An up-and-coming band are using a high-profile performance at Bradford International Festival to launch their debut album.
FineApple was formed by cousins Thomas Almas and Haroon Rashid, along with three of Haroon's friends from Bradford Grammar School - Alexis Ridler, Patrick Martin and Daniel Wong.
The band have been together for two years and hope the Festival will provide a platform to attract attention from record companies. The five have saved money earned from playing live over the last couple of years to fund their first album, The Good Stuff.
"We're hoping this album will really do it for us. We haven't sent anything to record companies so far but we've got some contacts and we're going to be sending the album out," said Thomas who at 18 is the youngest member of the band and the only one not yet at university. "We're really excited about playing at the festival. We played at a Bradford-by-the-Sea event and we were told then that if we were interested in playing at the festival we should get in touch."
FineApple will perform in Centenary Square on Saturday, June 21, between 2.30pm and 3.30pm.
"We've been working on the album for about a year and we've been looking for a special way to launch it," said Thomas.
The band have already earned themselves a good reputation on the local live circuit and regularly appear at Bradford Rio's and the Cockpit in Leeds. They supported '70s band The Beat recently and will play with Nerf Hereer, the band responsible for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme, in July.
The band, who describe themselves as a ska/rock outfit with influences ranging from Aerosmith to Earth Wind and Fire and No Doubt, got their first break when Bradford Youth Bank funded a three-track demo for them.
That helped them secure live dates and build up the £3,000 they needed to fund the album.
The fact that they are from a multi-racial background - Indian, Pakistani, Chinese and English - has already caused considerable interest.
The band's CD will be on sale at the Centenary Square festival concert and will be available through its website: www.Fineappleonline.com. They are also hoping it will be on sale at HMV in Bradford.
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