space Back in the end-of-school summer of 2002, in an act of spontaneous creativity / utter boredom (still not sure which), Luke (learning the drums) and Alec (learning guitar) decided to annoy Luke's parent's and have a "jam" round his house. After an all-round successful attempt at creating a beautiful albeit erratically-paced noise, they tried again in a couple of weeks, this time inviting along Simon on bass, followed by Mike on vocals and Dan on guitar.

space And so followed, in all it's glory, a time of £50 imitation Strats; 15 watt amps; seemingly endless and rhythmically-challenged renditions of Wild Thing; one practice every blue moon; disgruntled neighbours; and politely sympathetic comments from Luke's rather bemused though by this point partially deafened parent's. Still, you've gotta start somewhere!

space Starting at New College in the September of that year, evidence for the phrase "practice makes perfect" became increasingly difficult to come by, as our progress had hit the pace of an English period costume drama, and although all competent at our instruments individually, we clearly weren't getting anywhere as a band. During this time, Simon understandably went to join Mizlanda instead, and the rest of us did pretty much nothing for a month or two.

space By late 2002/early 2003, we started having the occasional practice session again (this time with Liz on bass), but with more focus than before. For the first time, we didn't have to do bad covers of only the songs we all knew - because Mike had been busy writing some new material. The first song, still in our current repertoire, was Basement (aka Resonation), and from there on we started to get better. Progress was slow, because of 1 practice a month if we were lucky, but still, it was progress.

space Summer 2003 was when the progress started to take off, by which time we had a (almost!) gig-worthy repertoire of songs at the ready. Mike's lyrics with our own wide range of musical influences - from Ben Folds to Iron Maiden, U2 to Korn, Feeder to Smash Mouth, Deep Purple to Blink 182 and Placebo to the Chili's - gives a distinct blend of melodic light rock that is still evolving each time we play. Described as "unique" on more than one occasion (positively and negatively, depending on which of our very few gigs the comment refers to!), we'd like to think we're getting better. One day soon, we might even be described as "good". It's still a work in progress!

space As of summer 2004 Somnambulation have played 20 gigs over 12 months climaxing in a great gig at the vic with Vector and Avant*Garde, also at the battle of the bands final in Chippenham. Sadly we have had to prostpone future plans due to Dan leaving for university. Alec, Luke, Liz and Mike from Avant*Garde have formed a seperate band 'Sway' during their gap year. A New years gig has been booked for Somnambulation on the 4th of January at the Vic, where we hope to see everyone who has supported us over the last year!

Thanks from
Alec, Dan, Liz, Luke, Mike