Several years ago, before they were called The Basement, John Mullin, (singer, guitarist and song-writer), Mark McCausland (lead guitar) and Declan McManus (drums) got together in their hometown of Omagh, knowing they wanted to do something with music. “We decided to decamp to Liverpool the first chance we got,” says Mullin. “There was no real mystical reason for Liverpool. It was the first place we hit land after Northern Ireland.”

It was a fortuitous place to settle. Within a few months, they met bassist Graeme Hassall and began to rehearse. Living in “a proper shit-hole” (their flat, not the city), they started to make a name on Liverpools rich, rising scene. They were soon discovered by Alan Wills who signed them to his Deltasonic label.