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The group were initially formed around the duo of Luke Maclean and Pedro Kirk, who met at college and had been in a variety of bands up until this point.

After a night of debauchery in and around Hereford (no-one can remember the exact details) Greg Bishop joined the twosome and so completed the fearsome and ferocious rhythm section with Pedro.

However after a few practices it soon became apparent that the straightforward guitar-bass-drums set-up was not sufficient to express the full variety of their musical ambitions and they approached local man of mystery Jon-Paul Baron to fill the hole with his antique Wasp burblings and peculiarly melodic guitar playing.

The quartet gigged and recorded for the next couple of years but each member secretly knew something was missing.

Then in the sparkly spring of 2004 all their private prayers were answered in the form of one Glen Roberts, who with his beauteous face, angelic voice and magical keyboard tinkling fingers formed the band as they are today.

Get writing

Ever since ‘the Steep's’ early days, its members have worked feverishly at writing and recording songs while gigging regularly in the locality, as well as further a field.

Over the last couple of years their style has developed from a quirky brand of emotive-rock to become a more distinctive and indefinable sound.

It incorporates kooky riffs, pleasantly noisy guitar histrionics, four part vocal harmonies and moody keyboard wizardry, all melded seamlessly to an already rock-steady multifaceted blade of a rhythm section and the subtly passionate vocal stylings of Mr. MacLean.

As well as the usual gigs around the shire, the band have supported British Sea Power on their remarkable visit to Hereford, played in Brighton at Freebut (which is a long drive in a £200 van) and performed a well-received acoustic set at last years Glastonbury festival.

The band also spent a few months on tour in 2005, playing at venues across the country such as the Roadhouse in Manchester and the Louisianna in Bristol. In 2006 the band are touring Wales along with several other dates in England, and hope to play at festivals in the summer months.

Radio play

Media coverage was slow at first, Hereford barely having a heartbeat, yet in early 2004 their notoriety was such that they could no longer be ignored and so were invited by local ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ radio for a casual interview and to perform an acoustic session.

The resulting show was then broadcast around the West Midlands on the different local variants of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio.

Later on in the year and partly as a result of this feature they were chosen to be included on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 1 Unsigned Bands website and their couple of tracks attracted a flurry of voting but the band just missed out on being top of their group.

In 2008, after gaining national airplay on the best of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Introducing on Radio 1, the band renamed themselves to Apples.

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