After leaving the The La's in 1993 John Power was armed with a bagful of songs and set about forming Cast.Their early sound was very similar to that of John's former band, the La's - retro-rock inspired by early 60's groups such as The Beatles, The Byrds and The Small Faces. After a number of UK tours Cast were eventually spotted by Polydor Records whilst supporting Oasis at one of their very first shows and began work on their first album, 'All Change' with the producer, John Leckie (Pink Floyd, The Stone Roses, XTC). It was Power's songwriting gift for simple, classic pop hooks that had made Polydor notice them and in June 1995 they released their first single, the catchy 'Finetime'. It entered the charts at number 18 and marked the beginning of a string of top 20 hits, including 'Alright' and 'Walkaway' which took the album to double platinum status and number 7 in the charts.
Follow up albums 'Mother Nature Calls' and 'Magic Hour' had equal success reaching number 3 and 6 respectively and providing yet more hits such as 'Guiding Star', 'Free Me' and 'Live The Dream'.After the release of the less successful album 'Beetroot', Cast split in 2002. John Power went on to release a solo album, 'Happening For Love' in 2003 before the Cast compilation 'Collection' was released in 2004.
It was announced The La's were reforming in 2005 with Power included, they toured the UK and Japan playing at the Summer Sonic festival, T in the park, the V festival and Glastonbury.
Since 2002 Peter Wilkinson has recorded and toured with a number of artists including Ian McCulloch and McCulloch's reformed band, Echo & The Bunnymen. Wilkinson left Echo & The Bunnymen in mid 2005 and has now rejoined the Liverpool band Shack who are currently signed to Sour Mash, Noel Gallagher's record label.
After Cast, Liam 'Skin' Tyson started work on the on-going Men from Mars Project with producer John Leckie but was diverted by a chance to be part of the Strange Sensation, Robert Plant's band.
