One of Gloucestershire’s most popular bands are to perform at the Crown & Sceptre in Stroud this Friday evening.

The successful punk band, who have been performing together for over a decade, will be playing a mixture of new songs as well as their more familiar works in one of their favourite venues. “Friday evening is going to be great, every single one of us has been looking forward to it for a few weeks now,” said band member Ed Butcher. “For a small town Stroud has got a really vibrant music scene, it’s nice to be a part of it. We’ve been performing here from day one, we love playing in front of our hometown crowd,” he added.

The five-piece band contains Ben Rigsby, Dave Brooks, Andrew Beard, Danny Churchill, plus Ed. They’ve become well-known in Gloucestershire for their sharp delivery of punk and rock music, performing tracks that they’ve written themselves. Ed continued: “We write all our own songs and we don’t do any cover versions. I’ve nothing against cover bands, in fact I’ve performed in a few over the years but, personally speaking, I get a greater sense of satisfaction seeing people dance and sing along to songs we’ve written rather than just covering an Elvis song or whatever. You can play 15 of the most famous songs and people will love it but when you’ve written the songs yourself and people like them, it feels more of a creative process.

“We’re all friends and we all live in Stroud or within a few miles of the town. We get together once every couple of weeks, it would be nice to meet more often but we all have jobs and families to think about.

The band have been performing in venues across the UK, but Ed admits it’s the hometown gigs that are his favourite. He added: “Our recent gig in London was amazing and we’ve been fortunate enough to have played in some great venues in major cities. Stroud is home though and we love playing here. A couple of years ago we recorded a CD from a gig in Stroud that’s sold over 400 copies. We’ve just ordered another 200 so it shows people like what we’re producing.

“Hearing from people that have been to our gigs and purchased our CDs is an amazing experience, it’s extremely satisfying when someone tells you how much they like our work. We just want to continue what we’re doing, we all love each other’s company and want to carry on creating and playing as often as we can.”