NEWS

7 May 2002

The Promise have decided to call it a day. There's been no falling out - we just recognised that the The Promise is not happening any more! Over the last couple of years, we've found it harder and harder to make progress on the third album, and as everyone knows, the opportunities for live concerts were becoming more and more rare.  We therefore discussed things recently and agreed it was best to accept that the band had reached its logical conclusion and we should "pull the plug" and give it a dignified death!! We're all sad about it, but its for the best. I guess all bands have a natural lifespan - and we'd rather stop now when people (hopefully!!) have positive memories of the band!
 
Although our debut album came out in 1995, the band actually originated in 1985 under the name Tour de Force, so when you consider we've been around for 17 years I think it's fair to say we've had a pretty good innings.
 
We want to say a huge thank you to all of our fans for your support, and particularly to the guys at Now & Then, and Frontiers, for giving us the opportunity to bring our music to a world wide audience. We've got some wonderful memories -  and have made many new friends along the way.
 
Our website will remain open at www.the-promise.co.uk so please sign our guestbook with any messages of condolence!!

As a special thank you, we've also posted on the website an MP3 of the song "Falling" which was only previously available on the Japanese version of our debut album. You can download the song at this page:
 
So, in the words of one of our songs... It's the end of the game!!
 
Cheers
Gareth, Nods, Ian, Colin
aka The Promise

16 January 2002

Apologies for the lack of news/updates on this site recently.  We can confirm that The Promise are still alive and well!  However, the band have taken an extended break to re-charge our batteries and re-motivate ourselves as we want to ensure our third album is the best yet.  Hope to have some news in the not too distant future.

8 May 2001
Thunderstruck 2001 cancelled.  We have just been informed that this event has been cancelled.  Here's the formal announcement.

"I'm afraid this mail note is not good news. After a long hard think about the situation it has been decided to cancel this year's Thunderstruck festival. The reasons are many and varied, however I must stress that all bands involved had no connection with the cancellation and feel very upset
about the situation. The problems that was faced with putting on such an event were getting worse and to save the festival at this short notice would be very difficult - there is no way that it would be a success on any scale.

I would like to thank all those that were involved in trying to make this festival happen. Many thanks must go to the bands for their time, efforts and loyal friendships during the last year. I'm really sorry for making this decision as it affects many people, but I hope that everyone can understand the reasons as to why this has happened.

If you would like more information please e-mail at captain-thunder@supanet.com and I will try to answer your queries as soon as I can."

This unfortunately means that there are no gigs planned for The Promise in the near future, and the band will be focussing their efforts on the new album.

15 April 2001
At last an update!!!  Just to remind everyone that our next live appearance is at Thunderstruck 2001, Blackpool on Saturday 2nd June.  See 27 Sept 2000 news below for details. 

A lot of people have been asking how things are progressing with the new album.  As usual, it's taking longer than we planned but we are currently making good progress and hope to air 3 or 4 of the new songs at the Thunderstruck gig. Current working title for the album is Intravenous and some song titles are 'Forever I Know', 'One Day', 'Angels Never Die', 'This Side of Heaven'.  We really want the third album to be by far our best yet, so are taking some time to get it right.  Hopefully it'll be worth the wait.

22 September 2000
The Promise have confirmed that they will be playing on Saturday 2nd June 2001 at the Thunder Convention, Thunderstruck 2001.   More details below:

Captain Thunder! here to announce some great news. The first annual Thunder Convention, Thunderstruck 2001, will take place in June 2001. On Friday 1st June & Saturday 2nd June, around ten to twelve bands will be partying with Thunder-holics at Pontins Holiday Camp, Blackpool. The cost for this is ?0 per person (for two days) and an additional ?0 per person for full board accommodation. Tickets will go on sale on Monday 11th September 2000 and only available from Pontins themselves. For bookings, please contact Danielle Donald on 08706010472. Please note a deposit of ?5 per person is required to secure a place. Rock legend Bob Catley will headline and close the weekend of mayhem on the Saturday night, whilst AOR gods Ten will headline the Friday evening. Other bands already confirmed are The Promise, Emerald Rain, Razor Babies, Stilettos and Sonic Oblivion. Many more will be added to the line-up, making Thunderstruck 2001 the biggest, bestest concert of 2001 and a true tribute to Thunder!. Please check out my site http://www.captainthunder.badland.com for more information. See you all at Thunderstruck 2001

15 September 2000
The Promise have confirmed a gig at the Malt Mill, Holburn Street, Aberdeen on Saturday 23rd September.

2 July 2000
We've had a request to post the set list of the songs we played at Ultrasound 2000, so here it is!

Let's Talk About Love, You Are The One,  When Love Takes A Hand, Holdin' Out For A Miracle, Hold on to Love, Don't Keep me Waiting, Only a Woman, Holdin' On, Kiss Me and Kill Me

We've also been asked how we're managing to duplicate the songs live without a keyboard player.  Quite simple - we got copies of the recorded keyboard parts from the studio and have put them onto a mini-disc with the keyboards on one channel and a click track on the other.  The keyboard track goes to the front of house PA and the click track goes to Colin's headphones, so he can ensure that the band keep in time with the keyboard backing track.  Works fine and at least ensures that one "member" of the band doesn't make mistakes!

10th June 2000
Was it a dream that we were in Las Vegas just over a week ago?!  Photos added to the site suggest it must have happened!  We had a fantastic time in Las Vegas, which is a totally over-the-top place, where there's just so much to see and do.  It was great to realise a lifelong ambition for us all to perform live in the States.  It was also great to meet some US based fans that we didn't know we had.  We really enjoyed playing the gig and the only disappointment was the poor crowd turnout for the whole event.  Special thanks also to Doug "Torch" Groff, Todd Smith. Tony Sison, Bill Rowan and Dan Harding.  Two brief reviews here, but we hope to add more soon.  Also, hope to add some more photos as we get them, so keep checking back.

24th March 2000
The Promise have announced 2 further gigs in Aberdeen.  They will be playing The Blue Lamp, 121 Gallowgate, Aberdeen on Saturday 15th April and Saturday 20th May.

19th March 2000
The Promise have confirmed another gig at the Malt Mill, Holburn Street, Aberdeen on Sunday 21st May

12th March 2000
The Promise have confirmed 2 additional gigs in Aberdeen.  They will be playing at The Loft (upstairs from O'Donohues, 16 Justice Mill Lane, Aberdeen on Thursday 30 March and Thursday 18 May.  There is an admission charge, but we will supply complimentary tickets to anyone who advises us they want to attend.   If you'd like us to send you tickets, please send us a stamped addressed envelope to The Promise c/o 12 Rosewood Avenue, Aberdeen AB12 3DE - make sure you confirm the date/s you wish to attend, and how many tickets you need.

Although we are likely to be limited to a set of around 40-45 mins at the gig in Las Vegas, we will be playing for up to 90 mins at the gigs in Aberdeen, so we intend to do most of the songs from the two albums, and some cover versions by bands such as Journey, Night Ranger, The Storm, Survivor, Van Halen, Bon Jovi etc. There's also a possibility we may even manage to preview one of the new songs from the next album