There wasn't much to do in High Wycombe on Friday nights so Fans of Kate would jump in a van, find a designated driver and drive to London, stopping in at an off-license on the way. Having consumed a satisfactory level of alcohol they would hunt down a club, buy one drink and dance into the morning. Afterwards, if they could still stand they'd make every attempt to politely invite you to one of their gigs in London. Whilst the band met at the same university, most of their roots were London based.

"We played our first gig in London," states Steve. "We really worked our bollocks off practising and it was rubbish. We were so nervous we got absolutely wankered before we went on. It was embarrassing as hell. Still some people saw some good in that gig. We impressed Impressive Press." He smiles before continuing, "They came to some other gigs and we joined with them. After the first gig we really learnt a lot."

The band's willingness to learn in order to achieve success is prominent throughout this interview, though how did their first band practice compare with their first gig?

Jamie chooses to answer this question, "Vaguely the word 'shocking' comes to mind. Steve was playing drums, I was playing guitar and my friend John was playing this big expensive keyboard that I bought and didn't know how to play. I saw this keyboard on sale from £1,600 to £500 and phoned my mum and borrowed the money to buy it. It took us a few rehearsals to get anywhere near shabby. The one thing that really saved us that was we hired our own rehearsal unit in a small industrial estate. We put in our own PA and spent like a year and a half there, every Monday to Friday for three hours solid. As a band you learn far more from when you fuck up or do things properly. When things are going smoothly you think 'brilliant' but you don't learn a thing. As soon as you screw up then all of a sudden all these lessons start. Things become really apparent and you ask, 'why didn't I think of that before?'" >>