‘Better Than We Look’ are a Gloucester-based band made up of a group of friends from The Crypt School.

The group is made up of lead singer and guitarist Dylan Molyneux, bassist Patrick Garrigan, drummer James Cook, Santino Caldarone on keyboard, and Charlie Lovell, who plays rhythm guitar.

“Our first gig was in June 2016 at the King Charles II pub in Ross-On-Wye,” said Charlie.

“The band formed as we all went to The Crypt School together for years 7-11 and we formed in Year 9 – the school were kind enough to let us use a space on each Friday after school for practice.

“After our GCSEs we all went different ways but thanks to the MAS scheme we were able to still practice and keep the band going and growing.”

The boys are all 17 and all but Charlie, who is an engineering apprentice with Renishaw, are studying for their A Levels around the county.

Despite this they still find plenty of time to rehearse and are in big demand having performed at a number of local festivals this summer.

Charlie continued: “Some of our best gigs include the Witcombe Cider Festival in 2018, Hucclecote Show 2017 and 2018, CAMRA Gloucester Beer Festival, re-opening night at The Royal Oak.

“We all love seeing people having a good time and enjoying what we are playing which is our main pushing force, along with the fact that music is collectively our biggest hobby.”

A typical Better Than We Look set includes plenty of well-known covers, from bands like The Killers and The Kinks, as well as some original songs by the band themselves.

“Our set is full of songs we all enjoy,” said Charlie.

“Even though some of the songs are a lot older than us – and some older than our parents! – we all think they’re great songs and we like to tailor our set so there are at least a couple of songs that everyone will know and enjoy.

“We currently have four of our own original songs which we regularly include in our sets – everyone seems to stay up dancing so we assume this means they’re pretty good.”

Better Than We Look are also involved in the aforementioned MAS Records Development Scheme.

The scheme’s patrons include The Kaiser Chiefs’ Ricky Wilson and Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, and Charlie explains how the band got involved.

He said: “After seeing an advert online for the scheme we applied and we were ecstatic to hear back from them to say we had been accepted.

“The scheme is set up to help aid the next generation of music into the industry – this is done by paid for rehearsal space, masterclass sessions, drop-in sessions and a two-day master recording.

“We have already done this years’ recording and we are looking at releasing it soon!”

For more information on Better Than We Look visit www.facebook.com/BTWL.band