band and his bass-playing brother Courtenay came in handy. We have been together for around two months.

Have you been in any other bands?
Chris and Jamie played guitars in Swiss Miss/October Skyline/Racehorse for a couple of years achieving nothing. Miles and Courtenay, being brothers, have played together for some time, mostly in cover bands around Norwich.

Tell us about some of your most memorable gigs
Cineclub are yet to perform live and the EDP Next Big Thing II will be our first gig.

What sort of studio work have you done?
Cineclub are yet to record in a studio as a full band. All current recordings were made in a bedroom studio by Jamie and Chris. We have ‘released’ two EPs and a couple of other tracks on our website. With the arrival of Courtenay and Miles we have been working on new material with a view to recording in the future.

Who are the bands/artists that inspire you?
It is difficult to say who inspires you, consciously anyway. We tend to steal ideas from any music we like and these are the people we steal from most often: Nirvana, The Clash, Pixies, The Jam, Abba, David Bowie. Everything comes out all mixed up anyway – if we sounded like we wanted then we would be the most schizophrenic-sounding band ever. It just averages out.

Tell us about your chosen songs
Cry a Little Longer: This was just a demo really that we rushed together for this competition to show some of the new material we plan to play live. House That Jack Burnt Down: From our older stuff, this is the only song we will be playing live, mostly because we have forgotten how to play everything else. Despite this, Chris still refuses to write anything down. If anyone can tab out some of the other ones it would be much appreciated.

What’s been the highlight of your musical career?
Jamie once saw a man who looked very like Rick Wakeman in Virgin, although the photographic evidence on his phone was inconclusive.

What’s your number one ambition in music?
Difficult to decide on just one, so here are a few: If still airing, we would like to play the Ed Sullivan show and if more people could tune in than did for The Beatles, that would be nice. We would also like our own signature iPod and never to fall into the trap of thinking jazz is acceptable. And maybe be in the Ramones.