After a five-year sabbatical, the band are now ready to take their feel-good rock back out on the road.

Joe Washbourn, from the band, said: "It's been long enough now since we split for everyone to forget the reasons. It's all water under the bridge. We were successful very quickly which took its toll on the band…

"But then Dan, the rhythm guitarist, got married, and we all got together at the stag do. We all started talking and got on really well. It just all happened very naturally. There are a lot of bands coming back at the moment, but with some of them the motives are a bit questionable. With us, it just feels right.

"We started off like most bands, going up and down the country in a transit van. And then suddenly we became a huge business and a machine. There were all sorts of people expecting lots of things from us."

The success was extraordinary. They reached dizzy heights, selling a total of 2.3 million albums and selling out some of the nation's biggest venues. They toured on the back of the first album for two years.

But then just when Joe feels they should have taken a break, they plunged straight in with the next one. It wasn't good for friendships, it wasn't good creatively and they started to forget the reasons they were doing it, Joe recalls.

And as he says, if you had asked him a couple of years ago, could he ever imagine them getting back together again, the answer would have been no.

"But as you get older you remember the good things. And I have been writing material for five years. We have now got an awful lot of new material to approach. And the rehearsals are promising. We sound like a better band now.

"We are more relaxed. There is less pressure. And it is all very refreshing."

Tickets on www.guilfest.co.uk or call 08714240050

What do you think? Click here to send a letter to news@chiobserver.co.uk or leave a comment below.

Click here to go back to Chichester news

Click here to go back to Bognor Regis news

Click here to go back to Midhurst and Petworth news

To tell us where in the world you are reading this story click on the link below to add yourself to our readers' map.

MAP