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Sketchbeat gave birth to their original funk rock sound in 2005 at Club Imperial in Hereford, blowing away the crowd with their punchy drums, funk riffs, trumpet hooks and a huge stage performance.

Sketchbeat's founding fathers are Paul Daron (guitar), a former Hereford dustman with huge hair, and Ed Webber (drums), a former Oxfordshire marquee builder with short hair.

In 2001, they started writing and playing music together at university in London and soon realised that they were onto something different to the drudgery of generic indie rock bands.

However, like most students, they failed to get their act in gear for quite some time – Ed moved to Belgium for a year and Paul became a wedding singer with local covers band 'The Renditions'.

It wasn't until September 2005 that Sketchbeat became official after Mike Chapman (session trumpeter and Ed's schoolmate) and Rich Cummings (actor and bassist) joined the group in Hereford to record a demo CD with Brandon Steep's Pedro Kirk.

Since 2005, the band had been gigging furiously, building up a large fan base across the south of England and getting headline slots and storming reviews at top venues on the London gig scene.

In August 2006, Sketchbeat won a national NME-advertised competition, beating over 80 other bands to win a cash prize.

Using the money, the band returned to Herefordshire to record their debut EP at Birch Recording Studios with local musician, Andy Margarett and old time rocker, John Jones.

The result was 'Beats From The Dead', featuring four of their finest tracks:

1. My Mama Said
2. Safe In My Mind
3. Beats From The Dead
4. Funny Old World

Sketchbeat

But in January 2009, the band decided to 'call it a day', releasing this following statement on their Facebook page:

Alas, it seem 2009 will not be the "big one" for Sketchbeat after all. Sadly, we have decided that when we take to the stage this Thursday, 8th January, it will be for the last time.

Fear not, there has been no internal band rift, no admissions to rehab and no sordid love circle to speak of. Nope, we have merely decided that it is time for a change and to put our dear old friend Sketchbeat out to pasture...off you go girl.

But this is not the end end. The spirit of Sketchbeat will live on through Paulo who will be channeling his creativity and spunk into new and exciting musical projects in the near future, so keep your eyes and ears peeled for his return soon!!

And finally, and most importantly, we'd like to thank all of you who've spent your free time and hard earned cashish coming to our gigs, listening to our music, buying our 'merchandise' and generally being interested in and excited about the band over the last 3 years.

Muchos amore,

Ed, Paul, Mike & Rich

You can listen to all the latest music from across the two counties on the Friday Session Introducing... every week from 7pm, on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Hereford & Worcester.