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FRIENDS, ROCKERS, METALHEADS - LEND US YOUR EARS !!!

BAND BIOGRAPHY

Tara’s Secret formed in late 2003 in Burton on Trent, UK as 3 members of local band Fuse, Craig Chapman (guitar/keys/vocals), Chris Tomlin (bass) and Glyn Styne (drums/vocals), joined up with Johnny Trowbridge (vocals) and Richie Beardsley (guitar/vocals), with the aim of writing their own songs, building a fan base and playing bigger live shows. Driven by their love of the music by bands such as Van Halen, Whitesnake & Bon Jovi, the guys planned to build their own little mountain of stadium rock music.

2 months later followed the demo album “Spectrum Wheel” that surprisingly found itself reviewed in a few magazines and support slots with Deadline, Sacred Heart & a few other bands followed, along with many local shows of their own.

Steve “Bolty” Boltwood replaced Chris on bass in 2005 and the band booked themselves into Magnum’s Mad Hat Studios with Mark Stuart & Sheena Seer, to record 2 songs towards their next album in. “Drive Me Home” and “In Movies” are still live faves today and received plenty of excellent feedback from rock radio, mags and websites, but no label offers, so the album “Tomorrow The World” was financed by the band and again recorded at Mad Hat in June 2006. The following reviews across Europe and USA were astounding for an independent album.AOR Heaven distributed it in Europe. A 2 page feature in Fireworks Magazine also brought in many more new fans for the band. Support slots with prog bands ACT and Jadis surprisingly followed !!

TTW made a quick profit but both Bolty and Glyn left the band later in 2006, leaving the other 3 guys to play the remaining booked shows with a few mates from other bands helping fill in the holes. Tara’s Secret split in Feb 2007.

BUT – don’t give up on us yet !!!!

Johnny, Richie & Craig all kept in contact and couldn’t stand not being the band any longer so by Jan 2008, they reformed and auditioned for new guys who would help take the band forward. Dave Deaville came along on bass/piano/vocals and after trying out a few guys, John JT Thomas joined on drums. More gigs, more writing and a set of demos were made for the next album and a few labels showed interest and made suggestions but the band went ahead and produced the album themselves, back again at Mad Hat, now known as M2 Studios.

“Vertigo” grew and grew during July 2009, the dynamics and ideas that came through during the recording were as a result of a concentrated session of pre-production. Mouths fell as the band played the songs to UK rock journalists and copies were mailed to several Europe based rock labels with 4 license offers coming back. Having done the maths, the band decided “Vertigo” would be released on their own Black Cat Music label and out it came in Jan 2010 to some astounding reviews.

A support slot followed with Danny Vaughn, reviews came in from right around the world, Chrysalis took some copies to Japan, MusicBuyMail offered to distribute in Europe and the band was crowned “Band of the Month” in Argentina, a “Melodic Monster” in Greece and “apparent successors to Thunder” by Andrew McNeice of www.MelodicRock.com in Australia.

2010 has seen the band play numerous shows, including Rock & Bikes Festival, booked for Z Rock and a slot at the 2011 Rock & Blues Festival is already promised alongside the likes of UFO and Magnum. We also saw JT leave the band and following various MP3s and applications we jumped at having Newark’s noisiest neighbour, Simon Perkins join us on drums. Simon has brought along a killer groove to so many of the songs and wowed the audience on his first show with us at Derby.

A video for the lead track off Vertigo “Rock n Roll Beauty Queen” is due out any time now, to follow up on the band’s first Vertigo reviews in North America. There are also some brand new Tara’s Secret songs making their way through too. They’ll not be on the set lists quite yet, but you can rest assured they’ll be some damn fine rockers when we do let you hear them !!

Thanks for your support as ever and keep on rocking !!

BIOGRAPHY

ANORAK

EQUIPMENT

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TARA’S SECRET - ANORAK INFO !!

The name - Tara’s Secret is officially the covenant between witches, but we got the name from a combination of a Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode and Matchbox Twenty’s former name Tabatha’s Secret.

The Vertigo album was produced on a diet of roast pork, stuffing & gravy butties from the Coven baker’s shop, near M2 Studios and samples from Staffordshire Organic Cheese - owned by our own Cheese Meister, Sir Dave of Deaville.

Magnum’s Bob Catley & Tony Clarkin were regularly drinking coffee in the kitchen at M2 studios and Craig had the privilege of doing their washing up !!

Cellist Edison Hazel-Johns, who appears on both “The Last To Know” & “One More Chance” might or might not actually exist, however some say, that he (or even she ??) is also The Stig from Top Gear.

Vertigo - a Fear of Heights ??? Well we took that concept for the actual track “Vertigo” but widened the list of places you could be falling from - The Fear of..... Falling out of Love, Falling into Love, Falling from Grace, or in the case of the song “Shake What Your Momma Gave Ya” ignoring the Fear of Falling Over on a Friday Night !!

So what does Johnny say during the reversed speech in the middle 8 of “My Reward” ? We have no idea, but given his sense of humour, its most likely something like “Playing your CD backwards is not a good idea ya damn drongo !!” There is also a story behind the chorus lyrics, inspired by a certain film, but we’re not saying which one. Answers on a postcard if you dare !!

We really hope you enjoy our music and if you come to see us live, don’t forget to come over and say HI !!

Thanks for your support

TARA’S SECRET EQUIPMENT

Johnny uses

Sennheiser E145 G2 wireless microphone, Shure SH55 microphone, Tacoma acoustic guitar

Richie uses - Nottingham-based electrical tech Dave Ball 0115 911 3964

2 Xperience Custom “Super Strat” Guitars, both with Suhr “Doug Aldrich” pick ups, Floyd Rose locking trem, Floyd Upgrade Systems, Dean Markley Super V strings

Guitar 1 – Alder Body, Tiger Stripe Maple Top, Maple Neck

Guitar 2 – Mahogany Body, Maple Top, Maple Neck

Peavey 5150 MKII amplification with JJ valves & 4x12 cab with 2 x Peavey “Sheffield” & 2 x Celestion “Vintage 30” speakers

Taylor acoustic guitar

MXR “Carbon Copy” Delay, Pre-amp, Smart Gate & Phase 90 pedals, AMT 5150- Modelling Pedal,

Zoom G2, Planet Waves leads

Craig uses – Birmingham-based guitar tech Bob Barry 0121 772 4873

Prestige Heritage Standard guitar, Honduran mahogany body & neck, AAA maple carved top, black finish with white edging and Seymour Duncan JB (bridge) & 59 (neck) pick ups + Bob Barry circuit upgrades

Yamaha Pacifica “Mike Stern” Telecaster with DiMarzio Chopper T (bridge) and Bill Lawrence 500 (neck) pick ups. Ash body - natural finish, bolt-on maple neck + Bob Barry circuit upgrades

Line 6 Bogner Spider Valve 1x12 & Floor Board + Marshall Black Series 1x12 cab

Bank 1 - A Blue Blues : B Blue Metal : C Blue Metal + Flange : D Blue Metal + Delay & Loud

Bank 2 - A Blue Blues : B Blue Crunch : C Blue Crunch + Flange : D Blue Crunch + Trem

Sennheiser guitar wireless, Audio Technica wireless headset microphone, D’Addorio 009 & 010 strings

Yamaha PSR 540 keyboard, Ashbury electro-acoustic guitar, Dava Rock Control picks

Dave uses

Overwater Perception 5 string bass guitar, Iceni Fretless Custom bass guitar

Wal Mk3 5 string fretless bass guitar, Wal Custom double neck bass guitar

Michael Kelly semi-acoustic 5 string fretless bass guitar

Ashdown bass amplification, Alesis QS8 piano synthesiser

Simon uses

Mapex drums, Gibraltar rack, Pearl, Yamaha, Sonor & Tama hardware

Remo & Evans skins, Vater sticks

Zildjian, Paste, Sabian & Meinl cymbals