Take your minds back to the year 2012.  David Cameron was Prime Minister, Brexit didn't exist, and you were (most probably) happy.  I had been dipping my toes back into the local music scene after a sizeable absence, and coming to the realisation that I didn't want to be doing this on my own anymore, as my ideas were outweighing my capabilities.

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On the 1st October of that year, Paul Hancock, Angela Lazenby, Matt Tyrer and myself, gathered at a rehearsal room in Hartshill.  After an evening playing songs that I had being planning for an album, we all decided that it might be fun to keep playing music, and after weeks of rehearsals, they were ready to be a Band, like out loud and everything.

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We called ourselves The John MacLeod Band, in a bid to keep hold of any momentum I had made that year, and played our first ever gig on 10th February, at The Sun On The Hill in Birmingham, following it up with a headline show closer to home on 22nd February then galloping into Tremolo Studio the next day to start recording an album.

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2013 brought about a slew of local shows (many of which were thanks to Andrew Tranter booking us for events he was putting on at the time, not to mention a show at the Sugarmill that fulfilled a decade-old goal of mine) intermingled with studio time & local radio appearances, and countless hilarious cosy rehearsals in Ange's garage (dubbed 'The Garage Of Dreams' by Paul).  Lots of things happened, all of them were positive at the time, even if a couple of things turned out to be a problem in the long-run...

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By February 2014 our album was released under the name 'Unexpected Sunshine'.  The year that followed was slightly more frustrating for TJMB, with illnesses, job pressures, and other internal issues all making it difficult to push forward and capitalise on how amazing 2013 had been (although we did get another show in at the Sugarmill!).

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2015 started with a couple of lively gigs, including a very memorable one at Ort in Birmingham.  The year continued in a similar vein, until it was decided to disband.  Aforementioned life pressures were the deciding factor, along with musical differences, and we played a farewell show on 18th April at Sandbach Transport Festival, in the middle of the town, on a hot sunny day.  From then, Angela began releasing music with Tin Chapel and Paul's band The Penny Dreadfuls, Matt has been steadily working on and releasing music for his solo project, pausing only to release The Great Sea Yearns with his uni band Dead Radio Society, and I started Attack Of The Vapours (which Matt has recently joined).

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In this time, we managed to wrest our album from the digital landscape, which is why any of you reading this can't find it there anymore.  Prior to this, I came to the conclusion that I would like to have 'Unexpected Sunshine' given some TLC, so redoubled my efforts to get the album taken down, and commissioned a record-producing friend of mine and Matt's to give it a bit of re-working.  This is currently in progress, and it will be at some point soon that it will be turning up again, ready for your waiting ears.